Why Jamie Melham wants to MISS her beloved grandfather's funeral after he helped inspire jockey to historic Melbourne Cup win

History-making Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jamie Melham has revealed she will miss her grandfather's funeral on Thursday because he would've wanted her to.

Melham's grandfather Albert died last week, just days after watching her win the Caulfield Cup on Half Yours.

He missed out on seeing her become the first female jockey to win the cups double after Half Yours strode away with the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, but she said he was riding with her.

'The last thing he watched was the Caulfield Cup, but he was such a big supporter of mine,' Melham said.

'It was amazing that he watched my last major win (Caulfield Cup). He watched it and then in the next few days, he went to sleep and went up in heaven.

'He was up there opening those gaps for me because I needed a few gaps opened. Now he's up in heaven watching me.'

Albert's funeral will be on Thursday, but Melham won't be there because he told her he'd rather she rides winners for him at the Oaks Day meeting instead.

'He would've loved to drink from this (Melbourne Cup) as well,' Melham said of her grandfather.

Help from above aside, it was Melham's sensational ride that helped Half Yours score a three-length win over Goodie Two Shoes which looked the likely winner with about 300metres to run.

But Melham sliced through the narrowest of gaps at high speed to give her mount its chance to make history.

'When a horse is just travelling that well, it didn't matter what size the gaps were, I just wanted to ride him as quiet as I could. And at the 400m I couldn't go any quieter. I had to let him go and this horse was so fit and strong,' Melham said.

Half Yours was bred by the late Col McKenna, a meat processing giant at Warrnambool and a racehorse owner who was one of Melham's biggest backers.

At the spring carnival last year she wore McKenna's famous lime and blue silks to a Group One win on Another Wil just days after his sudden death.

On the morning of the cup this year, McKenna's niece gave Melham a brooch in the colours that McKenna wore to every race meeting.

'He was with me,' Melham said.

Michelle Payne will forever be remembered as the first woman rider to win the Melbourne Cup on $101 shot Prince Of Penzance in 2015.

But Melham's gone one better by claiming the cups double and shortly after the race on Tuesday, Payne congratulated Melham and said: 'Welcome to the club.'

As the only Australian-bred horse in the field, Half Yours was the sentimental favourite for many of the 84,374 fans on course.

Melham said the victory made all the hard work and early hours worth it.

'This is what we wake up at stupid o'clock for every morning to come to these big days and win in front of the world,' she said.

'It looks like an amazing, glamorous industry on the outside, and it's got its good parts, but God, there's some tough parts, some really tough parts.

'This is why we do it, for days like this, to go down in history, winning the Melbourne Cup. What the hell just happened?'

The fact Melham won the race on a horse trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy made the story even more special.

All three made their names coming out of Adelaide.

'They have been an incredible part of my career,' Melham said.

'My first ever Flemington (winner) was on Dollar For Dollar for them, and now I have won a Melbourne Cup for them.'

After McKenna's death, his family sold many of his horses with Half Yours sold for $305,000 at an online sale last November.

He's the son of St Jean, who is such an unfashionable sire that he's only produced 15 live foals in five years at $3,000 service fee.

To put that into perspective, boom sire Wooton Bassett's service fee is a whopping $385,000.

Famous Aussie sire Snitzel stands at $247,500, while Extreme Choice's service fee is $330,000 and I Am Invincible's is $220,000.

'At 305 (thousand) that's the best bid we've ever put in for a horse,' the McEvoys' racing manager Rayan Moore said.

Part-owner Neville Smith paid $80,000 for a 25 per cent share in Half Yours.

As he held aloft the cup on Tuesday he may have been thinking about the $956,250 he'd just banked after his horse took out the $10million feature.