Melbourne Cup champion Half Yours is set to commence its title defence in the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington.
The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained stayer is being targeted once more for the Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 3.
Jamie Melham, the first female jockey to achieve the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double, will ride the stayer in its first-up assignment over 1600 metres at weight-for-age on Saturday.
There were questions surrounding Half Yours’s form last campaign, which included a first-up start in Sydney followed by three runs in Queensland. The gelding’s final outing in Queensland was a fourth-place finish in the Q22 (2200m) at Eagle Farm in June.
Half Yours recuperated in Queensland before returning to the McEvoy’s Flemington stable early last month to prepare for its racing comeback.
Two jump-outs at Flemington have prepared Half Yours for its return. Tony McEvoy stated that while the most recent trial, where the horse finished fourth over 1000 metres, may not have appeared impressive visually, the team was content with the result.
“I was really happy with his trial,” McEvoy said.
“If you put him in a 1000-metre race, he would get completely run off his legs and they ran it like a race.
“It wasn’t like a normal trial and he got chasing.
“They were also trials at Flemington where they finish on a bend, so it’s very hard for horses to make ground on a bend.
“Whilst it didn’t look impressive, I thought he moved well, trialled nicely and the horse is telling us he’s going very well while his coat is coming better by the day.
“All the data that we collate on him is normal.
“He certainly hasn’t gone backwards.”
Following Saturday’s race, Half Yours is expected to head to the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 3, a race in which it finished fourth last year before claiming the Caulfield Cup.
The Group 1 Cox Plate, to be held at Flemington this year, will mark the end of Half Yours’s preparation for the Melbourne Cup.
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