'He's a gem': Without a Fight wins Melbourne Cup to give Mark Zahra back-to-back wins

Without a Fight won the 2023 Melbourne Cup to make it back-to-back victories for jockey Mark Zahra in the so-called "race that stops a nation".

The seven-year-old gelding stormed clear in the final 100m to hold off Soulcombe and outsider Sheraz in a thrilling finish to the gruelling 3,200-metre handicap at Flemington and with it a Aus$8 million ($6 million) winner's cheque.

Gold Trip, the horse Zahra steered to victory last year, faded to 17th on a hot day in Victoria.

"That's unbelievable, he was just an absolute gem today," said Zahra, who won the recent Group 1 Caulfield Cup on Without a Fight and opted to stay with him rather than move back to Gold Trip.

"I was following Alenquer ... in front of him was Gold Trip and in front of him was Vauban. I just thought I'd stay here. They all made their moves and it opened up for me.

"I was on a horse that you could just sit on, he has an electric turn of foot and he just pulled me all the way to the line."

Zahra is the ninth jockey to ride back-to-back Melbourne Cup winners and Without a Fight became the first horse to clinch the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double since Ethereal in 2001.

"An extraordinary ride. He got him onto the rail from a wide gate, relaxed, switched him off and pretty confident probably the [last] 800 metres the way he was travelling," said co-trainer Sam Freedman, who hails from one of Australia's most prominent racing families.

"He's a freak," he said of the horse. "He was excellent."

A cultural institution in Australia, the Melbourne Cup has been run on the first Tuesday of November since 1876 and is considered so important it is a public holiday in its host state of Victoria.

An estimated 85,000 spectators attended this year's race at Flemington