Crown Perth-Winterbottom Stakes (Group 1)

CALVIN McEvoy, training in partnership with his father Tony, celebrated his first Group 1 winner following Hey Doc’s emphatic victory in the Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot on Sunday over 1,200 metres. Away from the racetrack for over a year after surgery to remove bone chips, Hey Doc was having just his second start back.

Drawn wide with Luke Nolan in the saddle, the six-year-old Duporth gelding flew the gates to take up the running. Left alone in front, Nolan was able to pinch a break on the final bend to push on post a three-length win in impressive fashion. Second was the locally trained Vital Silver with Rock Magic third.

“He was so fast out of the machines, I was waiting for a couple to boot up but they didn’t,” said Currie.

“He just strolled along where he was and I had to count to 10 as to when to let him go.

“Calvin is doing a good job, he has earned his stripes in Adelaide and he is spending a lot of time in Melbourne now – he knows his stuff. Calvin has been co-trainer with his father since August and the win was a third Group 1 for the A$85,000 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling who has now won nine from 23 for $2.38 million in stakes.

“Calv was working in Melbourne today but it’s so nice to have him on board with me,” said Tony McEvoy.

“This will be the first of many today, I can assure you. Hey Doc was fabulous today. All the signs were telling us that.

“It’s been about a five-month campaign to get him back. We gave him a long time with his injury and then gave him a long slow prep back.

“To see the improvement in him physically from there to here, well I wish I was a punter I would have had a bet.”

WARRNAMBOOL hosted Australia’s longest flat race on Sunday the 4,600-metre Jericho Cup. Worth A$300,000, the race honours the servicemen and women from Australia’s Light Horse regiment in World War I, who conducted their own Jericho Cup in 1918 using Australian-bred Whalers in the Turkish desert. That race was won by Bill The Bastard. The five race ‘meeting’ held on September 18th, 1918 was conducted as a ruse, in full view of the Turkish forces, which allowed thousands of light horseman to amass as up to 10,000 spectators gathered for the ‘meeting’. The following day the Allied forces attacked in the Battle of Megiddo.

Sunday’s event, the second edition of the Jericho Cup, was won by Ablaze for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace with Johnny Allen in the saddle. An eight-year-old by Raise The Flag, Ablaze is raced by the same connections as those that own the Royal Ascot-bound Nature Strip. “It’s as big a thrill as I’ve had in racing,” said owner Rod Lyons. “What these brave men and women did for us.” Home by almost a length, Ablaze defeated Golden Flag and Where Are You making it a New Zealand-bred trifecta.

DARREN Weir is again in the headlines, with reports emerging that the disqualified trainer used other people’s accounts, otherwise referred to as ‘bowler’ accounts to conceal his gambling patterns. It was reported in the Herald-Sun that Victoria Police believe Weir placed much larger bets outside of his own accounts where his average Totalizator bet was $845. The report also said Weir favoured horses on their fourth run or wearing blinkers and ridden by a ‘favoured jockey’ (not named). Weir is due back in court on February 14th to answer animal cruelty charges, possessing an unregistered firearm and conspiring to defraud Racing Victoria stewards.