\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Tony and Calvin McEvoy are set to make a splash when Victorian two-year-old racing begins at Flemington on Saturday, with a three-pronged assault on the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) heavily flavoured by the race\u2019s sponsor, Darley.<\/p>\n
The father-son team are poised to start a colt and two fillies by Darley sires: Godolphin colt Knurl (Brazen Beau), plus One Day At A Time (Bivouac) and Sabrina (Blue Point).<\/p>\n
Much interest this Saturday \u2013 in both Melbourne and Sydney\u2019s opening juvenile races \u2013 will centre on runners by first-season sires Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice). In the Maribyrnong, Coolmore\u2019s Home Affairs is set to be represented by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained colt Guest House, while Newgate Farm\u2019s Stay Inside has Michael Freedman\u2019s colt Incognito and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott colt Our Emperor, a daughter of Listed winner Our Crown Mistress (Star Witness), among the nominations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The McEvoy contingent for the Flemington straight race centres on more proven stock.<\/p>\n
Knurl hails from the eighth crop of Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) \u2013 standing at Darley\u2019s Northwood Park this year for $27,500 (inc GST). That\u2019s slightly reduced from last year, and his all-time low, but Knurl fits into the stallion\u2019s sweet spot, as a two-year-old male.<\/p>\n
Brazen Beau has sired 13 juvenile stakes winners, compared with 12 at three and seven at four, while he has 16 male black-type victors as against 11 females.<\/p>\n
Knurl, one of 17 horses sent to the McEvoys as part of Godolphin\u2019s transition to public trainers, isn\u2019t large in size but is big on talent, evidenced by his two impressive jump-out wins at Flemington, the latest up the straight 800 metres last Thursday, when he fought back on the inside to score by a head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t much of him \u2013 he\u2019s 412 kilograms,\u201d Tony McEvoy told ANZ News of Knurl, the first foal of city winner Mollycoddle (Lonhro), \u201cbut his riders say he feels like a big horse when you ride him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a lovely big action, and by gee he can really quicken. He uses his action to quicken and he\u2019s been very impressive in his jump-outs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a lovely boy, very straightforward and positive \u2013 an A-grade student. All the Godolphin horses have come to us in fantastic order, and are very well-educated.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Day At A Time was another star for the McEvoys at Flemington\u2019s juvenile jump-outs last Thursday, leading throughout and coming away to win her 800-metre heat by three lengths.<\/p>\n
The third foal of Adelaide Listed winner Everyday Lady (Charge Forward), the filly was a $270,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase for McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Damon Gabbedy\u2019s Belmont Bloodstock, from the draft of her breeder Rosemont Stud. She\u2019s raced in the sole ownership of Wayne Mitchell\u2019s Pipeliner Bloodstock.<\/p>\n
One Day At A Time hails from a rich family, with third dam Not On Friday (At Talaq) a Group 3 winner who was twice Group 1-placed, and who became the granddam of 2008 Horse of the Year Weekend Hussler (Hussonet).<\/p>\n
McEvoy was a \u201chuge fan\u201d of Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) \u2013 now covering his fifth book at Darley Kelvinside for an unchanged $55,000 (inc GST) \u2013 in a career that yielded three Group 1s.<\/p>\n
And he was thrilled to see his first crop son Beiwacht emulate his sire with a breathtaking victory in Saturday\u2019s Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Rosehill, becoming Bivouac\u2019s maiden elite winner, and third stakes victor from 43 runners.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, Bivouac\u2019s yearlings didn\u2019t look as fancy as a lot of others, but we kept getting told that was how Bivouac looked as a yearling himself,\u201d McEvoy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we got this filly, One Day At A Time. She\u2019s long and scopey, and she\u2019ll be even better as she gets older. I think she\u2019s a miler of the future, but surprisingly, here she is running before Christmas. We haven\u2019t pushed her to be there, she\u2019s just taken us there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calvin McEvoy ventured to Magic Millions Perth to purchase Sabrina for $90,000, again alongside Gabbedy\u2019s Belmont Bloodstock. The filly bears the colours of renowned West Australian breeder Peter Walsh, a known fan of Sabrina\u2019s shuttle sire Blue Point (Shamardal).<\/p>\n
In 2020, Walsh sent his star mare Amelia\u2019s Jewel\u2019s (Siyouni) dam Bumbasina (Canford Cliffs) to Blue Point and bred Bosustow, now a Group 3-winning entire who\u2019s been twice Group 1-placed. Blue Point, who has two Australian stakes winners from 114 runners, has been rested from Darley\u2019s shuttle this year.<\/p>\n
Like Knurl, Sabrina won both of her official jump-outs leading up to Saturday\u2019s debut, including most impressively by two lengths over 800 metres at Flemington last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sabrina is the first foal of Melbourne city winner Witchfulthinking (War Chant), whose second dam was quadruple Melbourne Listed victor Street Talk (Marauding), granddam of 2015\u2019s Champion Australian three-year-old filly Delicacy (Al Maher).<\/p>\n
Tony McEvoy said he was surprised to see Sabrina contending at this time of year, given her breeding and physical make-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a lovely, big strong filly,\u201d he said, \u201cbut her conformation suggested she probably wouldn\u2019t be pre-Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlus, I find the Blue Points are very talented horses but they find it hard to reproduce that trial form early in their career, and they come better in the autumn and later. So it was on my mind all the way through that I didn\u2019t want to run this filly pre-Christmas, but she\u2019s taken it away from me. She\u2019s charged along, so it\u2019s hard to stop. She\u2019s been so good, she\u2019s towed us to the race<\/p>\n
\u201cWalshy stayed in. He\u2019s a beauty. He\u2019s a good supporter of the game, and he supports his product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, the McEvoys are as excited as they can be about their latest two-year-old draft, which also includes yet another winner from last Thursday\u2019s jump-outs in Cyclotron (Hellbent), who was among Maribyrnong Trial nominees but will be saved instead for the rich Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) on November 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re a nice bunch, but until raceday, you just don\u2019t know,\u201d McEvoy said. \u201cYou go in thinking you\u2019ve got nice horses, but in some years people have got nicer ones. There\u2019s been years when I\u2019ve been really confident and happy with our babies, and we\u2019ve gone to the races and haven\u2019t got close.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrials are trials, but all I know is ours were quite sharp and all were quite effective down the straight, so it gave us confidence to go to the Maribyrnong.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while finding it hard to split his trio, McEvoy puts Knurl slightly on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I put them in a flat gallop, I reckon Knurl would beat the two fillies,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the disadvantage he\u2019s got is he\u2019s a small colt, he\u2019ll have 58 kilos and the fillies will have 56, so they\u2019ve got a distinct advantage on him already.\u201d<\/p>\n
If McEvoy had his preference, Melbourne would have separate opening two-year-old races for males and females, as will be seen again in Sydney this Saturday with the Breeders\u2019 Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).<\/p>\n
But such is the changing face of Australian two-year-old racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve got the numbers, it\u2019s lovely to have the boys and the girls separate,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we ran out of pre-Christmas horses to keep that practice up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the numbers to support those races, so they\u2019ve put them together, which is a bit of a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the McEvoys will start exciting stayer Half Yours (St Jean) in Saturday\u2019s set weights Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington, having also nominated the five-year-old for Randwick\u2019s elite handicap, The Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m).<\/p>\n
In another snapshot of modern Australian racing, Half Yours was one of just two Australian-bred stayers among 18 Turnbull nominations, with ten of them European imports.<\/p>\n
On a day in which another exciting Australian-bred Revelare (So You Think) \u2013 who\u2019s already qualified for the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) \u2013 will confront a similar tide of Europeans seeking a ticket to the great race via The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2500m), McEvoy said he was \u201cproud\u201d to have the colonial Half Yours in the Turnbull.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean, however, that he thinks he has a winning chance this Saturday with Half Yours, who booked his Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) berth by winning the Naturalism Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) at that track on September 20.<\/p>\n
The gelding will take on a quality field headed by favourite and Horse of the Year Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) and equal second elects Aeliana (Castelvecchio) and Sir Delius (Frankel).<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t see Half Yours beating those horses at all, but he needs another race before the Caulfield Cup,\u201d McEvoy said. \u201cThis run will tell us a lot about the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen Tony and Calvin McEvoy are set to make a splash when Victorian two-year-old racing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-464436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115296121961450948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}