By Trevor Marshallsea

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Tony and Calvin McEvoy are set to make a splash when Victorian two-year-old racing begins at Flemington on Saturday, with a three-pronged assault on the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) heavily flavoured by the race’s sponsor, Darley.

The father-son team are poised to start a colt and two fillies by Darley sires: Godolphin colt Knurl (Brazen Beau), plus One Day At A Time (Bivouac) and Sabrina (Blue Point).

Much interest this Saturday – in both Melbourne and Sydney’s opening juvenile races – will centre on runners by first-season sires Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice). In the Maribyrnong, Coolmore’s Home Affairs is set to be represented by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained colt Guest House, while Newgate Farm’s Stay Inside has Michael Freedman’s colt Incognito and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott colt Our Emperor, a daughter of Listed winner Our Crown Mistress (Star Witness), among the nominations. 

The McEvoy contingent for the Flemington straight race centres on more proven stock.

Knurl hails from the eighth crop of Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) – standing at Darley’s Northwood Park this year for $27,500 (inc GST). That’s slightly reduced from last year, and his all-time low, but Knurl fits into the stallion’s sweet spot, as a two-year-old male.

Brazen Beau has sired 13 juvenile stakes winners, compared with 12 at three and seven at four, while he has 16 male black-type victors as against 11 females.

Knurl, one of 17 horses sent to the McEvoys as part of Godolphin’s transition to public trainers, isn’t large in size but is big on talent, evidenced by his two impressive jump-out wins at Flemington, the latest up the straight 800 metres last Thursday, when he fought back on the inside to score by a head.

“There isn’t much of him – he’s 412 kilograms,” Tony McEvoy told ANZ News of Knurl, the first foal of city winner Mollycoddle (Lonhro), “but his riders say he feels like a big horse when you ride him.

“He’s got a lovely big action, and by gee he can really quicken. He uses his action to quicken and he’s been very impressive in his jump-outs.

“He’s a lovely boy, very straightforward and positive – an A-grade student. All the Godolphin horses have come to us in fantastic order, and are very well-educated.”

One Day At A Time was another star for the McEvoys at Flemington’s juvenile jump-outs last Thursday, leading throughout and coming away to win her 800-metre heat by three lengths.

The third foal of Adelaide Listed winner Everyday Lady (Charge Forward), the filly was a $270,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast purchase for McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock, from the draft of her breeder Rosemont Stud. She’s raced in the sole ownership of Wayne Mitchell’s Pipeliner Bloodstock.

One Day At A Time hails from a rich family, with third dam Not On Friday (At Talaq) a Group 3 winner who was twice Group 1-placed, and who became the granddam of 2008 Horse of the Year Weekend Hussler (Hussonet).

McEvoy was a “huge fan” of Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) – now covering his fifth book at Darley Kelvinside for an unchanged $55,000 (inc GST) – in a career that yielded three Group 1s.

And he was thrilled to see his first crop son Beiwacht emulate his sire with a breathtaking victory in Saturday’s Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Rosehill, becoming Bivouac’s maiden elite winner, and third stakes victor from 43 runners.

“To be honest, Bivouac’s yearlings didn’t look as fancy as a lot of others, but we kept getting told that was how Bivouac looked as a yearling himself,” McEvoy said.

“So we got this filly, One Day At A Time. She’s long and scopey, and she’ll be even better as she gets older. I think she’s a miler of the future, but surprisingly, here she is running before Christmas. We haven’t pushed her to be there, she’s just taken us there.”

Calvin McEvoy ventured to Magic Millions Perth to purchase Sabrina for $90,000, again alongside Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock. The filly bears the colours of renowned West Australian breeder Peter Walsh, a known fan of Sabrina’s shuttle sire Blue Point (Shamardal).

In 2020, Walsh sent his star mare Amelia’s Jewel’s (Siyouni) dam Bumbasina (Canford Cliffs) to Blue Point and bred Bosustow, now a Group 3-winning entire who’s been twice Group 1-placed. Blue Point, who has two Australian stakes winners from 114 runners, has been rested from Darley’s shuttle this year.

Like Knurl, Sabrina won both of her official jump-outs leading up to Saturday’s debut, including most impressively by two lengths over 800 metres at Flemington last Thursday.

Sabrina is the first foal of Melbourne city winner Witchfulthinking (War Chant), whose second dam was quadruple Melbourne Listed victor Street Talk (Marauding), granddam of 2015’s Champion Australian three-year-old filly Delicacy (Al Maher).

Tony McEvoy said he was surprised to see Sabrina contending at this time of year, given her breeding and physical make-up.

“She’s a lovely, big strong filly,” he said, “but her conformation suggested she probably wouldn’t be pre-Christmas.

“Plus, I find the Blue Points are very talented horses but they find it hard to reproduce that trial form early in their career, and they come better in the autumn and later. So it was on my mind all the way through that I didn’t want to run this filly pre-Christmas, but she’s taken it away from me. She’s charged along, so it’s hard to stop. She’s been so good, she’s towed us to the race

“Walshy stayed in. He’s a beauty. He’s a good supporter of the game, and he supports his product.”

Overall, the McEvoys are as excited as they can be about their latest two-year-old draft, which also includes yet another winner from last Thursday’s jump-outs in Cyclotron (Hellbent), who was among Maribyrnong Trial nominees but will be saved instead for the rich Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) on November 8.

“I think they’re a nice bunch, but until raceday, you just don’t know,” McEvoy said. “You go in thinking you’ve got nice horses, but in some years people have got nicer ones. There’s been years when I’ve been really confident and happy with our babies, and we’ve gone to the races and haven’t got close.

“Trials are trials, but all I know is ours were quite sharp and all were quite effective down the straight, so it gave us confidence to go to the Maribyrnong.”

And while finding it hard to split his trio, McEvoy puts Knurl slightly on top.

“If I put them in a flat gallop, I reckon Knurl would beat the two fillies,” he said. “But the disadvantage he’s got is he’s a small colt, he’ll have 58 kilos and the fillies will have 56, so they’ve got a distinct advantage on him already.”

If McEvoy had his preference, Melbourne would have separate opening two-year-old races for males and females, as will be seen again in Sydney this Saturday with the Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).

But such is the changing face of Australian two-year-old racing.

“If you’ve got the numbers, it’s lovely to have the boys and the girls separate,” he said, “but we ran out of pre-Christmas horses to keep that practice up.

“We don’t have the numbers to support those races, so they’ve put them together, which is a bit of a shame.”

Meanwhile, the McEvoys will start exciting stayer Half Yours (St Jean) in Saturday’s set weights Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington, having also nominated the five-year-old for Randwick’s elite handicap, The Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m).

In another snapshot of modern Australian racing, Half Yours was one of just two Australian-bred stayers among 18 Turnbull nominations, with ten of them European imports.

On a day in which another exciting Australian-bred Revelare (So You Think) – who’s already qualified for the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) – will confront a similar tide of Europeans seeking a ticket to the great race via The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2500m), McEvoy said he was “proud” to have the colonial Half Yours in the Turnbull.

That doesn’t mean, however, that he thinks he has a winning chance this Saturday with Half Yours, who booked his Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) berth by winning the Naturalism Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) at that track on September 20.

The gelding will take on a quality field headed by favourite and Horse of the Year Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) and equal second elects Aeliana (Castelvecchio) and Sir Delius (Frankel).

“I couldn’t see Half Yours beating those horses at all, but he needs another race before the Caulfield Cup,” McEvoy said. “This run will tell us a lot about the horse.”