By HERALD ONLINE STAFF
New Zealand six-year-old Brew won the world's richest handicap race - the Melbourne Cup - at Flemington on Tuesday.
The Sir Tristram-Horlicks gelding was ridden by top young Melbourne jockey Kerrin McEvoy and trained by Mike Moroney.
Brew carried 49kg for the 3200m journey - the most lightly-weighted cup winner for 28 years - and paid $10.60 and $3.35 at the NZ TAB.
Yippyio finished second and paid $3.75. Brew's stablemate, Wellington Cup winner Second Coming, paid $2.90 for third.
It was McEvoy's first Melbourne Cup and he settled Brew towards the back of the field before improving to be sixth coming into the straight.
Second Coming sprinted clear in the home stretch and looked likely to hang on but was run down by Brew and Yippyio.
Total prize money for the 3200m race, which brings all of Australia and much of New Zealand to a standstill every year, was $A3 million ($NZ4 million).
The purse for first was $A2 million plus $A35,000 in trophies, $A540,000 for second, $A250,000 for third and $A125,000 for fourth.
The field was reduced to 22 runners with the race-day scratching of Majestic Avenue and the withdrawal of the Lance O'Sullivan mount, Pravda, who refused to complete her preliminary.
* Full coverage of the big race appears in Wednesday's New Zealand Herald.
Kiwi horses first, third in Melbourne Cup
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