Trained by a storied racing family and ridden by a champion jockey at the peak of his craft, Without A Fight blitzed the Melbourne Cup field to win Australia’s great race with rare ease. The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained stayer became just the 12th horse to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double with a dashing performance at Flemington on Tuesday.
So great was the advantage Without A Fight established in the latter stages of the $8.4m race, jockey Mark Zahra had the time to look left and then right for any dangers. There were none. At the finale of a 3200-metre staying test run at a frantic pace, with the frontrunners swamped late by rivals sitting back in the field, there was daylight to the runner-up.
