Led by Joey Casey, the Irish jockey's scooped an historic 1-2-3 in the Flemington leg of the Irish-Australian Riders Challenge series in Melbourne earlier today.
On a heavy, Casey became the first Irish-based jockey to ride a jumps winner at the Melbourne Cup course when bringing home 3/1 chance Montand home eight lengths clear of Philip Carberry on Buck Henry in the Hyland Sportswear Hurdle with Shane McCann third on Bennevis.
Legendary jumps trainer Jim Houlahan ran two in the race, Montand and favourite Zubin. Ridden by Craig Durden, Zubin was challenging Montand when failing at the second last but the winner was never off the bridle.
'This place is amazing,' said Casey afterwards, 'Montand was only ever going at half speed and is without doubt the easiest winner I have ever ridden, adding, 'to ride my first winner outside Ireland at such an awesome track as Flemington is really something.'
Philip Carberry said of the runner-up, 'he made two mistakes but wewould never have beaten the winner which was pretty impressive.'
Trailing 9 points to 18 ? points going into this fourth race of the series, the Irish team have pulled back most of the arrears, earning 8 points, and now travel to Werribee on Tuesday.
