‘What a joy’: McEvoys revel in Cup triumph

BALLARAT trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy have a capped a fairytale run with Half Yours, landing a history-making Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) triumph at Flemington.

On the heels of landing their first Melbourne major as co-trainers in last month’s Group 1 Caulfield Cup, the father and son team added another with their star stayer in Tuesday’s $10 million feature.

Half Yours – purchased late last year by McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Belmont Bloodstock for $305,000 in an online auction – became the 13th horse to complete the famed Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double.

Without A Fight was the last to achieve the feat in 2023.

A history-making win on many levels, Jamie Melham became the second female jockey to win the Cup, following in the footsteps of Ballarat’s Michelle Payne, who won aboard Prince Of Penzance in 2015.

The 29-year-old Melham was the first woman to win the Caulfield Cup with her win on Half Yours two-and-a-half weeks earlier.

McEvoy Mitchell Racing manager Rayan Moore hailed the stable’s cup triumph as ‘life changing’.

“We are a little bit lost for words; the training performance from Tony and Calvin has been unbelievable,” he said.

“What we have been able to achieve with this horse from March; every month we’ve had a run until today.

“I just cannot thank the team enough.

“We’ve got a big team. (Stable manager) Finn McCarthy, (strapper) James Rayner, (foreperson) Tim Hanley, all of our staff in Ballarat and Melbourne are here at Flemington.

“And all our ownership groups; we have such good owners. They have had such complete faith in the team.

“We’ve just won a Melbourne Cup.

“This is the race that stops the nation and the world. We’re from Ballarat, we’re not supposed to win this race, so it’s pretty exciting.”

A master ride by Melham allowed Half Yours to weave his way through the field coming to the turn before finding a gap on the inside with 400m to run as Goodie Two Shoes hit the front.

The five-year-old gelding was quick to surge past, careering away for a 2.75 length win over the Irish-trained Goodie Two Shoes, with Middle Earth a further 1.5 lengths back in third.

Bred by the late Colin McKenna, Half Yours was the only Australian-bred horse in the race.

A lifelong dream for Tony McEvoy, who now boasts a Cox Plate win with Fields Of Omagh in 2003 in his own right, and Caulfield and Melbourne Cups with son Calvin, this win was hard to top.

“What a joy, what a joy. This is our great race. It’s so special to win it,” he said.

“Incredible moment. From the days we grow up, the Melbourne Cup was everything.

“It’s been a great race for the McEvoy family, Kerrin winning it three times.

“My brother Phllip owned a horse that run second in it and now for me to be able to win, for us to be able to win it, it’s just amazing.”

For Melham, the first female jockey to complete the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double, it was a dream come true.

“You don’t even dream of this day. When you think about it, you don’t think you’re going to win the Melbourne Cup,” she said.

“All week I’ve been thinking about it, been excited, but no feeling can describe what I felt just then, I’m speechless. Absolutely speechless.

“This is what we do it for, this is why we wake up at stupid o’clock every morning, work our arses off – to come to these big days and win in front of the world.

“This is why we put up

with everything … it looks like an amazing, glamorous industry on the outside and it does have those parts, but God there’s some tough parts.

“There’s some really tough parts. This is why we push through, for days like this, to go down in history, winning the Melbourne Cup. What the hell just happened?”

Melham praised the support of the McEvoys.

“They’re another incredible supporter of mine,” she said.

“They’ve been there for me since I was a 15-year-old kid and continue to this day to be there for me and support me.

“They deserve this so much.”

A winner of two of five starts before making his way to the McEvoy stable, including a Geelong maiden, Half Yours boosted his record to eight wins from 15 starts for $8,919,840 in earnings.