A Melbourne Cup story sprinkled with fairy dust that the founding fathers would have loved

If the founding fathers of the Melbourne Cup had been asked to conjure a modern race to return us to their original vision they would have given us yesterday.

The Cup was conceived as a treasure that any horse in the colony could win.

The Pearl, Wotan, Old Rollie, Rimfire, Prince of Penzance, Knight’s Choice.

The preposterous underdogs none believed could win the nation’s great race who took their moment and etched their names in folklore.

The “any horse in the colony” who upstaged the blue-bloods and ruling class and upended all prediction.

In the initial shock at Flemington there emerged a sense of wonder that took us back to the meaning of the Cup and why it has endured.

Melbourne Cup Day will never return to the innocence and universal appeal of previous generations – racing and gambling are more complex now.

But at race tracks and in lounge rooms across the country and on breakfast television today so many of us marvelled at the sheer unlikelihood of what transpired.

A five-year-old gelding, once christened a rising star, who’s Cup campaign read:

• 9th of 12 in the Underwood
• 16th of 16 in the Turnbull
• 14th of 18 in the Caulfield Cup

Before rounding out with a fifth in the Bendigo Cup.

Knight’s Choice is sired by a Blue Diamond winner who at stud produced a Golden Slipper winner – perfect for the Australian sensibility… breeding two-year-old speedsters.

Then you’ve got the training partnership out of Queensland with echoes of roaring successes from days gone by.

John Symons guided Bel Esprit through an unforgettable sprinting career in the early 2000s that had him centre stage alongside owner Kevin Sheedy.

Sheila Laxon was the first female trainer to win the Melbourne Cup when the mighty Ethereal completed the Cups double in 2001.

From that day Sheila has been one the Cup’s most treasured ambassadors… travelling the world with the trophy and telling her tale.

She’d not had a runner in the great race since.

And the jockey... known as much for his beautiful voice as his ambition to forge a career in the saddle.

Robbie Dolan left Ireland in search of opportunity and then left Sydney frustrated that he couldn’t get the foothold he sought.

He’d supplement his riding income singing on cruise liners – where he met Sheila Laxon who was spruiking the Cup.

They forged a promise that came to reality at Flemington.

If the kids were watching they might well have been pointing out the guy from The Voice.

Combine all those elements and at the Call of the Card Knight’s Choice was rated a 300/1 chance.

At this point you’d tell the founding fathers they were laying it on too thick.

At the climax of the race it seemed Jamie Kah and James Cummings would fight it out… take your pick between the poster girl of racing winning her first Cup or the grandson of the most revered figure in its history successfully enacting the formula of a bygone era.

Either way it was going to be beautiful.

And then came the flashes of fluoro silks through the middle… who the hell are these and where did they come from?

Knight’s Choice held off Warp Speed in a thriller

As they crossed the line it was a local 1st, an international 2nd, an import 3rd and a local 4th.

A perfect blend for the modern age.

For a period there the Cup got completely lost in the pursuit of international recognition.

The custodians of the race would swoon every time the Cup was won by the revered global figures of the turf.

But it was literally and figuratively taking the Cup further and further away from Australia.

And then came the spate of deaths.

Since action was taken we have had four magnificent Cups.

The best horse in the land streaking away, an Arc de Triomphe competitor holding off the Geelong and Bendigo Cup winners, the Cups double reenacted and now the ultimate underdog victory.

There’s a gentle resurgence happening with the Melbourne Cup.

A necessary correction and now a reconnection of a people to its race.

Our glorified handicap in all its glory.

Yesterday’s Cup wasn’t vintage in prospect but it was an intriguing mystery.

It offered the possibility that we would witness something that lasted well beyond the punt and the changing fashions and attitudes of the day.

And that’s what we got.

A story sprinkled with fairy dust that the founding fathers of the Melbourne Cup would have loved.