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Makybe Diva wins consecutive Cups

Pre-race favourite Makybe Diva has become the first mare to win back-to-back Melbourne Cups, taking first prize in the $4.6 million race at Flemington racecourse.

Ridden by Glen Boss, the six-year-old stormed home in the straight to win by a length from Irish stayer Vinnie Roe with Zazzman in third.

The mare paid $4.10 for a win and $2 for a place on the Victorian TAB, with Vinnie Roe at $2.60 a place and Zazzman $22.20 a place.

The victory gave trainer Lee Freedman his fourth Melbourne Cup winner. He took the horse on when David Hall, who guided her to victory last year, moved to Hong Kong this year.

After the race, a clearly emotional Boss said he felt confident from the 1,200 metre mark that the mare would win.

"She just gave me the best ride again," he told Channel Seven. "It was just one of those things - I felt when I got to the 2,000 metre mark, I thought 'I'm in that same spot again'. I just felt so good and she just felt brilliantly ... I just felt like I was in that zone again.

"She just gave me everything she had. What a mighty mare."

Boss was characteristically modest when it was suggested that he would join the legends by winning his second Melbourne Cup, saying: "Mate, I'm not a legend. Makybe Diva - she's the legend ... I'm just the lucky bastard who gets to sit on her back.

"She just went everywhere I wanted to go. That was the most amazing adrenalin rush. I've never felt anything like that."

He also paid tribute to Freedman's preparation. "Great training performance by Lee. He peaked her mate. She was peaked to the minute and when this rain came it just made it better," Boss said.

"I've only cried like this when I watched my children being born - that was probably the most emotional thing ... In my working career this is the most special thing that's ever happened to me."

"When I got to the 1,200 it was just like a flashback to last year," he said. "I just felt so comfortable and relaxed. I just felt like I was in a little bubble again, like I was in a little world of my own.

"And she just felt so good to me, she never missed a beat in that soft going. She never missed one beat. And when I got to the 600 she just moved up between them and I tell you, honestly I was just in a little world of my own, I was doing whatever I wanted to do. It was like a walk in the park.

"And that's exactly what I felt last year. It's amazing. Just incredible."

Boss said there was plenty of pressure before the race, given that Makybe Diva was both the favourite and the defending champion.

He said he was feeling the pressure yesterday but his wife Sloane just told him to get out and play golf with some mates.

Boss said Sloane and the rest of his support crew helped to keep his feet on the ground. "But I won't be keeping my feet on the ground tonight, I give you the tip," he added.

Freedman was also confident the mare could do the job. After the race, he told Channel 7: "It was like having a Christmas present under the tree and I couldn't open it until 3:15."

He paid tribute to Makybe Diva. "She's a great, great racehorse ... To take her over from David (Hall) and to repeat it and to break history to do it - it's an amazing thing, it's a great feeling and I'm just lucky that I'm here today to be able to enjoy it having won a fourth Melbourne Cup. I can't believe it really."

Australia's greatest race was run in testing conditions after rain lashed the track in the hours leading up to the jump, creating mayhem for the more than 98,000 racegoers who packed the track.

The slow conditions, which the jockeys described as dangerous and some of the worst ever, had been expected to favour the European horses.

Darren Beadman took his place in the race on Distinction despite falling from his mount in race five.

Beadman hit his head when Zakynthos Star played up in the barrier.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20 ... 233039.htm

Drummond