Here’s how The Melbourne Cup became the destination for fairytale endings after 100-1 outsider Knight’s Choice’s magical victory at Flemington

There is a reason why sleep patterns are broken in Europe and bedtime is delayed in South Asia every November for racing enthusiasts. But there is also a reason why websites are checked and social media feeds scrutinised, as the colour explodes and the drama unfolds.

The first Tuesday of November means only one thing and that is the Melbourne Cup, a jewel in Australia’s sporting crown and an event that can proudly boast that it is world-class. Its prestige and colossal prize fund makes it a race that many trainers want to target and every jockey wants to win.

But there is so much more to this story than the sound of hooves rattling around Flemington for two miles. 

We saw that once again on Tuesday afternoon as outsider Knight’s Choice and jockey Robbie Dolan wrote their names in racing history, clinching Melbourne Cup glory by a photo finish. 

It was a sensational underdog tale, with the Sheila Laxon-trained horse being backed as a 90/1 shot before the race. 

The horse bolted home to surpass favourites Buckaroo, Onesmoothoperator and the Willie Mullins-trained Vauban in the final seconds of the race. 

The Melbourne Cup is like the Randox Grand National in the United Kingdom, it is a cultural phenomenon that shows the city which stages it in its best light to spectators around the globe. 

Of course, the winners mean so much. Dating back to Archer in 1861, who won the first race and followed up the following year, there will be names that mean so much to different generations; each triumphant horse, including Knight’s Choice, has a story that reverberates through the ages.

Dermot Weld, for one, will stand and regale you with the lengths he went to in 1993 to get Vintage Crop – the boundary-breaking gelding who provided Europe with their first success – Down Under, even contacting air traffic control at one point to ensure his gelding wouldn’t be held up by fog.

Ask Patrick Mullins, meanwhile, what he thinks of Melbourne and the wide eyes and smile that follows speaks a thousand words. Mullins, whose father Willie was represented by both Vauban and Absurde on Tuesday, couldn’t believe the welcome they received when first travelling south. 

He remembers the grandness of the parade through the streets and his preconceptions were totally changed by the experience. Melbourne has a place in the Mullins’ family heart and you can be sure they will keep coming back until they break their duck. Such is their determination, Mullins senior last month flew out to Flemington, undertaking 24 hours in the air, to watch Vauban and Absurde gallop before immediately heading back to Ireland. You only do that when you understand the traditions of a race and what it means.

That quest for success, though, could only have been fuelled by all that had gone before. Phar Lap, who streaked away with the 1930 running, is still held in almost mythical status. Could there have been a more perfectly named horse for the fairytale race than Peter Pan, the hero of 1932 and 1934?

The link that binds Melbourne and Aintree together and elevates it to so much more than just a horse race, however, is that it has an uncanny ability to tug at the heartstrings and produce narratives that would seem farfetched if you watched them in a movie.

Aintree, for instance, has Bob Champion overcoming cancer to ride the 1981 winner Aldaniti; Melbourne’s answer to that is Damien Oliver winning on Media Puzzle in 2002, a week after losing his elder brother, Jason, in a riding accident.

Then comes the ability to break boundaries.

Michelle Payne was a pioneer for female riders around the world, showing that girls can absolutely do it on the biggest stage when bringing Pirates of Penzance home with a rattle in 2015. You can be sure she influenced Aintree’s first female winner Rachael Blackmore. 

This, of course, is without mentioning what the powerhouse figure of Gai Waterhouse did to propel the Melbourne Cup to a new audience. Her success with Fiorente in 2013, as the first Australian female trainer, glossed an incredible career. Little wonder she is called the First Lady of Aussie racing.

Victories of that nature – and their importance – cannot be understated when it comes to enhancing a race’s image around the globe. How times have changed. To think in 1965, there was an outcry when British model Jean Shrimpton wore a dress that was cut above the knee.

The Melbourne Cup carnival has its images circulated far and wide because of the care and attention that is paid to fashion but the white shift dress by Colin Rolfe that Shrimpton – who had been invited to the event by Racing Victoria – dazzled in raised eyebrows. Happily, times have changed.

But this year’s fairytale story belongs to the 90/1 outsider Knight’s Choice and Dolan. 

‘Pinch me, I’m dreaming… I can’t believe it,’ Dolan said to Australia’s Channel Nine following the race. 

‘I think I’ll be singing for the rest of my life after that. What the hell.’ 

Drunken Speech/Makybe Diva? 

One thing we do know, for sure, is that there will be more stories, more colour and more drama in the years to come. 

In the last 20 years, there have been Japanese, British, German, Irish and French-trained winners, to go with plenty of home success and that means one thing. 

The Melbourne Cup’s place on the global stage is secure. In terms of a spectacle and an event, the events that unfolded at Flemington on Tuesday showcased once again why it remains the ultimate bucket list trip.