AGAINST all odds, the Melbourne Cup did not pass into the hands of media moguls or foreign princes, but a bunch of Aussie battlers from drought-torn places like Gympie and Warwick.

Among them was Assumption College, Warwick, principal Kort Goodman.

“(It was) an amazing feeling and really quite surreal; we were obviously initially ecstatic but then really pinching ourselves,” Mr Goodman, who has a quarter-share in this year’s winner Vow And Declare, said.

The four-year-old chestnut gelding is the first Australian runner to win the $8 million race since Shocking in 2009.

“Being part of a group of such quality people made the experience all the better,” Mr Goodman said.

He said the community reaction was “amazing and overwhelming”.

It was the win the region needed.

AGAINST all odds, the Melbourne Cup did not pass into the hands of media moguls or foreign princes, but a bunch of Aussie battlers from drought-torn places like Gympie and Warwick.

Among them was Assumption College, Warwick, principal Kort Goodman.

“(It was) an amazing feeling and really quite surreal; we were obviously initially ecstatic but then really pinching ourselves,” Mr Goodman, who has a quarter-share in this year’s winner Vow And Declare, said.

The four-year-old chestnut gelding is the first Australian runner to win the $8 million race since Shocking in 2009.

“Being part of a group of such quality people made the experience all the better,” Mr Goodman said.

He said the community reaction was “amazing and overwhelming”.

It was the win the region needed.