The Diva does it again

“AND A champion, becomes a legend!”

The now-immortal words of Flemington race caller Greg Miles will live on in the memory of every single person who watched in awe as Makybe Diva claimed a third successive Melbourne Cup victory today.

She is without doubt the greatest Australian racehorse since Phar Lap, and while trainer Lee Freedman refused to draw comparisons between the two, his statement that the Depression hero couldn’t manage what the Diva had done rang only too true with the 106,000-strong crowd.

“Go and find the smallest child on this course and there will be the only example of a person who will live long enough to see that again. We'll never live to see it again,” Freedman said.

“I don't want to run Phar Lap down but I never saw Phar Lap win three Melbourne Cups.”

"What she did was one of the greatest sporting events ever witnessed in Australia.”

Starting a $3.60 favourite, Makybe Diva had to hold off surges from the fast-finishing Geelong Cup winner On A Jeune ($61) and Kiwi flyer, Xcellent ($20).

Jockey Glen Boss couldn’t contain his emotion coming back to scale, with the tears flowing opening from the usually unflappable jockey.

“What a great mare - she's just unbelievable. She was cruising, just off the bridle,” Boss said.

“I had such an easy run it was almost like on my bike.”

Makybe Diva might have been set for the Cox Plate, which she won in amazing fashion, but everyone will remember her performance today as the greatest of her career.

She was raced perfectly toward the latter half of the field and never looked anything but the winner, and even though Boss was worried he “let her go too early”, once she hit the front at the 200 metre mark, there was no chance of any rival running her down.

Owner Tony Santic immediately retired the mare after the race, claiming he could ask no more of his star stayer.

"I think to ask any more of this mare would not be fair," he said.

"You'll see her foals, and they might be here winning a Melbourne Cup one day,"

The Victoria Racing Club is now in believed to be looking to honour the horse in the Spring Carnival with a major race being named after her, with an event to be added to the calendar as early as next year.

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