A former singer on a Melbourne Cup-themed cruise ship who appeared on television’s The Voice has won Australia’s biggest horse race in a huge 90-1 upset.
Irish jockey Robbie Dolan, who was making his debut in “the race that stops a nation”, triumphed in a dramatic photo finish aboard Knight’s Choice.
Born in Co Kildare, Dolan moved to Australia in 2016 having ridden only five winners in two seasons as an apprentice.
The 28-year-old’s mixed fortunes in the saddle continued but a chance meeting with Knight’s Choice trainer Sheila Laxon while he was performing on a cruise several years ago paved the way for Tuesday’s shot at glory.
Prior to winning the £4 million race which sees the winner pocket £2.2 million, Dolan was best known for his performances on the reality TV competition The Voice Australia two years ago.
A successful audition that saw him sing James Bay’s Let It Go earned him the opportunity to be mentored by judge Rita Ora and he got down to the final 24 contestants on the show.
When it was put to him after Tuesday’s triumph that he was the first singer to win the Melbourne Cup, he joked: “Unless… Ronan Keating hasn’t won a Melbourne Cup, has he?”
Dolan’s fellow Irishman had earlier performed for the crowds at Flemington.
‘It’s got me in tears’
“Pinch me – I think I’m dreaming,” Dolan added. “It’s incredible, I cannot believe it. I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years the other night and I thought my chance was getting him [Knight’s Choice] to stay the trip and hopefully he’d rattle home and quicken up good like he can do.
“This is the biggest race in the world and I cannot even put into words how much it means to win it. It’s got me in tears, but I think I’ll be singing for the rest of my life after that.
“I could have easily given up riding to do the music, but I just loved it too much. You work so hard not only as a jockey, but just in the racing industry – you get up early hours, long days, long nights and not a lot of breaks.
“Once I started doing a little bit of music, it was a nice change. I’d just been grafting for 10 years before that. At one stage, I was struggling to get a few rides, and I was thinking, ‘Gee, I might just do the music on the side’. And then I just missed riding winners, I missed the camaraderie of the jockeys in the room.
“I was singing on the Melbourne Cup cruise, and Sheila was there with the Melbourne Cup. I met her, and I got a photo with her and the Melbourne Cup, and now we’ve won the freaking Melbourne Cup.”
Laxon, who was born in Wales, was the first woman to saddle a Melbourne Cup winner when training Ethereal to victory in 2001.
She trains Knight’s Choice with John Symons.
“What an amazing ride by Robbie,” she said. “He’s not just a good singer! He always had faith in the horse and he studied the race so hard that we didn’t give him instructions as he knew what to do.
“It brings it all back and I love that an Australian horse has done it. It’s the people’s cup and that’s what it’s all about. We’re just a small group of people and we’re so thrilled.
“It takes a whole group of people to get us here today. We’ll celebrate this quietly initially; when you win a race like this it takes a little while to register, but I’m over the moon.”
