McEvoy’s saviour Melbourne Cup glory

In his days based at Angaston with Lindsay Park, Tony Mcevoy was associated with three Melbourne Cup winners for the Hayes family. 

Colin Hayes prepared Beldale Ball and At Talaq during the 1980's while Jeune won for David Hayes the following decade with McEvoy heavily involved as an assistant-trainer. 

But nothing can compare to being a Melbourne Cup winning trainer in his own right and sharing it with son Calvin after Half Yours became the 13th galloper to win the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double with a brilliant win at Flemington on Tuesday. 

"You don't get anywhere without opportunity, and I was part of that great Hayes family for so many years, and three Melbourne Cups," McEvoy said. 

"But I never thought I would be standing here with one of my own. 

"It's incredibly special. It's a hard game and you don't win all the time in this game. 

"To have Cal with the passion to do what I want to do, it's made my life a hell of a lot easier and more joyous and what this horse has done will take us to another level, and we're certainly looking forward to it." 

Breaking away from Lindsay Park to set up McEvoy Mitchell Racing in 2010, McEvoy senior said he was perceived early on as a trainer of two-year-olds. 

But McEvoy has always had a passion for staying horses and prepared Lance Corporal to win a Grand National Steeplechase. 

He hopes Half Yours completing the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double will provide more opportunities to train stayers. 

 "It is the Melbourne Cup. It is the race that 'stops the nation' for a reason," McEvoy said. 

"Before Cal came on board, I think I was perceived as a speed, two-year-old filly's trainer and Cal has been associated with that. 

"What that has done has given us an unbalanced string. We haven't been able to go out and buy the big European horses. 

"I'm hoping this Caulfield Cup and this Melbourne Cup will change people's mindset on that and we can get involved in some of these European stayers now. 

"I love training stayers. I've trained a Grand National Steeple winner." 

"We get a great joy out of training stayers. Speed is speed and you put them out there and away they go, but with stayers there is a bit more work, a bit more finesse and I think this is the horse to show that we can manage a stayer and we'd love more of them." 

McEvoy senior is looking forward to the years ahead with Half Yours who was purchased for $310,000 at an on-line auction. 

He said the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup campaign had gone without a hitch and even the rain that fell in the hour before Tuesday's race was a blessing. 

"We were down saddling up and Cal reminded me when I won the Cox Plate, it was raining," McEvoy said. 

"It was a nice shower to come through, and we've had a faultless preparation which you need to win any race. 

"This is an incredible horse to allow us to do what we have done. Most horses, so deep into their preparation, normally their feet are the first things to give up on them because of the demand we put on them. 

"But this horse is so sound and so good. 

"We've got such a great team around us, the farriers, the vets and my staff and it's a big team effort to get him to this level." 

McEvoy is already planning for next year and believes Half Yours has the ability to be a weight-for-age star. 

"I think his run in the Turnbull showed he could be a weight-for-age horse when he inished next to the Cox Plate winner Via Sistina," McEvoy said. 

"He's a big track horse and the Cox Plate is going to be run at Flemington next year. I think we'll look at the weight-for-age races for him in the future and see where he sits."