A jockey who performed Let It Go on The Voice Australia has hit the jackpot after winning the Melbourne Cup.
Robbie Dolan, who is originally from Kildare in Ireland, rode Knight’s Choice to a photo-finish victory at the Lexus Melbourne Cup.
Having moved to Australia in 2016 in search of better apprentice jockey opportunities, the Irish national has made quite the name for himself down under.
The 28-year-old is not just a sensation in the saddle, but knows how to wow with a microphone too.
After featuring on The Voice Australia in 2022, Dolan performed a rendition of James Bay’s Let It Go, turning three chairs in the process.
British singer and songwriter Rita Ora was one of the impressed judges, turning round in support of the Irish singer.
Dolan reached the quarter-final stage of the hit entertainment show where he was eventually knocked out, but it seems his racing career has only just begun.
He rode a 90-1 outsider on Knight’s Choice in the 2m handicap and beat Willie Mullins-trained duo Vauban and Absurde in a photo-finish for the cup.
Speaking to Channel Nine after the race, he said: “It’s incredible, I can’t believe it. I don’t even know what to say.
“I think I’ll be singing for the rest of my life after that. What the hell.
“I can’t put it [Melbourne Cup victory] into words” he added. “I have my family here and my partner Christine, our little baby Maisie, and my dad flew over from Ireland, and now you have me in tears.
Dolan’s grandfather Peadar Matthews won two Irish Classics in the 1960s and his parents Bobby and Paula were also jockeys, although he had never before competed in the Melbourne Cup.
The victory will see Dolan take home just over $220,000 (£112,000), as well as a miniature Melbourne Cup trophy which is worth $10,000 (£5,100).
Knight’s Choice’s trainers John Symons and Sheila Laxon will also receive 10 per cent of the prizemoney.
The Melbourne Cup is worth more than $8million (£4.1million) and is known as ‘the race that stops a nation’.
