“It Would Change My Life”: Moreira’s Melbourne Cup Dream
Two runner-up finishes in Australia’s most famous race have further fuelled Joao Moreira’s desire to win an event he is only just starting to understand the significance of.
BRAZILIAN JOCKEY Joao Moreira has ridden in enough Melbourne Cups to understand the race itself but it wasn’t until a recent trip to rural Australia that he began to grasp the magnitude of ‘the race that stops a nation’.
“The only thing that I can compare with that is when Brazil qualifies for the final of the World Cup in soccer,” Moreira told Idol Horse. “If Brazil makes it to the final of the World Cup, nine out of 10 people in Brazil know the players in each position. That feels like what the Melbourne Cup is here.”
Moreira took a break from his schedule last weekend to visit the Hunter Valley – dropping in on retired champion Able Friend while he was there – and there was one question every local he met asked him.
“That is when I realised how big the Melbourne Cup is, when I met those people from the bush, in the middle of nowhere … the first question they always have for you is ‘have you got a ride for the Melbourne Cup?’”
“If Brazil makes it to the final of the World Cup, people don’t work. Everything is closed down. I can just imagine when the Melbourne Cup is on, people around Australia, wherever they are, stopping work, in factories or out on those farms, just to take a moment to stop working to watch the race. It makes me feel quite emotional.
“When you tell people overseas that it’s a race that stops a nation, especially in Brazil, it sounds like you’re just making it up and trying to make it a big thing because you just love horse racing so much. But it is a fact. It’s very impressive. It’s an amazing race.”


The answer to that question the people in the bush keep asking Moreira – who he will be riding – is the early race favourite Buckaroo for trainer Chris Waller, coming into the Cup after a win in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes, a Group 1 second to Cox Plate winner Via Sistina and a flashing second in the Caulfield Cup.
It will be Moreira’s sixth ride in the Cup following unplaced efforts aboard Signoff (fourth, 2014), The United States (14th, 2015) and Constantinople (13th, 2019) and two much-discussed seconds aboard Heartbreak City (2016) and Soulcombe (2023). He was also due to ride in the 2017 Cup on Thomas Hobson for trainer Willie Mullins before a hard fall earlier in the day ruled him out of the race (the horse finished sixth). More on the public criticism of Moreira’s Cup rides later, but Moreira said the near misses have further fuelled a desire to win a race that, perhaps more than any other in world racing, would impact his legacy.
“When you have a race, any race that you have finished second a couple of times, you start to think it’s winnable. I’ve just been a bit unlucky,” Moreira says. “The Melbourne Cup is different than other races. You go to the races and one day later you might be going home famous, the winner of a race which is just so well known. I don’t really need to win a horse race to change my life, but I guess if I do win the Melbourne Cup, it would change my life.
“I think people would at least respect me more. People would respect me even more. It would be like me fulfilling a dream.”
Asked if he feels disrespected in Australia, Moreira clarified.
“I think the people that matter do respect me. But that is the point, I would like to justify the position they put me into,” Moreira said. “I don’t see myself as a star that they try to make me look like, but if I end up winning that race I will feel like I have delivered on the faith that that has been shown in me.”

Moreira says the Melbourne Cup itself isn’t just unique for its cultural impact, but also on the track: its 24-horse field and tactical nuance make it a unique challenge.
“I don’t think I have ever ridden in any other race like that,” he said. “During the race, on either side of you, you see a massive amount of horses. You know those old war movies or westerns, when they line up the horses side-by-side and charge? Sometimes they get the footage from the side, from the perspective of a person who is riding a horse? That’s the feeling I had the first time. It is a rush, it’s a massive amount of horses. The field size increases the chance of you being interrupted, being checked. A bad horse could get in your way and just drag you back instead of sending you forward.
“That makes it much more of a tactical race because you’ve got to find a way to make sure you land behind a good horse. It takes a good horse to win the race, but the best horse doesn’t necessarily win. You need luck, and I’ve been unlucky.”
Some noted critics would disagree with Moreira’s self-assessment. While Moreira’s record in Australia is exceptional, his losing rides can be a lightning rod for heated discussion. When asked to break down some of his Melbourne Cup rides, Moreira jumped in.
“You’re gonna ask me about Soulcombe?” he asked, before a preemptive answer: “First of all I did everything that I was allowed to to try to get him to jump better.”

The fact that Moreira missed the start on Soulcombe was not a surprise but the criticism centred around his decision-making in the straight: firstly for not staying on winner Without A Fight’s back and secondly, for electing to look for runs on the outside rather than the rails. Moreira suggests the criticism comes from a position of hindsight.
“I don’t regret a decision I made because I made those decisions with circumstances I had in front of me at the time,” he said. “And did I get it wrong? Probably. Very likely. But that’s easy to say now. If you got a person who has never watched the race, sit them down and show them a replay, pause it at the 1200, the 700, and ask, “what should you do? What are you going to do here? I’d say eight out of 10 will start aiming towards the outside because the race had been run at a fast pace, those horses in front will start getting tired and some of them will get in your way and just screw your race.”
Moreira said he would prefer to look forward to Tuesday.
“I can’t let those second placings disappoint me and I can’t carry that feeling into this race,” he said. “But I really don’t do that. Obviously on the day I was a bit upset, but we move on and that definitely is not going to influence my decisions now
“I will still ride this coming race with my gut feeling because I trust my gut. I really don’t like overthinking or over-analysing. The same decision I made last year might be the right one this year. Leave it to me because I know I’ve got the experience. I trust in my gut feelings and I will make the decision that needs to be made. Is it going to be the right one? Well, let’s wait and see.” ∎