The Melbourne Cup returned to Flemington racecourse with a bang yesterday, with crowds back at the Victoria Racing Club and popular Sydney jockey James McDonald steering Chris Waller-trained Verry Elleegant to an emotional win in Australia’s favourite race.
But the Cup – and the entire spring carnival – had something missing.
Melbourne’s best jockey, Jamie Kah.
The 25-year-old was the toast of Australian racing only a couple of months ago when she became the first woman to win the Scobie Breasley Medal – Victoria’s most prestigious jockey award.
Kah won the 2020-21 metropolitan jockeys premiership by riding a record 105 winners in the season, and was adjudged the Victorian Jockey Association’s most valuable hoop of the year.
She was the only female rider to contest last year’s Melbourne Cup and she rode Prince Of Arran to a strong third place in the $8 million feature.
Multiple-Cup winning owner Lloyd Williams proclaimed of Kah, “you couldn’t find anyone riding any better in the world”.
It was an outstanding 12 months for Kah, announcing herself as one of the top hoops in the country, perhaps even the very best.
Her stellar form in Melbourne followed a move from South Australia, where she had won four premierships.
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She would have been certain to feature in the Melbourne Cup field again this year.
Instead, it’s all come crashing down for Australian racing’s golden girl.
Kah finds herself in a Supreme Court battle, attempting to overturn a suspension that will – if upheld – rule her out of the saddle until next year.
It was soon after her history-making season ended in August, that Kah was caught breaching COVID-19 rules at a Mornington rental house.
She was one of four jockeys to receive a three-month racing ban after police found the group to have broken Victoria’s laws by gathering at the property.
Kah was subsequently hit with a separate two-month ban when Racing Victoria stewards claimed she lied to them in regards to the attendance of fellow champion hoop Mark Zahra.
That secondary ban is the one she’s challenging in court. The initial three-month ban lifts on November 25, but the additional suspension would rule her out until the end of January.
Regardless, it’s a significant fall from grace given Kah has cost herself what would have undoubtedly been a successful spring, and potentially her biggest Melbourne Cup carnival to date.
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