JAMIE MELHAM, THE 2025 MELBOURNE CUP AND LIFE LESSONS

Though knowing the ins and outs of horse racing pretty well without disappearing into the deep end of the karaoke carpool, I can’t help wondering if we have seen the end of an era and, if so, how the next era is going to start.

The 2025 Lexus Melbourne Cup had it all and the racing writers have said it all with those in the main roles being galloper Half Yours with his positive attitude, two extremely likeable trainers Calvin and Tony McEvoy and the irrepressible and such a talented, passionate and intuitive rider in 29 year old Jamie Kah Melham.

And now what?

After all, no industry can go it alone. Every industry needs business partners and different forms of sponsorship to survive.

Politics has always needed gladiators to survive and whom emperors feed to the lions as sport. Nothing has really changed and religious wars continue.

The baton needs to be passed, but who to?

If there’s to be a changing of the guard, are there good enough troops capable of making things move things forward? No one’s going to live forever.

Meanwhile, David Beckham is finally knighted and we have also lost real game changers like Robert Redford and people we have loved and with so many games needing changing again.

Looking at the big old world out there, we’re seeing leaders in steady decline and a mainstream media needing a major overhaul.

Social media might just have already run its course or lost its footing. If this world of “influencers”, KOLs and an algorithmic world controlled by a Numbers Game and what was known for “fake news” before, well, AI has made it more fake which, I guess, means we’re surrounded by or have become or maybe always have been fakirs.

There are many life lessons to be learned from the 2025 Melbourne Cup- teamwork, self belief, family, inspiration, the Camperdown to Cup success, comebacks, empathy for others, focus and keeping it real.

This was much more than odds and “winning on the punt”. It was a game changer in a game that needs changing and is considered by many to be a sunset industry.

Horse racing is also different in every racing jurisdiction with its own quirks, very different governments watching its relevance and their taxes on betting.

It’s where many of the cities speak different languages and have very different cultures.

Some racing clubs who are trying to marry horse racing with bona fide entertainment are very possibly drinking the Kool Aid.

With an animal involved and the speed and athleticism needed, those leading the horse racing world need to make what is a pastime to many outside of Australia be seen as a sport that’s entertaining and not confined to the racing pages.

As someone who has been in advertising, marketing, run two global music companies and created the Happy Wednesday brand for the HKJC, I believe that I know what I am talking about and have seen the vultures hovering above.