If things had worked out differently, Half Yours may have been in Sydney running in a Group 1 staying contest instead of lining up at Flemington.
The Tony and Calvin Mcevoy-trained galloper was being prepared for The Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday from a base in Sydney, but that program was thrown into disarray when Half Yours was an emergency for the Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on September 20.
Luckily, the McEvoy’s had also accepted for the Naturalism Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield that day and by taking out that Group 3 race, Half Yours earned a ballot exemption for the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 18 for which he is favourite.
Half Yours will wind-up his Caulfield Cup preparation in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on Saturday.
“We were on the cusp of both the Kingston Town and the Naturalism and having a lowish rated horse going into the spring, we thought he would be fine going on previous years, but there must be a little more depth this year,” Calvin McEvoy said.
“It was a relief when we made the call to come to Melbourne and got into the race as he needed to win that race to get into the Caulfield Cup.
“We were confident that he could do it and it was nice to see him do it.”
Half Yours faces a jump in quality on Saturday, but McEvoy is buoyed by the barrier draw of four which will allow Jamie Melham to give the stayer an economical run.
But McEvoy is realistic enough to know that he is facing some of Australia’s weight-for-age stars with a horse that was beaten in restricted grade four starts ago.
“We’ve got the favourite for the Cox Plate, the favourite for the Melbourne Cup, the best 2000-metre weight-for-age horse in the country, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he runs against them,” McEvoy said.
“I think he will run really well. We don’t expect him to win, but in previous years, Naturalism winners have run well in Turnbull’s, but there hasn’t been Turnbull’s like this.
“He’s very sound, he’s very well, and he needs to run because he is so well.
“I just hope he runs well and hits the line. That’s what we want to see.”
With a Caulfield Cup start locked away, the McEvoy father-and-son team toyed with the idea of bypassing Saturday and going straight into the 2400m contest in a fortnight without another start.
But the Turnbull has been a good guide with last year’s Caulfield Cup winner Duke De Sessa finishing fourth at Flemington while Verry Elleegant (2020) and Incentivise (2021) took the double.
“My heart says it would have been fine for him, but we just thought that if we got there on the day, a month between runs, a big high-pressure contest being third up, it was a bit of a risk,” McEvoy said.
“The history of the Turnbull and how it works with the Caulfield Cup is why we elected to run.”
