MV On Track 2018

16 ON TRACK MAGAZINE N ot many men can claim to have both ridden and trained a Cox Plate winner. Tony McEvoy can. As a young man back in South Australia when he was a fledgling jockey, McEvoy rode both the 1978 winner, So Called, and the 1979 hero, Dulcify, in his capacity as an apprentice and then rider for the Lindsay Park operation of Colin Hayes. McEvoy didn’t ride them in the great race itself - Brent Thompson was on board the pair when they both landed their Cox Plates, the second and third legs of a hat-trick for the rider following the 1977 success of Family of Man, trained by George Hanlon. But he rode them in their trackwork and pre-race gallops and, in the case of So Called, rode the colt in the South Australian Derby when he finished runner-up. As a trainer, McEvoy has also enjoyed the glory of victory in Australia’s Weight-For-Age Championship. As an assistant to first Colin and then David Hayes, he was involved with the preparation of the 1989 and 1990 Cox Plate winners Almaarad and the great Better Loosen Up. But McEvoy’s finest hour at The Valley came 13 years after Better Loosen Up’s triumph when, as head trainer for Lindsay Park, he saddled up that great warrior Fields of Omagh to win the first of his two Cox Plates in what was a long and decorated career. MAC ATTACK ONE MAN’S LOVE OF THE VALLEY By Michael Lynch I have been lucky enough to be involved in many horses that have won the race and run really well in it. -Tony McEvoy