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Jamie Melham labelled No.1 female jockey in the world
SENTrack • November 5th, 2025 9:36 am
Jamie Melham has been described as the best female jockey in the world after her Melbourne Cup triumph aboard Half Yours.
Melham, nee Kah, became the first woman to complete the Cups double when she weaved a passage on the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Australian-bred Half Yours over two miles at Flemington.
The victory came a fortnight after Melham became the first female in history to win the Caulfield Cup, also on Half Yours.
Her feats in Australia’s two biggest Cup races has compelled former six-time Group 1 winning rider David Taggart to declare her the best in the world.
Taggart provided some insight into her story when she was riding winners for fun as a youngster in Adelaide.
“Her first four seasons as an apprentice she took out the Adelaide title. The put the writing on the wall straight away, she was riding four and five winners all the time,” Taggart said on SENTrack’s Melbourne Cup broadcast.
“She the moved over here (to Melbourne) in 2019, it took her a good six months to get going. Adelaide is totally different to Melbourne, she had to learn the tracks. She wasn’t riding winner after winner like she was in that breakout year when she won the Melbourne premiership (in 2020/21).
“But that’s what happens (when you move states), you’ve just got to learn to ride the tracks and that can take you a good 12 months.
“She took a little while to get going and then she never looked back. She broke the record of metropolitan wins (over 100).
“Non-racing people only hear of the Damien Olivers but Jamie is not an underrated jockey, she’s a world-class rider.”
SENTrack’s Campbell Brown asked the question: “Right now she would be the best female in the history of the sport, right?
“I think she’s cemented that.”
Taggart replied: “Has to be. I think she’s the number one female in the world.
“I think she’s above Hollie (Doyle), who is riding at Happy Valley on Wednesday night. I think Hong Kong will beckon for Jamie.”
While she has the world at her feet as a jockey, there is a chance Melham will pivot at some point in her career.
“She’s already got connections over there, she’s big into her equestrian and Hong Kong has a great equestrian setup, and she doesn’t want to ride forever.
“That’s her love, that’s what she wants to do. She gets a lot of retired horses, then she re-educates them for the equestrian world.
“She’s just a great horsewoman. It takes years and years to get these horses up to the top level of equestrian.”
Brown added: “I think she’ll retire from the sport and have a crack at going to the Olympics.”
