THE MELBOURNE CUP WINNER HALF YOURS SET FOR A THREE RACE WINTER CARNIVAL CAMPAIGN

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, May 5, 2026

With Antino being removed from the list of opposition for the Tony and Calvin trained gelding Half Yours heading to towards a three-race targeted Queensland Winter Carnival campaign, the way forward still isn’t simple, but the McEvoy team does have one less formidable rival to worry about.

The 2025 Melbourne Cup winner and Antino were likely to clash in both the Group 2 A D Hollindale Stakes at the Gold Coast on Saturday and the Group 1 Doomben Cup on May 23, but Antino will not be there after he unfortunately picked up a tendon injury when racing at Eagle Farm on April 25, an injury which forced the twice Queensland Horse Of The year into premature retirement.

Whatever the opposition though, form resumes don’t come much better than that of Half Yours.

You don’t fluke a Caulfield Cup and your certainly don’t fluke a Melbourne Cup … and when you win a Group 1 Caulfield Cup and a Group 1 Melbourne Cup in a two race, two week blitz, as Half Yours did last year … well, some would say that is as good as it gets, putting, as it did, the Tony and Calvin McEvoy training partnership into the centre stage spotlight while also cementing jockey Jamie Melham’s place in the history books.

Those wins came over 2400m and 3200m … so when the chestnut resumed in the Group 1 All Aged over 1400m on April 18 in his first start since his Melbourne Cup triumph, no fireworks were expected from him over a distance well short of his best following a five-and-a-half month layoff.

Taken in that context, there was nothing wrong with his unplaced finish as he came home 4.11 lengths behind Beiwacht when giving the winner a 2.5kg advantage at the weights. Jamie Melham was again in the saddle.

The McEvoys were happy and satisfied with the run in the All Aged.

“It was a terrific run in the All Aged over an unsuitable trip,” offered Calvin McEvoy. “He travelled really strongly and then was obviously left a little flat footed. He actually got held up between the 600m and the 400m before flying through the line … so I don’t think we could have asked for any more in a first-up run … and he bounced through it well.”

The five-year-old son of St Jean has already been in Queensland for a couple of weeks, based at the Sunshine Coast. He had a quiet exhibition gallop in-between races at the track ten days ago, where, according to co-trainer Calvin McEvoy, “He just bowled around and had a day out.”

Speaking at the launch of the Queensland Winter Carnival, Calvin McEvoy confirmed the Winter Carnival plans for his Melbourne Cup winner while also emphasising the positive role campaigning in Queensland can play in the development and progression of some horses.

“He (Half Yours) has got the three races up here … the Hollindale, the Doomben Cup and the Q22 … and we’ll then sort of freshen him into the Spring, as we did last year,” said McEvoy.

“It’s such an advantage having them out of the Victorian Winter, to be honest. I really saw that when our horses from up here came back down to where we were stabled at Ballarat, which is the coldest place on earth, and we have a stable at Flemington, which is a little bit better.

“So, the horse at Ballarat were two months behind. The horses at Flemington were a month behind … and the horses who came down from Queensland had their coats, they looked amazing and I feel that is the reason for the success of Half Yours, in particular.

“He is more of the finished product now … there is no doubt about that … and I also put that down to the travel we did with him last year, that’s why we are very keen to bring young horses up to Queensland to develop.”

And the co-trainers also love a Queensland Winter.

“The only thing that dad (Mick Price, Calvin’s father and co-trainer) pulls rank on is which one of us comes to Queensland,” continued McEvoy.

“I think I was up two days last year. I’ll try and come up a little bit more this year … but, no, he pulls rank on that one. He is already up here.”

The AD Hollindale will be Half Your’s second run following his rousing 4.45 length victory in last year’s Caloundra Cup.

Half Yours will take a fifty percent winning strike-rate into Saturday’s race (eight wins from sixteen starts). He has won over distances ranging from 1400m to 3200 and has saluted on all racing surfaces … good, soft and heavy … and he has accumulated $9.2 million in prize-money … and counting.

This is one serious race-horse.