McEvoy reveals secrets to high strike rate, outlines spring plans
By James Lamb
The 2025/26 racing season was the stuff of dreams for trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy, culminating in a mantlepiece fill-up at The Victorian Racing Awards.
Their Cups hero and stable star Half Yours took out Horse of the Year, Calvin was recognised as the state’s Rising Star trainer, and they also won the Most Outstanding Training Performance for the Cups double.
End-of-season awards are obviously nice, but Calvin McEvoy is perhaps most proud of the stable’s impressive strike rate of 20.30% – which has them as the only Victorian stable in the top ten striking at over 16.80%.
“Strike rate is something we really focus on and we try to place our horses accordingly.
“The more horses you have, generally it’s very hard to maintain a good strike rate.
“I think our strike rate shows that we are diligent in how we place our horses,” McEvoy said.
Shrewd placement is the key to the stable’s high percentage of winners, with the number of first versus second-placings – 85 v 56 – telling the story.
For context, the Hayes camp had 200 v 207 and Moody/Coleman had 90 v 100 in Victoria last season.
“It sounds very simple, but we try to place each horse where they can win.
“We’re not trainers that run them in town willy-nilly.
“I’ve never had an owner complain about winning a race, wherever it is,” McEvoy said.
The stable is particularly lethal on their home deck of Ballarat, both on the turf and synthetic courses.
“With the poly, it’s as simple as our horses are so used to it and so comfortable on that type of surface.
“Most of them have been on it since they were yearlings.
“People will say it’s just the horses trained at Ballarat (that win on it) but our last few winners we’ve had on the poly have been based at Flemington.
“It’s just that they’ve been on that type of track a lot and they are comfortable in their action to really stretch out on it,” McEvoy said.
While some trainers avoid synthetic tracks altogether or only run lower-rated horses on them, McEvoy takes a vastly different approach.
“I’m more than happy to walk a horse across the road (to the synthetic track) and run them in a maiden even though they might be good enough to go to a stronger race at Bendigo or Geelong.
“If you can run the horse first-up on the poly and they find it more like a track gallop rather than bottoming them out, they generally improve out of it.
“And the prizemoney is roughly the same a lot of the time,” McEvoy said.
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HALF YOURS AND PLANS FOR THE SPRING
‘Things didn’t go his way’, is how McEvoy sums up Half Yours’ winter campaign.
The reigning Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner failed to place in four starts but McEvoy wasn’t disappointed with the preparation.
“First-up, he was brilliant in the All Aged.
“Second-up, 1800m around Gold Coast was never really going to be his go.
“Then we got our tactics wrong third-up and obviously everyone knows the Q22 was just a disaster.
“The Q22 was his race to win and he didn’t really get his opportunity,” McEvoy lamented.
While defending the Melbourne Cup is the ultimate goal this spring, McEvoy said it will all come down to the handicapper.
“I’d love for him to be given 56.5kg but it’s a total guessing game – I’ve got no idea.
“We want to have him there again but it’s up to the discretion of the handicapper and there’s nothing we can do at this stage.
“All I know is that he’s come back super and I’m sure he’ll bounce back to his best this spring,” McEvoy said.
With a couple of Cups secured last spring, McEvoy is hoping to add a plate to the collection this year.
“Yellow Jersey is a horse I’m really excited about.
“He was bought to run in the Cox Plate, so that’s the main goal for him this spring,” McEvoy said of the $26 chance with TAB.
“He only had the one start in the winter in Queensland and we were really happy with it.
“It was a less-than-ideal prep where he only had the one trial going into that race and it was on a Heavy 10, so he lost nothing in defeat.
“His trial at Randwick (on July 31) was excellent and he’ll trial again this Friday.
“We aim to give him a really solid hit-out there. He really handles the work and I think he’s a horse that thrives on work.
“Friday will tell us where he’s at and where we go with him first-up.
“We might be able to kick him off over 1700m if he’s really relaxed in the trial, or we may have to look at a 1400m option,” McEvoy said.
Another horse that McEvoy has high spring aspirations for is filly Natural Fling, who has drawn perfectly in barrier five for her return in the G3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield this Saturday.
The Caulfield track was rated a Heavy 8 at acceptance time on Wednesday and McEvoy is praying for an upgrade or two.
“As much as I’d love to kick her off on better ground, we need to get her racing.
“She’s on a Coolmore path, should she be good enough.
“She’s a very sharp filly, so I’m not sure we need to be stretching her out further than 1200m at this stage.”
Boom Kiwi filly Lara Antipova, unbeaten in four starts, is also set to tackle the Quezette first-up in what shapes as a high-quality affair.
“It’s going to be a hot race. I have plenty of respect for the New Zealand filly – she’s already a Group 1 winner over there – but I wouldn’t swap our horse for anything (in the race),” McEvoy said.
There is a lot less hype around La Barrita than the glamour fillies in the Quezette, but McEvoy believes the grey could make her presence felt at Group 1 level this spring.
“She’s a promising filly that we took up to Queensland for the winter.
“We might give her a jumpout next week and set her on a Thousand Guineas path,” McEvoy said.
While he may have been lapped in the G1 Queen Elizabeth when trained by William Haggas, McEvoy is looking forward to seeing what Caviar Heights can produce this preparation.
The son of Sea The Stars, a two-time winner from 15 outings, has had two Flemington jumpouts for the McEvoys and is set to step out again on Friday.
“He’s a horse that needs to show he’s good enough at the level but we’ve got the Caulfield Cup in mind for him.
“He’s a fairly dour type so I wouldn’t want to be kicking him off over a shorter trip.
“Maybe a race like the Heatherlie (1700m race at Caulfield on August 29) is a good starting point for him but there is also a 2000m race that day.
“We’ll know a bit more after Friday’s trial,” McEvoy said
