Melbourne Cup Results 2018: Cross Counter Wins

It’s taken 30-years, but Godolphin has finally won a Melbourne Cup.

The Charlie Appleby trained Cross Counter was too good over the two-mile journey, descending on the leaders over the final furlong to cruise past Marmelo from the wide part of the track.

Marmelo looked a chance for a brief moment before Cross Counter kicked past. The win made it five from eight starts for Appleby’s British raider, who was one of the five four-year old’s in Tuesday’s $7 million race.

Cross Counter, above, won the 2018 Melbourne Cup in a time of 3:21.17. Photo Credit: Ultimate Racing Photos.

“There’s no words that can explain really” an elated Appleby said after the race.

The Teofilo gelding was first-up at Flemington after finishing second in a Group 2 race at York back in August. A nasty cut to the leg during training looked a minor setback last week, but Appleby always knew his horse was a chance.

“We were confident coming in that we had the right horse, obviously people had questioned the setback there a couple of weeks ago, but we were confident that he was well over that” Appleby said after the race.

Cross Counter, who enjoyed the lightest weight of the race at 51kg’s, was one of several runners posing a question on the rain effected track, and it appears even the champion trainer had his doubts.

“The ground was a big question mark to be fair, but when you’ve got a master like Kerrin McEvoy in the saddle, he takes a lot of confidence into the race,” Appleby went on to say.

“Down the back straight you could see what he was trying to do, and he got himself into a nice racing position turning for home, he just needed to find the gaps, and once he’d found those and the horse had a clear run, I was far from confident.”

The win might have marked Godolphin’s first ever Melbourne Cup, but for McEvoy, it was a familiar feeling with two previous victories already to his name.

McEvoy previously won the Cup in 2006 (Almandin) and in 2000 (Brew). Tuesday’s win now places him alongside Glen Boss (Makaybe Diva) and Damien Oliver (Fiorente, Media Puzzle, Doriemus) as the only current jockey’s with three wins.

“We were lucky to get through without too much of an issue, what a thrill to do it for Sheikh Mohammed,” McEvoy went on to say.

“I was back a bit further than I wanted, I knew I was in the running when I was on the back of Yucatan, he seemed to be empty Yucatan, and at the 400m I sort of had to go my own way.”

The win capped off a huge four weeks for the Godolphin blue, who won the Caulfield Cup with Best Solution three weeks ago – but it was also a good result for the bookmakers with Cross Counter entering the race at $10.00 odds.

Unfortunately for race-favourite’s Yucatan and Magic Circle, the same can’t be said, with the pair finishing outside the top ten.

Full 2018 Melbourne Cup Results:

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty
1	23	CROSS COUNTER (GB)	Charlie Appleby	Kerrin McEvoy	–	19	51kg	–
2	9	MARMELO (GB)	Hughie Morrison	Hugh Bowman	1L	10	55kg	–
3	17	A PRINCE OF ARRAN (GB)	Charlie Fellowes	Michael Walker	3L	20	53kg	–
4	13	FINCHE (GB)	Chris Waller	Zac Purton	3.5L	15	54kg	–
5	24	ROSTROPOVICH (IRE)	Aidan O’Brien	Wayne Lordan	4.5L	21	51kg	–
6	22	YOUNGSTAR	Chris Waller	Craig Williams	5.75L	8	51.5kg	–
7	19	SIR CHARLES ROAD	Lance O’Sullivan & Andrew Scott	Dwayne Dunn	8.25L	14	53kg	–
8	1	BEST SOLUTION (IRE)	Saeed Bin Suroor	Pat Cosgrave	8.75L	6	57.5kg	–
9	5	MUNTAHAA (IRE)	John Gosden	Jim Crowley	9.5L	13	55.5kg	–
10	16	VENTURA STORM (IRE)	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Mark Zahra	11L	7	54kg	(cd 54.5kg)
11	11	YUCATAN (IRE)	Aidan O’Brien	James McDonald	11.75L	23	54.5kg	2.5kg
12	18	NAKEETA (GB)	Iain Jardine	Regan Bayliss	11.85L	3	53kg	–
13	20	ZACADA (NZ)	Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman	Damian Lane	13.85L	24	53kg	–
14	4	CHESTNUT COAT (JPN)	Yoshito Yahagi	Yuga Kawada	16.1L	4	55.5kg	–
15	15	VENGEUR MASQUE (IRE)	Michael Moroney	Patrick Moloney	16.3L	2	54kg	–
16	3	MAGIC CIRCLE (IRE)	Ian Williams	Corey Brown	19.55L	17	56kg	–
17	7	WHO SHOT THEBARMAN (NZ)	Chris Waller	Ben Melham	22.55L	18	55.5kg	–
18	6	SOUND CHECK (GER)	Michael Moroney	Jordan Childs	27.55L	16	55.5kg	–
19	21	RUNAWAY	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Stephen Baster	28.05L	12	52kg	1.5kg
20	8	ACE HIGH	David Payne	Tye Angland	28.15L	22	55kg	–
21	12	AUVRAY (FR)	Richard Freedman	Tommy Berry	68.15L	1	54kg	–
22	10	AVILIUS (GB)	James Cummings	Glyn Schofield	69.15L	11	54.5kg	1.5kg
23	14	RED CARDINAL (IRE)	Darren Weir	Damien Oliver	69.55L	5	54kg	–
FF	2	THE CLIFFSOFMOHER (IRE)	Aidan O’Brien	Ryan Moore	–	9	56.5kg	–