A pipeline to glory – how an engineering tycoon helped build a Cup-winning stable

By his own admission, businessman Wayne Mitchell likes to stay in the background.

Googling the self-made millionaire reveals little of Mitchell’s background, racing or otherwise, and there are few, if any, links in the financial pages.

But it’s on record that Mitchell was pivotal in the establishment of Tony McEvoy as a public trainer, his capital allowing the accomplished horseman to make the bold move to break away from the relative security of Lindsay Park and forge his own racing identity about 15 years ago.

As the record books show, Tony and his son Calvin this week joined the annals of Melbourne Cup history as winning trainers of Australia’s most famous horse race through the deeds of the unlikely equine hero, the modestly bred Half Yours.

When Half Yours crossed the line first at Flemington a few minutes after 3pm on Tuesday, it was a true family affair for the McEvoys. The father-and-son training partnership hugged with unbridled elation alongside wife and mother Jo McEvoy.

Calvin’s sister Eliza was trackside amongst the immediate post-race mounting yard celebrations as was the young trainer’s soon-to-be wife Demi.

Mitchell may not have been in that Flemington scrum, but he was one of the first people on the phone to offer congratulations to the newly minted Melbourne Cup-winning trainers.

“I was very pleased, and it was a great effort, and it was good to see the team finally winning two in a row (Caulfield-Melbourne Cup). It was fantastic, it was just so good and a Melbourne Cup on top of it,” a quietly spoken Mitchell told The Straight.

“I couldn’t be more excited for them … it was a big effort all around.”

Mitchell’s contribution to the story of Half Yours may be minimal – he knocked back a share in the then lightly raced Inglis Digital-purchased four-year-old last November – but his impact on the McEvoy Mitchell Racing business can’t be understated even though he is no longer a shareholder.

As David Hayes set about developing a property at Euroa in North East Victoria in the mid-to-late 2000s, which could mirror and improve on Lindsay Park’s Angaston training property, the result of his legendary Hall of Fame father Colin Hayes’ foresight, McEvoy, his wife Jo and two children were preparing to relocate interstate, too.

There are multiple stories about how Mitchell intervened.

One is that the McEvoys’ then-teenage daughter Eliza refused to relocate from the Barossa Valley to Victoria, leaving the would-be assistant trainer to David Hayes in a quandary.

Perhaps it was a happenstance, but a phone call to Mitchell relaying the problem led to the formation of a business relationship built on a friendship that lasted the best part of a decade.

The second, according to an article published in The Age in 2010, is that Mitchell bought Lindsay Park’s training centre Kildalton Park from David Hayes mostly to house his mares and part of the deal was that McEvoy remains to train his and other people’s horses.

Whatever the truth may be, McEvoy Mitchell Racing was formed with McEvoy bringing his decades of horse experience – he’d already won Cox Plates as stand-in Lindsay Park trainer following the tragic death of Peter Hayes in 2001 until David Hayes’ return from Hong Kong in 2005. 

The founder of Mitchell Water, a privately owned Australian water and energy infrastructure company established four decades ago, Mitchell gave the financial backing to the racing business and also an owner, which provided certainty to the trainer during those early days. 

Mitchell remains a valued client of the McEvoys but exited McEvoy Mitchell Racing entity about five years ago, Tony told this publication less than 24 hours after the cup amid countless media requests.

“He’s still an owner of mine, of course, and a friend and he was one of the first people on the phone wishing us well,” Tony said.

“He got us going and got us on the path and now it’s our family business with Jo and Calvin and I, and Cal’s about to be married to Demi, so it’s lovely.”

There have been changes to the structure of McEvoy Mitchell Racing along the way, aside from the McEvoys assuming full ownership of the business. 

They built stables at Ballarat, opened and closed satellite stables in Sydney and closed their Flemington stables (which they have since reopened).

They also made the difficult, but ultimately sensible financial decision to cease training from Kildalton Park in 2022 and focus solely on training from Victoria.

Tony trained 11 Group 1 winners either under the Lindsay Park banner or out on his own before Calvin joined forces. Since then they have won seven Group 1 races.

But none of them have been bigger than Half Yours’ Melbourne Cup, a victory that puts the McEvoys on an honour roll alongside another great South Australian, Bart Cummings, and of course Colin and David Hayes.