It is not often a horse with Cox Plate ambitions starts in the first race on the card, well before the main feature race action of the day, but that will be the case at Eagle Farm on Saturday when the imported four-year-old gelding Yellow Jersey goes out to face the starter for the Listed Wayne Wilson over 1600m.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy trained son of Dubawi, who will be having his first start in Australia, previously raced in France where he ran up an impressive record of three wins from four starts in that chapter of his career.
Two of Yellow Jersey’s three wins came over 2400m and he also won once over 2000m. His only defeat came in the Group 2 Conseil De Paris over 2200m where he finished third, just half-a-length behind Convergent and Dubai Honour,
Yellow Jersey last raced overseas on October 19, 2025, which means he will be eight months between runs. He did have one trial on heavy going at the Sunshine Coast on May 26 … which he won … in preparation for this Australian debut.
Co-trainer Calvin McEvoy confirmed in an interview on SENTrack that Yellow Jersey had acclimitised well and that he was sent to Queensland very much “on a fact finding mission with no pressure” … adding, “the stable didn’t even have a real plan of whether they would run him (in Queensland) or not.”
Yellow Jersey has pleased the stable enough though to now be sent into race action with McEvoy noting that, “his form is all over further … a mile-and-a-half, 2200m … so it is still a fact finding mission” … adding that he thought the 1600m Wayne Wilson would be a nice race to kick off with Yellow Jersey in Australia.
McEvoy was confident about Yellow Jersey’s chances … up to a point.
“We don’t know what his pattern is here in Australia over a mile. We don’t know where he will put himself in a position … what we do know is that we have a very good jockey (Mark Zahra) on board, from a good gate, on a good horse.
“We still feel he can be very competitive … and he’ll have to be if he’s a Cox Plate horse. He’ll need to be.
“Next year’s Cox Plate is the plan … but everything’s got to go to plan. He’s got to find his form here … and be good enough, of course … but that is his main target … the Cox Plate,” confirmed McEvoy.
And there you have it.
Yellow Jersey has been brought to Australia with a tilt at the Cox Plate in mind.
While his first start in the country on Saturday will not be the be-all and end-all of that Cox Plate ambition, it will provide the first piece of the puzzle the stable will have to complete if Yellow Jersey is to get to where his connections ultimately want him to be … namely ready to compete at the elite level.
Yellow Jersey, who races in the ‘Claret, Gold Braiding And Tassel’ colours of Qatar Bloodstock Ltd, is the current race favourite at $2.30 with online betting sites.
