Tony said winning races alongside his son had extra significance.
“It’s incredibly special as it’s a hard game and you don’t win all the time. To have Calvin on board is special. He’s probably the best colt in my stable,” he told Racing.com.
Jockey Jamie Melham and Calvin McEvoy share a moment straight after Half Yours’ Melbourne Cup win. Credit: Joe Armao
“To have Cal with the passion he’s got to do what I want to do; it’s made my life a hell of a lot easier.”
A seminal moment for their business came last spring, when Half Yours and a number of horses were put up for sale by the McKenna family following the death of owner/breeder Colin McKenna.
McKenna’s friend Ciaron Maher was keen to retain training rights to the horse, but lost out at an online auction to the McEvoys. Calvin led the bidding at an online auction that drove the price up to $305,000 before they syndicated the ownership of Half Yours.
“Unbelievable. Wow, what a horse. He’s continued to raise the bar, I’ve got no words. It’s been amazing,” Calvin said.
Although initially wary when Calvin kept bidding against Maher, Tony was understandably less concerned after Tuesday’s Cup victory netted $4.5 million for the horse’s connections to go with the $3 million Caulfield Cup win.
“I was trying to get them to stop [bidding at the auction] because I thought it was enough money,” he recalled.
“[But] they pushed hard to keep going, and we had no owner for him … Wow, what a good decision that was that day. The journey that he has had us on, to be able to do what we’ve wanted to do to get him to this race. He’s a very special horse.”
“If Calvin wasn’t so expensive to keep, I might have kept a share myself,” Tony joked. “There’s great people in him and these people are friends of ours. They are friends for life and we’ve won the great race. It’s amazing.”
Melham, just the second female jockey to win the Cup, was quick to heap praise on the McEvoys for the faith they’d shown in her.
“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.”
Melham’s relationship with the McEvoys dates back half her life to when she was an up-and-coming jockey in Adelaide, then known as Jamie Kah.
“I wouldn’t want to do this for anybody else in this industry,” she said looking at the trainers.
“That was just the best, to do it for you two. You’re now Melbourne Cup-winning trainers.”
Buoyed by Tuesday’s win, McEvoy told Racing.com Half Yours he believes Half Yours could win next year’s Cox Plate, which will be held at Flemington. It’s a race he won as a trainer back in 2003 with Fields of Omagh.
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“He showed in the Turnbull Stakes he’s a weight-for-age horse of the future as he finished next to Via Sistina,” Tony said.
“I think he’s something special. He’s a big-track horse and the Cox Plate being run at Flemington will suit. We will look at weight-for-age races in the future.”
In coming weeks, Calvin will cap a memorable spring, including wins in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups, by getting married.
Tony said his son deserved praise for expanding the reputation of their business.
“Before Calvin came on board I was perceived as a speedy two-year-old fillies trainer and Cal was also associated with this,” Tony said.
“What this has done is given us an unbalanced string as we can’t afford to buy the bigger European horses.
“I’m hoping winning the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup will change people’s mindset and we can get involved in some of those European stayers and that will give us a much more balanced string,” he said.
“I love training stayers. I’ve trained a Grand National Hurdle winner; we get a great joy out of training stayers.”
