Dylan Gibbons has unfinished business with the Melbourne Cup, and he's found a horse that might just take him there.
The jockey combined with Bjorn Baker-trained Thebudgiesmugla to win the listed Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2400m) at Rosehill on Saturday. It's the same race where Gibbons finished second last year on eventual Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner Half Yours.
That horse went on to win the Caloundra Cup next start with Ash Morgan aboard, before Jamie Melham took him to the premier Cups double. Baker's team is hoping to follow that exact blueprint.
Thebudgiesmugla ground out a three-quarter length win after connections chose the 2400m race over the 3200m group 2 Brisbane Cup at Eagle Farm. Assistant trainer Luke Hilton said the Caloundra Cup (2400m) in three weeks is the next target.
“It’s a good form race for a few other races later in the year, so I think that will be a good test,” Hilton said.
“We know he runs the 2400 out strongly, then we can sit back and weigh up options after that. On top of the ground, we needed to see him do it if he was going to be competitive in even better races.”
Gibbons, who rode Okita Soushi to 11th in the 2023 Melbourne Cup, is hungry for another chance.
“I’ve been looking for a chance to ride in the Melbourne Cup, so hopefully [it will happen],” he said.
Gibbons also won the first race on Saturday aboard Mawrooba, a $400,000 Wootton Bassett gelding that gave the Hawkes team consecutive two-year-old Saturday winners. Mawrooba was less than two lengths sixth on Monday at Canterbury over 1250m but relished the 1400m trip at Rosehill. He overhauled odds-on favourite Friendly Fire by one and a quarter lengths for a maiden win at his fourth start.
The Baker stable, meanwhile, will build towards bigger targets with Big Papa after he bounced back from a heavy track failure with an easy 1300m win at Rosehill. Big Papa kicked clear for a two-length victory under Alysha Collett over stablemate Hezdarnhottoo in the benchmark 78 for the males, making it three wins in six starts. Hilton said Big Papa would rise to stakes-level again, after finishing seventh in the Vo Rogue Plate (1300m) last preparation.
“He’s always shown a lot and this time in he’s a little bit more mature and stronger,” he said.
Riding great Darren Beadman praised the cool head of Siena Grima after she improved her claims for the Sydney apprentices’ title with a double for boss Chris Waller at Rosehill. Grima went to 22 city winners, now seven behind defending champion Braith Nock (29) with seven weeks left in the season. Nobler survived a late dive and protest from King Pedro, before Surf’s Up cruised to victory.
Four-year-old Nobler made three consecutive wins in the 2000m benchmark 78 handicap, but only just, after Tom Charlton-trained King Pedro fell short by a nose. King Pedro jockey Anna Roper alleged interference from Nobler at the 200m when she was squeezed out of a run between that horse and Spycatcher. Stewards dismissed the protest, saying it was a shift from Spycatcher that closed the gap.
Beadman, who is guiding Grima as part of Waller’s team, said it was “lovely execution” from the apprentice.
“She had a choice there at the 600 and that was the difference between winning and losing, either riding for luck or following Belle Detelle,” Beadman said.
“She just probably didn’t want to get there too early. In the first, she said, ‘I think I got there a little bit early on the horse’. I said, ‘It’s all about timing. Don’t make the furlong the winning post’.”
Beadman said Nobler would get further and prove a “handy stayer”.
“I think he can make his presence felt at the back end of our spring carnival, so now is probably a good time to tip him out and get him ready for something better,” he said.
Grima then took filly Surf’s Up to a one and a half-length win over Damien in the 1400m benchmark 72 after finding a perfect spot just off the pace early.
Emirate, with Reece Jones aboard, broke a two-year drought in the last to give Waller a treble. Apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald had a first city double, winning with Smashing Time (Robert and Luke Price) and Bella Corazon (Annabel and Rob Archibald).
At Eagle Farm, James McDonald claimed the record outright for most Australian group 1 wins in a season, taking Waller-trained Tron Bolt to victory in the JJ Atkins. It put McDonald on 17 victories for 2025-26, one clear of Malcolm Johnston’s 1979-80 mark.
Taylor Marshall claimed a maiden group 1, winning on Spicy Martini in the Stradbroke Handicap.
A late nomination for Mawrooba off a six-day back-up proved a masterstroke. The Hawkes-trained All Too Hard gelding Why So Hard won the two-year-old race at Randwick a week earlier on debut.
“His run the other day was only a softish run,” Hawkes stable representative Steve Thompson said of Mawrooba.