Nine races, five winners, two jockeys, one stable – racing is a game of numbers and Swan Hill’s Harry Coffey got a huge slice of them with four winners at Ballarat on Thursday.
He did it from the front, he did it by margins so big no other horses made the photo at the line, and he did it with heart stopping, last stride spectaculars.
And to complete the all-conquering cavalcade, Nyah West’s Madison Lloyd also picked up a win to make it five for the locals – and five for the McEvoy stables.
A good day out by any stretch of the imagination – although Coffey was heard joking at the end of the day about “Calvin (McEvoy) whingeing because Elphinstone finished second in the fourth”.
On a blustery and challenging day, jockeys had to be alert.
But after taking out the first of the day Coffey remarked: “when you are winning, its fun regardless of the conditions, and today she made my job very easy”.
“Heart of Glass jumped, rolled and got to the front and then kicked off a nice tempo,” he said. “It was a really good win even though she was at home and knew where the winning post was.
“I loved her stride and her strength through the line.
“So I am confident she will be able to go up in grade and be really competitive.
“As for a stakes win – I’ll just stick to riding them and let the boys pick the races.”
Coffey wasn’t back in the winner’s circle until the fifth with Batrana (after blowing the race on Elphinstone), but he was just getting warmed up.
“She probably needed to do it today as she has been racing in stronger classes, and looked a little bit wayward at times, so Tony and Calvin decided to put the blinkers on,” he said.
“I didn’t know if I fully agreed with it because she can be a little bit keen, but luckily, we got a bit of cover today. She got it all right so this is a really big step for her going forward.
In the seventh he was back with Under and Over.
Coffey said the race “got a little bit tight at stages, and I was sort of second-guessing whether I should have even been in there or not when it got a little bit jammed up”.
“But she was going well enough to make the most of the tight run.
“Calvin is really easy to ride for, he doesn’t tie you down with instructions.”
An elated Coffey couldn’t wipe the grin from his face after he finally got onto the heavily-backed favourite Sunset Dreaming in the last – and staged an amazing explosion down the straight to catch 40/1 bolter Miss Titeline right on the line by a short half head.
“Yes, we’ve had a good day, although she didn’t win as well as I thought she might,” he said. “I really like her, and she is the horse I was most looking forward to riding today.
“She was out of her comfort zone the whole way, chasing a good galloper but she still got the job done. I see her as a horse which will race through the grades.
“I think we might see her best at 1600m, she has the right attitude and breathes well and does everything right so should be able to extend well.”
And slotting into the middle of the McEvoy show, Madison Lloyd on Sandefault was grateful for the trouble Coffey was having on favourite Zente Dancer.
Lloyd said she would have loved a bit of cover, but her horse was slow away again “even though we tried something a little bit different in the gates to help her out – but it didn’t work”.
“So I just went with the flow, knowing she can get a bit keen and can also lay in during the race,” she said. “So I just tried to keep her comfortable where she was – and Harry was having a bit of trouble with his horse so every now and again I had a bit of cover.
“And approaching the turn I thought she was running pretty flat footed but then she just kept building through to the line.
“She feels like a horse that will get more ground.”
