Teen Jockey's 80-1 Melbourne Cup Win Lives On In Silo Art

Ray Neville learned he'd be riding in the Melbourne Cup the morning of the race, just hours before his 16th birthday. The teenager from tiny Birchip, Victoria, had only held his jockey license for eight weeks.

His mount, a six-year-old chestnut named Rimfire, had sore legs from racing days earlier. Most expected the horse to be scratched entirely, and oddsmakers put their chances at 80 to 1.

The race was supposed to be a learning experience for the country kid. Instead, Rimfire crossed the finish line a nose ahead of second place in the first Melbourne Cup ever decided by photo finish.

Legend says Neville's team kept him in the dark about riding until morning so nerves wouldn't keep him awake the night before. The gamble paid off with one of Australian racing's greatest underdog stories.

"The photo was on the mantelpiece, the cup sat on the mantelpiece," recalls his daughter Rosee Neville, one of eight children Ray had with his wife June. Every year during the Melbourne Cup, the family memorabilia went to school for show and tell.

Shane O'Shea, a local journalist, says nearly everyone in the region knows the story. Even the Buloke Times editor, now 95, loves telling how he was one of only two people in town who bet on the long shot apprentice.

Why This Inspires

After years of planning by late community leader Joan Glen, artist Kyle Torney just finished painting Ray's victory across five massive grain silos in Birchip. The artwork shows the young jockey's "cheeky-boy grin" as he raced toward history.

Rosee held back tears seeing her late father honored on such a grand scale. "I know dad's probably up there thinking 'oh, what's all the fuss about,' but he would be stoked," she said.

She remembers a reporter once asking her father about his greatest achievement. Winning the Melbourne Cup at 15 wasn't it, Ray told them. "Marrying the love of my life and having and raising eight healthy children" topped everything.

The new silo art joins Victoria's famous Silo Art Trail, bringing tourists to the small farming community. Caravans were already pulling up to view it before the paint dried.

Rosee hopes her dad's story proves you don't have to come from the city to do something extraordinary.