Jamie Melham must be mad……

[Ohokaman]

If she thinks Blue Door can win the Everest…
 

Melham jumps off Half Yours, Zahra jumps on….

Mark Zahra will be the new rider for last spring’s Caulfield and Melbourne Cup hero Half Yours with regular rider Jamie Melham instead taking a mount in The Everest on the same day.

Melham’s decision to ride in Sydney on Caulfield Cup Day has now meant she could also lose the Melbourne Cup ride on Half Yours, with Zahra now holding the whip hand according to co-trainer Tony McEvoy.

“Mark would have to dump us,” McEvoy said. “Jamie’s made a call and I respect it but Mark is in the driver’s seat and if he wants to ride him in the big Cup, he can.

“It’s disappointing because of Jamie’s knowledge of the horse is so good, but I have been around long enough to know that this happens and if you take it all personally, you will never get anywhere,” McEvoy said.

Melham is set to ride the flying filly Blue Door on October 19 in the $20 million Everest, where she will carry just 51 kilograms under the weight-for-age scale.

Melham rode Half Yours into fifth placing in Saturday’s Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) in a performance that McEvoy said suggested he could successfully defend his title at Caulfield.

“He’s come out of it well,” he reported. “I thought it was a very good run. It was better than it appeared to me.

“It was a really gruelling race and it was just too tough second-up as all the second-up horses found. He should be just about peaking on Caulfield Cup Day.”

 

[Idolmite]

She's not riding well anyway, and that may be partially based around choices and decisions. Will bounce back one day, no doubt?

[Ohokaman]

16 minutes ago, Idolmite said:

She's not riding well anyway, and that may be partially based around choices and decisions. Will bounce back one day, no doubt?

She has been with the horse since it won both Cups last year. Looks on track again so strange decision.

She did get a 10 meeting suspension yesterday but will be back for Cup Day.

Maybe she knows something we don’t Bazza. Blue Door couldn’t win if it started now….

[Idolmite]

3 minutes ago, Ohokaman said:

She has been with the horse since it won both Cups last year. Looks on track again so strange decision.

Maybe she knows something we don’t Bazza. Blue Door couldn’t win if it started now….

Well Blue Door does have a confirmed slot, more than most of the nominations have. Only 4 confirmed so far l think. Maybe she thinks there are only going to be four starters in a race where even 4th pays quite well Yeah, it does seem a poor decision, but then she's made a few of them before and I'm not necessarily the horses she chooses to ride. Time will tell. I'm sure it's been said before that jockey's are the worst judges, but l guess we won't know for sure for a few weeks yet. especially if Mark Zahra wins the Melbourne Cup   

[Idolmite]

15 minutes ago, Ohokaman said:

She has been with the horse since it won both Cups last year. Looks on track again so strange decision.

She did get a 10 meeting suspension yesterday but will be back for Cup Day.

Maybe she knows something we don’t Bazza. Blue Door couldn’t win if it started now….

Which ride did she get 10 meetings for?

[kakama]

15 minutes ago, Ohokaman said:

She has been with the horse since it won both Cups last year. Looks on track again so strange decision.

She did get a 10 meeting suspension yesterday but will be back for Cup Day.

Maybe she knows something we don’t Bazza. Blue Door couldn’t win if it started now….

She’s become so familiar to the stewards room…they have given her her own chair….

[Pak Star]

Reminds me of the famous video from a couple years back when shes watching Giga Kick win the Everest from the Caufileld birdcage.  

[Leggy]

2 minutes ago, Pak Star said:

Reminds me of the famous video from a couple years back when shes watching Giga Kick win the Everest from the Caufileld birdcage.  

I could forgive her for not wanting to do that again

[Ohokaman]

1 hour ago, Idolmite said:

Which ride did she get 10 meetings for?

Leading rider Jamie Melham will miss next Saturday’s triple Group 1 meeting at Caulfield after being suspended for careless riding at Flemington on Saturday.

Melham was given a 10-meeting ban by Racing Victoria stewards in the aftermath of the day’s feature the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m).

She rode her Cups champion of last spring Half Yours into fourth placing before stewards asked her to explain an incident earlier in the race involving Buckaroo.

Melham pleaded guilty to careless riding in that she permitted her mount to shift in when not sufficiently clear of Buckaroo.

Melham had been booked for Zambardo in the Group 1 Might And Power Stakes (2000m) and Sabaj in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) but had no official booking for the Caulfield Guineas.

Melham will be free to ride again on October 13, meaning she can ride on Caulfield Cup day on October 17.

[sunlineboy]

Her stats have been relatively average since getting caught with the sherbert. A decent fall from grace, but still time to bounce back, and a very odd decision to jump off the Cups winner to ride a 3YO who isn't anything special in the slightest.

[Farnarkler]

She's a 'blonde' SB, she's having one of those moments.......

[YTA1984]

She rides light so with Half Yours a bit higher in the weights now she might have been getting the boot anyway.  

[Ned Kelly]

I didn’t realise she had to get permission from sideline experts on who or where she decided to race 

[Ohokaman]

1 hour ago, Ned Kelly said:

I didn’t realise she had to get permission from sideline experts on who or where she decided to race 

She doesn’t. But has been on this horse every start since the Cups last year and now decides to get off after waxing lyrical about how he was going ?  Something not right. Maybe she is not that confident. He has it all to do with 59kg.

[Kingshill]

23 hours ago, Pak Star said:

Reminds me of the famous video from a couple years back when shes watching Giga Kick win the Everest from the Caufileld birdcage.  

Any link to the video? Haven't seen that one.......