By MIKE DILLON
"This kid is going to be one of the best riders in Australia," said Mike Moroney.
Sure, it would be easy to dismiss that as the biased praise of a trainer who had just seen a young rider boot home his first Melbourne Cup winner.
But Mike Moroney means what he says - he made that comment about 20-year-old Kerrin McEvoy even before he won the $A2 million Fosters Melbourne Cup on Brew yestereday.
He was happy to repeat it afterwards.
So were Moroney's owners and those who backed Brew into 14-1.
If temperament is the stuff of champions, McEvoy is about to prove Moroney right.
The Adelaide-born youngster handled the post-race pressure like Lester Piggott.
And his performance during the race, to come from barrier No24, was exceptional for a kid having his first Melbourne Cup ride in front of the biggest crowd he, or just about anybody else in Southern Hemisphere racing, had ever seen.
Within 800m of the start McEvoy had Brew only one width out from the fence.
"He got in nicely and I was pleased to get him the cover," he said evenly later.
"He picked it up nicely when I asked him to follow Citra's Prince around the field on the big bend and I was feeling pretty happy on the home turn."
So you thought you had the race won there?
"No, this is the Melbourne Cup, you can never be sure until you hit the line, but I was starting to break into a smile at the 200m."
McEvoy had earlier said he hoped his ride would come wide on the home bend.
"No, I didn't have shades of Malcolm Johnston," he said referring to the shocking ride that saw Kingston Town tragically run down in the closing stages by Gurner's Lane in the 1983 Melbourne Cup.
While Moroney had faith in McEvoy the youngster, in his first year out of the apprentice ranks, was lucky to land the ride. Originally Melbourne racing's man of the moment Greg Childs, fresh from winning the Cox plate on Sunline and the Mackinnon Stakes on Oliver Twist, had been offered the mount, but could not comfortably make the 49kg.
Childs ended up riding Maridpour and came back to earth with a thud as the pair set the pace yesterday before dropping out to finish a long last.
Chris Munce had told Mike Moroney he would ride Brew in the cup if the horse finished first or second in the $A200,000 Saab Quality on Saturday.
When Brew won that race, which ensured him of a cup start, Munce confirmed his earlier statement, but after riding Coco Cobanna in the Mackinnon Stakes later in the day, changed his mind and went for the Gai Waterhouse-trained Sydney runner.
Coco Cobanna failed to stay the distance yesterday and was well beaten.
"I then offered it to Brett Prebble, but he said he was going to struggle to make the weight, so I thought about a couple of New Zealand riders, including Michael Walker,"said Moroney.
"But I came back to Kerrin, who I have always had a lot of time for, and who I knew would do the job right."
The win provided mercurial stallion Sir Tristram with a world record 45th group one success, eclipsing that mark set by American stallion Mr Prospector.
Brew started at 14-1, short odds in a Melbourne Cup for a horse who, because of immaturity, had lacked a sprint in his races for much of his career until this latest preparation.
A record 121,015 turned up at Flemington, topping the previous record of 118.000 in the early 1920s.
Racing: Moroney's confidence in young gun well founded
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.