Melbourne Cup week ended with the perfect 10 winners for Kiwi champion James McDonald yesterday.
The Waikato jockey capped one of the most extraordinary weeks in the history of racing by setting a record for Cup week wins by guiding Zaaki to victory in the A$2 million MacKinnon Stakes, the premier weight-for-age race of the carnival.
Having also ridden Nature Strip to destroy his rivals in yesterday's other A$2m event, the Darley Sprint, McDonald beat the former Cup week record held by his childhood hero Brett Prebble.
So dominant has he been during a carnival packed with world-class riders, the fact he was to able to add $A4m worth of races yesterday, in all-the-way fashion, almost felt like an afterthought to the Melbourne Cup win with Verry Elleegant.