Melbourne Cup 2024: Knight’s Choice wins, amazing players and opponents

A former bus driver who struggled to obtain a jockey’s license in the United Kingdom, Lacson moved to New Zealand in the late 1980s and married late training great Laurie Lacson.

A successful jockey and trainer here, her career reached its zenith in 2001 when she trained the New Zealand mare Ethereal to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double for Peter and Philip Vela, owners of New Zealand’s Bloodstock.

This made her the first female coach to win the Melbourne Cup, later joined by Guy Waterhouse in 2013 with Fiorente.

Lacson now trains with husband John Simons and has two Melbourne Cups 23 years apart, becoming the first woman to win the race twice.

She was full of praise for jockey Robbie Dolan’s ride.

“We didn’t give him any instructions, he just knew what to do,” she said.

“I’m delighted to win the Cup, it’s the people’s Cup and that’s what it’s all about.”

With her victory, Lacson maintained her 100% winning record in the race.

“I’d rather leave it at that (two out of two),” she quipped.

Lacson and Simons may not be pin-up trainers in Australian racing, training on a smaller scale on the Sunshine Coast these days after moving from Victoria.

But Dolan is definitely one of motorsport’s glamor boys, and not just for his exploits in the saddle.

Dolan is a respected jockey, but is better known to the public as a singing jockey after appearing on the Australian version of the television show. Voice in 2022.

This put Dolan in the unusual situation of sometimes being asked to sing during post-race entertainment at meetings he was attending.

He’s a product of the modern racing world, with Instagram fame and bleached blond hair, but now forever associated with Lacson, Simons and Knight’s Choice.

Making his first Melbourne Cup ride, Dolan produced what champion jockey James McDonald called “one of the greatest Cup-winning rides ever”.

Knight’s Choice was in the back pack at the top of the long Flemington Straight and was hoping to take the inside lead before being passed, so Dolan had to maneuver between the runners over 300 meters when he still looked like an unrealistic hope of victory.

But as others faded, especially those wider on the track, Knight’s Choice found the turbo button he didn’t know he had, taking off with Warp Speed ​​and then surpassing it to take a landmark victory in a photo finish.

Dolan was stunned. This emotional, life-changing moment was made even sweeter by the fact that his father Bobby traveled from Ireland to surprise him on Sunday.

Although it was his first Melbourne Cup, Dolan says it didn’t feel that way.

“I didn’t know what to expect but I feel like I’ve driven it 10 times because I’ve driven it 100 times in my head,” Dolan, 28, told Nine television.

“To win with him (father Bobby), my little daughter Maisie and my partner Christina, I will cry again.

“Look, you can’t do this without (coaches) Sheila and John. They had so much confidence in this horse even before he entered this race.

“A lot of people doubted them. And to be honest, I didn’t.”

The lovefest was mutual, with Simons and Lacson from another era praising the young man whose career and life had moved to another level minutes earlier.

“What a great ride Robbie,” Simons said.

“He stayed home, took a chance, went through the pack.

“I was worried and he moved further away than we talked about, but the ride is great.

“What a thrill.”

The Cup was a disaster for the beloved players as the likes of Buckaroo, Vauban and Onesmoothoperator returned to the field, with only Buckaroo really giving his fans a reason to scream at the television before he disappeared.

As for the New Zealand trained horses, they ran as the market suggested, all boldly but without excuses given where the winner was able to start his winning run.

The win may have had its roots, at least in part, in New Zealand, Wales and Ireland, but Simons is a true blue Aussie and, pleasingly, the same can be said for Knight’s Choice, the increasingly rare Australian winner of his greatest race.

Second place went to the Japanese horse and third to former European galloper Okita Sushi, further proving that the Cup is now a global race.

Lacson has a unique place in its history. Dolan will gain more followers and orders on Instagram, both on the mic and in the saddle.

And “A Knight’s Choice” will get some of the respect that no one knew it deserved.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published articles on horse racing while still at school, and began writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald in 1990, when he was 20 years old. In 1995 he became the Herald’s racing editor and covered the world’s biggest horse. racing carnivals.