The Gold Coast beckons for two of Tony McEvoy’s two-year-olds after a one-two finish in the main juvenile race at Ballarat.
Despatch and Nistaan provided the quinella for McEvoy in the Magic Millions 2YO Clockwise Classic on Saturday.
The pair should now have earned enough prizemoney to tackle $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic at the Gold Coast in January.
Ridden by Luke Nolen, Despatch ($9) held off stablemate Nistaan ($10) by a short head, with the $2.70 favourite, American Genius, two lengths away in third.
Despatch and Nistaan were part of a group of six horses McEvoy trialled at Ballarat in the clockwise direction over three seperate sessions.
McEvoy’s Melbourne foreman Michael Shepherdson said Despatch and Nistaan had trialled well and the stable believed they were the best placed to handle the Ballarat Cup meeting.
“Despatch jumped cleaner in his trial and we thought he would put himself up there while the other guy, when he gets to a bigger track and has the chance to wind up, that will suit him,” Shepherdson said.
“The idea in coming here and trialling was to give them as much experience as we can and to get some prizemoney to make it worthwhile to go to the Gold Coast.
“Having that prizemoney in the bank they can go up there now and you’re nearly guaranteed a start.”
Despatch’s victory was the fourth individual win from 14 two-year-old starters this season for McEvoy, who went on a spending spree at the yearling sales earlier in 2016.
The McEvoy stable brought up a race-to-race double when Dollar For Dollar took out the Suez McKellar Mile at his first start since April.
