Tony and Calvin McEvoy admit they stretched the budget at the time, but their bold play at last year’s Late November Inglis Digital Sale has delivered one of racing’s greatest rewards.
The horse they paid $305,000 for out of the late Colin McKenna’s dispersal sale, Half Yours, has now written himself and the father-and-son training partnership into Australian racing history after claiming Tuesday’s $10 million Melbourne Cup.
The son of St Jean, the only Australian-bred runner in this year’s Cup, became the 13th horse to complete the Caulfield Cup–Melbourne Cup double, powering home to a 2-3/4-length victory over Goodie Two Shoes.
“I was trying to get them to stop because I thought it was enough money,” Tony McEvoy recalled.
“They pushed hard to keep going and we had no owner for him.
“We specked him and, wow, what a good decision that was that day.
“The journey he has taken us on… he’s a very special horse.”
Half Yours made his debut for the stable finishing second in a benchmark 64 at Sandown in March, then won a similar race at Seymour before heading north.
He blitzed the field in the Listed Caloundra Cup (2400m) in July and later returned south to Sydney, where he finished fifth in benchmark 100 grade at Rosehill.
He then produced a decisive 3-1/2-length win in the Group 3 Naturalism Stakes (2000m) before placing fourth in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes.
He now boasts eight wins from 15 starts and more than $9.2 million in prizemoney.
Half Yours is the only Stakes winner for his sire St Jean, a son of three-time Melbourne Cup-winning sire Teofilo, who once won the Group 3 Auckland Cup.
Sire numbers highlight just how rare this achievement is — St Jean has only 67 live foals and has covered just 26 mares across four breeding seasons.
Their interest also stemmed from the mare La Gazelle being bred and raced by McKenna and his wife Janice.
“They don’t push their horses,” Calvin McEvoy said.
“We basically got a raw, lightly-raced four-year-old with potential to develop — and that’s exactly what he’s done.”
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