Joseph O'Brien ranked Rekindling's Emirates Melbourne Cup as one of his best moments in racing after watching his charge grab victory in the Flemington feature on Tuesday morning.

O'Brien enjoyed huge success during his riding career, counting two Epsom Derbys among a clutch of Classic wins, tasting Breeders' Cup glory and being crowned Irish champion jockey twice.

Since switching his attentions to training in 2016, O'Brien has saddled some notable winners, with Intricately providing a first Group One success in last year's Moyglare Stud Stakes.

However, O'Brien's career was elevated to the next level as the three-year-old Rekindling found an extra gear in the closing stages of the two-mile contest to see off Johannes Vermeer, who is trained by his father Aidan, by a long neck and make the 24-year-old the youngest winning trainer in the history of the Australian showpiece.

The Willie Mullins-trained Max Dynamite was a further two and a half lengths back in third in what was a notable result for the Irish team.

The result caps a memorable year for the O'Brien family as a whole, with Aidan having surpassed Bobby Frankel's world record when sending out a 26th Group One winner of the year at Doncaster last month.

"This is right up there with the best of them (moments in racing)," O'Brien told www.racing.com.

"There is so much more work that goes into training a winner than riding a winner.

"We didn't have big expectations with this horse to be honest because you need so much to fall into place.

"It was an unbelievable effort by the horse and Corey (Brown) gave him an unbelievable ride."

Both Rekindling and Johannes Vermeer are owned by Lloyd Williams and his son Nick, and Williams snr was eager to herald O'Brien's training prowess.

He said: "It's absolutely extraordinary - it's close to being able to walk on water I think.

"I think it's an amazing achievement. I think the best part is - I won't be here long enough unfortunately as I'm in the last quarter - but you're going to see a career kicked off here seriously with the Melbourne Cup.

"You will see Breeders' Cups, you'll see him doing all sorts of things his father has done - he's going to emulate his father and maybe more."

Williams added: "He's got a pedigree better than Galileo (champion stallion)! He is going to be one of the leading trainers in the world."