Melbourne Cup 2025: Special win for father and son team of Tony and Calvin McEvoy

Three Melbourne Cups as part of the famed Hayes family operation could not have prepared Tony McEvoy for his own win in Australia’s great race.

Brad Waters

2 min read

November 4, 2025 - 7:44PM

Horse Racing

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Three Melbourne Cups as part of the famed Hayes family operation could not have prepared Tony McEvoy for his own win in Australia’s great race.

McEvoy spent decades working at Lindsay Park under first Colin then David Hayes before Peter Hayes took over once David went to Hong Kong.

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McEvoy had a stint as head trainer for the Lindsay Park organisation following the shock death of Peter Hayes in a plane crash in 2001.

He won the 2003 Cox Plate with Fields Of Omagh before handing the reins back to David Hayes when he returned from Hong Kong.

Now in partnership with his son Calvin, Tony McEvoy said his time at Lindsay Park was the bedrock of his own training career, which now features a Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup.

Tony and Calvin McEvoy celebrate after winning the Melbourne Cup. Picture: Racing Photos

“You don’t get anywhere without opportunity, without people helping you,” McEvoy said.

“I was part of that great family for so many years and three Melbourne Cups and I never thought I would be standing here with one of my own.

“It’s very special.”

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McEvoy said he wanted to pull out of the online bidding duel for Half Yours when the horse was sold on the Inglis Digital sale platform.

He said Calvin and other team members wanted to keep bidding for the son of unheralded stallion St Jean but he had owners ready to take shares.

The McEvoy stable decided to take the punt on filling the horse with owners, going to $305,000 to buy Half Yours in what is now a shrewd piece of business.

Tony McEvoy with Fields of Omagh after the horse won his second Cox Plate in 2006. Picture: Jay Town.

Half Yours’ Melbourne Cup win earned connections a $4.5m winner’s cheque to go with $3m for winning the Caulfield Cup as well as the $471,000 the five-year-old earned in his other eight starts for the new owners.

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“I was trying to get them to stop because I thought it was enough money,” McEvoy said.

“They pushed hard to keep going and we had no owner for him.

“We specked him and wow, what a good decision that was.

“ The journey that he has had us on, to be able to do what we’ve wanted to do to get him to this race.

“He’s a very special horse.”

Originally published as Melbourne Cup 2025: Special win for father and son team of Tony and Calvin McEvoy