Given Sheza Alibi strolled home by almost three lengths as a $1.60 favourite, none of Saturday’s Makybe Diva Stakes beaten brigade considered Saturday’s Group 1 at Flemington a missed opportunity.
But there were varying degrees of satisfaction among the also-rans and few came away as chuffed as the Half Yours team.
Last year’s Melbourne Cup winner finished sixth, 4.65 lengths behind Sheza Alibi, but the gelding’s jockey Jamie Melham could not hide her excitement post-race.
“Very happy, (I) couldn’t fault him,” she said.
“He’s very forward this time and I think next start you’ll see and a big improvement in him. He’s not (going to be) needing the run next start.”
Melham’s belief was backed up by Tony McEvoy, who trains Half Yours in partnership with his son Calvin, and pointed to the way the gelding hit the line as reason for his optimism.
The six-year-old ran the third-fastest last 800m (45secs), 600m (33.17) and 400m (22.14) of the race – behind only Sheza Alibi and second placegetter Autumn Boy – to finish only three-quarters-of-a-length off weight-for-age star Sir Delius.
“They left him flat (footed) when they sprinted, which you’d expect, but then I loved the way he round the race out,” McEvoy said.
“I mean, you’ve got the Cox Plate favourite there, Sir Delius, and I reckon we nearly took two lengths off him in the last 100 metres. I think the horse has run superbly.”
Half Yours now heads to the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) – a race in which he ran fourth last year – on October 3 before a start in the $6 million Cox Plate (2040m) three weeks later.
That will be his final start before attempting to defend his Melbourne Cup crown and it will be revealed on Thursday how much weight he will be asked to carry in that November 3 event.
The defending champion shapes as Racing Victoria handicapper David Heagan’s likely 59kg topweight, making it a much tougher task than last year when he won under 53kg, but McEvoy said the Makybe Diva Stakes confirmed to him that fitness will not be used as an excuse.
“He’s going to be only four runs into a Melbourne Cup and it’s a tough race the Melbourne Cup (over) two miles, they’ve got to be really fit and he will be,” he said.
