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: