Half Yours wins the 2025 Melbourne Cup for Jamie Melham, McEvoys

Half Yours has become the 13th horse to complete a famed Australian racing double after storming to victory in the $10 million Melbourne Cup.

Ridden by Jamie Melham for the father-and-son training team of Tony and Calvin McEvoy, Half Yours produced a stunning finish along the inside.

One of the favourites after winning the Caulfield Cup in October and the only Australian-bred horse in the race, Half Yours defeated Irish stayer Goodie Two Shoes.

Middle Earth ran the best race of his Australian career to finish in the minor placing with River Of Stars winding up fourth.

Melham joins Michelle Payne as one of two female jockeys to win Australia’s biggest thoroughbred race, while Half Yours is the first Australian-bred winner of the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double since 1939.

“I wanted to ride him as quiet as I could but at the 400 (metres) I couldn’t wait any longer,” Melham said.

“You don’t think it is going to happen … and it just happened.”

Melham took a series of inside runs in the straight and claimed the lead inside the final furlong, getting the better of Goodie Two Shoes.

Melham dedicated the win to the late Colin McKenna, an influential racing figure in her life. She wore a pin with his iconic blue and green colours on her riding vest as a tribute.

Half Yours ($8) scored by 2-3/4 lengths from Goodie Two Shoes ($41) with Middle Earth ($26) another 1-1/2 lengths away third.

HerStory 🤩@jamieleemelham becomes the first female jockey ever to complete the Cups double, guiding HALF YOURS to victory in the 2025 Lexus Melbourne Cup.

🎥 @wwos | #MelbourneCup | #MelbCupCarnival pic.twitter.com/1PXMggTqVV

— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 4, 2025

“You don’t even dream of this day, because you think about it, you don’t even think about what’s happening in your life,” Melham said.

“Like, all week I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve been excited, but no feeling can describe what I just felt, and what I’m still feeling. I’m speechless, I’m absolutely speechless.”

“This is what we do, this is why we wake up at four o’clock, stupid o’clock every morning, work our arses off, succumb to these big days, and win in front of the world. This is why we put up with everything,” she said.

“It looks like an amazing, glamorous industry on the outside, and they’ve got their good parts, but God, there’s some tough parts, there’s some really tough parts, and this is why we push through and do it, for days like this, to go down in history.”