Trainer Tony McEvoy is hoping to break a Group One drought that has extended more than 10 years in the $500,000 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on Sunday.
McEvoy made his mark as a Group One trainer when he took charge of the Lindsay Park stable in South Australia after the death of Peter Hayes in 2001.
McEvoy had been a part of the Lindsay Park “family” since the late 1970s, first as an apprentice jockey, then as a Melbourne foreman under Colin Hayes.
He then moved up to assistant trainer to first David Hayes and then Peter Hayes before he was appointed to the role of head trainer.
He ran the Lindsay Park stable with great success for four years from 2001 until David Hayes returned from Hong Kong in 2005 when he returned to the role as assistant trainer before leaving to establish his own stable in 2010.
While in charge of Lindsay Park McEvoy won four Adelaide premierships and one Melbourne title, preparing a total of 927 winners including 74 Group and Listed races.
His G1 wins for the stable included a Cox Plate with Fields Of Omagh in 2003, the Kris Flyer Sprint in Singapore with North Boy, the SA Oaks with Larrocha and a VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes with Barely A Moment.
However, while he has trained more than 400 winners since starting up his own stable in 2010, McEvoy is yet to win another G1 race, Barely A Moment being his last major success in 2004.
McEvoy has won G2 races with Big Memory and Alpine Eagle, and it’s the latter who is poised to give him that coveted G1 win at Flemington on Sunday in the $500,000 Turnbull Stakes.
The trainer has signalled a change of race tactics may be the key to the highly talented Alpine Eagle getting the better of a star-studded weight-for-age field on Sunday.
The runner-up in the G1 Australian Guineas over 1600m at Flemington in the autumn will be having his third start for the spring and McEvoy wants him ridden closer now that he is stepping up in distance to 2000m.
The four-year-old was a long way off the pace in the first half of the race at his last start when he came home fast to finish sixth, less than two lengths from the winner Fawkner in the G1 Makybe Diva Stakes over 1600m at Flemington on September 12.
McEvoy says he plans to instruct jockey Mark Zahra to be more aggressive in the early stages of the Turnbull Stakes in the hope that Alpine Eagle can cross from his awkward barrier 14 and hold a more forward position from the start.
“I don't want to be giving them 10 or 12 lengths into the straight. That's the reason why I'd like him to be a bit closer,” McEvoy said.
"Sadly he's drawn poorly but the horse is well and hopefully he can have a bit of luck early.
“He got further back than we wanted in the Makybe Diva and was forced wide. To finish a length off those horses was a great performance first time at weight-for-age.
"He continues to improve so I couldn't be more pleased with him."
