Knight’s Choice wins 2024 Melbourne Cup in thrilling finish

Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, edging out Warp Speed in a thrilling photo finish at Flemington on Tuesday.

Robbie Dolan gave the five-year-old gelding a superb ride, storming past the leaders in the final furlong to clinch the win for trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon.

Okita Soushi held on for third place, with Zardozi shading Absurde to fill out the first four.

Knight’s Choice jumped as a $91 outsider with online bookmakers, while none of the top quartet were paying shorter than $14 for the win.

As such, the Melbourne Cup trifecta came to a healthy $22,576.80, while the first four ended up as a whopping $728,015.70.

None of the single-digit chances made an impact, with Buckaroo (9th), Vauban (11th) and Onesmoothoperator (12th) all finishing midfield.

Just Fine set the pace and led for much of the 3200m affair, but Jye McNeil’s mount faded late and wound up running last.

Land Legend was also prominent throughout the run, sitting in the first two or three for the majority of the trip, yet he could only hang on for eighth place under Zac Purton.

The win marks a second Melbourne Cup success for Laxon, who became the first female trainer to win the race when Ethereal claimed victory in 2001.

2024 Melbourne Cup results & dividends

Place	No.	Colours	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Win	Place
1st	11		Knight’s Choice	John Symons & Sheila Laxon	Robbie Dolan	$91	$17.80
2nd	4		Warp Speed	Noboru Takagi	Akira Sugawara		$9.30
3rd	12		Okita Soushi	Ciaron Maher	Jamie Kah		$4.80
4th	14		Zardozi	James Cummings	Andrea Atzeni
Quinella	$887.80	Trifecta	$22,576.80	First Four	$728,015.70

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