Trainer Tony McEvoy’s lifelong involvement in racing will be recognised as the latest inductee into the South Australian Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame.
With a decorated career that continues through a training partnership with his son, Calvin, McEvoy holds a special place in Australian racing history.
He has tasted Group 1 success as a trainer and a jockey, and Hall of Fame panel member and legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney says McEvoy’s recognition is well-deserved.
“That Group 1 as a jockey was almost 50 years ago and came coincidentally in the same race that he won his first Group 1 as a trainer – the Oaks at Morphettville,” McAvaney said.
McEvoy has trained 16 Group 1 winners, including five in partnership with his son.
After growing up in Streaky Bay, McEvoy was mentored by CS Hayes when he started out as a foreman at the iconic Lindsay Park stables at Angaston and worked his way up to assistant trainer before becoming head trainer in his own right.
In being inducted, McEvoy joins his nephew Kerrin McEvoy, CS Hayes and his training contemporary David Hayes in the SA Hall of Fame.
He will be honoured at the Sportsbet SA Racing Awards on September 6 at Morphettville.
Among the top-class racehorses to pass through McEvoy’s stable, two-time Cox Plate winner Fields Of Omagh and the brilliant sprinter Sunlight rank as his best.
“Tony’s the epitome of a high-class horse trainer: talented, patient, ambitious and always optimistic,” McAvaney said.
Other notable winners for McEvoy include Hey Doc, Despatch, Veight and most recently, Coco Sun, who claimed the 2024 South Australian Derby.
McEvoy has won six Adelaide metropolitan premierships and teamed up with his son Calvin to claim the title in 2019 before moving their training base from Angaston to Ballarat in 2022 and are in the process of opening a Flemington stable.
“From growing up in Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula, to promoting the merits of the beautiful Barossa Valley he’s a proud South Australian who’s influenced countless careers during his five decades in the industry, Racing SA chief executive Nick Bawden said.
“This is a fitting honour for the McEvoy family who’ve played such a big part in the racing landscape in this state.”
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The 1963 Caulfield Cup winner Sometime will join McEvoy as a Hall of Fame inductee.
Trained by Les Patterson, Sometime won 22 of his 60 starts and was placed another 19 times.
“Sometime’s rise to fame heralded the most successful decade in South Australian racing history,” McAvaney said.
“His spring of 1963 was epic and highlighted by a dominating victory as the hot favourite in the Caulfield Cup.”
