Melbourne Cup results 2023 LIVE updates: Without A Fight wins, horses, time, race, field, tips, odds

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Without A Fight jockey Mark Zahra spoke to Channel 10 after winning the Melbourne Cup today.

On the win:

Unbelievable. If I could have thought I’d have that run from 16, I would have said he’s unbeatable, but Sam and Lee and all their team, he was a gentleman for me today. He went to rail and switched off, and probably got to the front earlier than last year.

On the run of the race:

In front of him was Gold Trip and Vauban. I thought I’d stay here. They all made their moves and it opened up for me. I was on a horse you can sit on. He’s got an electric turn of foot and he pulled me all the way to the line. Giving the two fingers for two winners. I don’t know what I was thinking. Idiot.

On picking this horse instead of Gold Trip:

Look, a good friend and someone I rate as one of the best judges in Australia. I spoke to him, and he said there’s not much in it, but if you can get him to settle, he will run it. We went through the race and the weather forecast, the stars aligned for Gold Trip last year and aligned for this horse this year. Just a few things and the way he won the Caulfield Cup, I was confident he would run it.

Winning jockey Mark Zahra picked the right horse.

He had a choice of rides between Without A Fight and Gold Trip.

He won the Cup on Gold Trip last year, but jumped off to pick up the ride on Without a Fight for this year’s race.

He is the ninth jockey to ride back-to-back Melbourne Cup winners.

Interim results: The first four placings are available below. This will be updated with the official finishing order.

1st: 3. Without A Fight. $9.10, $3.30

2nd: 6. Soulcombe. $3.40

3rd: 14. Sheraz. $17.40

4th: 11. Ashrun

Right You Are will be assessed by Racing Victoria’s veterinary team after failing to finish the Melbourne Cup.

He was under pressure at the 600-metre mark, and the jockey decided to pull him up with 400 metres to go.

Virtuous Circle was also pulled up in the straight.

Sam Freedman, who trained Without A Fight with Anthony Freedman, has spoken after the Melbourne Cup.

It’s the eighth win in the race for the Freedman family, dating all the way back to Sam’s great-great-great grandfather, who had three wins as a jockey.

Lee Freedman, Anthony’s brother, was the last Freedman to train a Melbourne Cup win – with Makybe Diva in 2005.

“It’s been a while between drinks, but it’s good to get another one,” Sam Freedman told Channel 10. “And credit to the old man, he’s been incredible through all of this. His wisdom and experience in nursing a horse through like this, he went up to Queensland with him and looked after him up there and he got him right into form.

“He brought him back to Victoria and he’s been brilliant ever since. So credit to him.”

Sam was full of praise for Mark Zahra.

“An extraordinary ride ... he got him onto the rail from a wide gate, relaxed, switched him off, made a run through and I was pretty confident probably the 800 [metres] he was travelling, he just needed the breaks to come,” Sam Freedman told Channel 10.

“The horse is a freak … No doubts on the trip there late. He was excellent.”

Without A Fight has won the 2023 Melbourne Cup at Flemington today.

It’s jockey Mark Zahra’s second successive Melbourne Cup, after he rode Gold Trip to victory at Flemington last year.

Chris Waller trained the second and third-placed finishers with Soulcombe, ridden by Joao Moreira, crossing the line slightly ahead of Beau Mertens on Sheraz.

From the start, Jye McNeil went straight to the front of the field on the Lloyd Williams-owned, Gai Waterhouse-trained Serpentine, in similar fashion to his winning ride on Twilight Payment in 2020.

But he had plenty of company for the lead, with Future History also pressing forward, as well as Magical Lagoon and Vow And Declare.

Somehow, Zahra found the fence from barrier 16 on Without A Fight, putting himself well back in the field.

Vauban settled forward, and James McDonald found his back on Gold Trip.

But the hot speed ended up undoing those runners in the first half of the field, and when the field turned into the straight, Zahra was sitting pretty on Without A Fight, with seemingly plenty in the tank.

He streamed to the lead and sprinted clear, with Soulcombe and Sheraz also weaving through the field late to make the placings from the back of the field.

We are about 10 minutes until race time with the Melbourne Cup due to jump at 3pm AEDT.

May your horse go well.

I’ve ended up with Military Mission in our office sweep.

Vauban will start as favourite, but, as always, there are plenty of potential winners in this deep field.