The loudest cheer in the Streaky Bay Hotel on Melbourne Cup Day didn’t come when Half Yours crossed the line in Australia’s great race.
It was reserved minutes later for when one of the town’s beloved residents, 96-year-old Connie McEvoy, made a rare public appearance.
Her son Tony and grandson Calvin had just trained the winner of the iconic handicap and their beaming smiles were all over screens in the country pub.
The McEvoy name might be royalty in Australian racing but it began from humble origins in the tiny town on South Australia’s west coast.
Those same cheers echoed through its streets on Monday when one of its favourite sons returned to showcase the coveted silverware to locals.
Tony McEvoy said a homecoming with both the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup was front of his mind during celebrations.
“I love coming back here, even without the Cup,” McEvoy said.
“But it’s extremely special to bring both of the Cups back.“
“The first thing I thought of when we won it was to come back and show Mum at Streaky Bay.”
Mrs McEvoy’s role in shaping the family’s racing dynasty cannot be underplayed.
Had she not sent her teenage son packing from the family farm at Calca when he asked to leave home to chase his racing dream, things might have looked vastly different.
Cattle, sheep or fish – not horses – might have been McEvoy’s calling.
Instead, he got a job riding horses for Bill Holland, then C.S Hayes before he carved out his own incredible career that earlier this year earned him elevation into South Australian racing’s Hall of Fame.
“Before we could walk, we’d be riding horses around in the front paddock,” he said.
“Mum would watch us from the kitchen window of the farm house and when the old mare would get sick of us, she’d wipe us off under a tree.”
“Mum would look out and yell ‘you’re right’ and we’d get up and then ‘get back on’ she’d tell us.”
“Horses were always a big part of our lives.”
“A big part of my journey was Mum letting me leave home at such an early age to go and work in the stables when I was still at school.”
“My life’s work has been racing and that (Melbourne Cup) is the holy grail.”
Half Yours’ Cup win is the fourth time Streaky Bay has claimed the Cup after McEvoy’s nephew Kerrin won it as a jockey three times aboard Brew, Almandin and Cross Counter.
Kerrin McEvoy’s deeds earned him a bronze statue on the foreshore and Tony McEvoy, with a quip the late Cups King Bart Cummings would be proud of, hopes he can one day join him.
“He (Kerrin McEvoy statue) looked a bit lonely down there tonight so it would be nice if I was standing next to him, just to keep him company.” he said.
