Surprise Tony and Calvin McEvoy attack on $1m Magic Millions 2yo race with Arabian Summer
The training team of Tony and Calvin McEvoy hadn’t initially have a $1m Queensland winter carnival race on their radar for speedy young filly Arabian Summer.
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Speedy young Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained filly Arabian Summer wasn’t far off heading from Queensland back to Victoria before her trainers saw a $1m race staring them in the face.
Arabian Summer is last year’s Magic Millions Ballarat 2YO Classic winner who was last seen finishing fifth behind Storm Boy in the $3m Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast in January.
She had been in Queensland having a spell before coming back into work in the Sunshine State.
The two-year-old filly was set to return to Victoria but the McEvoys spotted the $1m Magic Millions National 2YO Classic (1050m) and quickly identified it as a one-hit Queensland mission.
The new race was set to be run under lights on the Gold Coast but has been shifted to Doomben Cup day on Saturday, with the coast grass track nowhere near up to scratch and out of action.
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“She spelled up in Queensland and I decided to put the horses I had in Queensland in work for a month,” Tony McEvoy said.
“They were booked on transport to come home to Victoria.
“But then, the day before they were due to travel, we saw this race had been announced. So it was quite fortuitous.
“I think the 1050m will be great for her, she is a fast filly.
“She will have one run in Queensland and then we will bring her back south to look at some Stakes races.”
Bring on the Gold Coast!
— 7HorseRacing 🎠(@7horseracing) December 9, 2023
Arabian Summer scorches the turf in the Magic Millions Ballarat 2YO Classic 🔥@mcevoymitchell@mmsnippets@htcoffeypic.twitter.com/4L1qh0N42C
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Victorian Group 1 jockey Harry Coffey will jet to Queensland to continue his happy association with Arabian Summer.
Coffey has ridden Arabian Summer at all five of the filly’s career starts, including when winning the Gold Pearl on the Gold Coast seven days before the Magic Millions.
That was Coffey’s first-ever race win in Queensland.
ARABIAN SUMMER dominated the field in the $150,000 Gold Pearl 2yo Fillies at Gold Coast! This Too Damn Hot filly was trained by T & C Mcevoy and Harry Coffey was on board!
— FanDuel Racing (Formerly TVG) (@FanDuel_Racing) January 6, 2024
Play the exciting card at Gold Coast on the @FDSportsbook: https://t.co/qnmMeLD3Vgpic.twitter.com/9c0zwaignM
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Meanwhile, McEvoy said he had no second thoughts about not sending Group 1 South Australian Derby-winning filly Coco Sun to Queensland to contest either the Queensland Derby or Queensland Oaks.
Coco Sun will be kept for a crack at big targets during the spring carnival.
Originally published as Surprise Tony and Calvin McEvoy attack on $1m Magic Millions 2yo race with Arabian Summer
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