28 Feb 2024Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s patient handling of Bavicia looks set to be handsomely rewarded.
The Ballarat trainers have taken their time with Almanzor’s son who was in a league of his own when produced second-up over 1800 metres on the Hillside course at Sandown.
The lightly tried four-year-old lobbed along in fourth spot before he strode to the 250 metres from home and romped home by three and a-quarter lengths in the hands of Luke Currie.
“He’s a horse with a future and he was fantastic,” Calvin McEvoy said.
“He won over 2000 metres last prep and he’s got so much improvement to come.”
Bavicia finished a creditable sixth in the Listed Morphettville Guineas 11 months ago before he was given a lengthy break and ran sixth when resuming over a mile at Bendigo earlier this month.
“He’s been a big, immature horse who we bought at the breeze-ups in New Zealand and has needed time. He’s fully mature now and can go a lot further,” McEvoy said.
Bavicia was originally purchased out of Curraghmore’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale draft for $260,000 and realised $330,000 when reoffered by Phoenix Park at the Ready to Run Sale.
He is a son of the Guillotine mare Tricoteuse, who has unraced juvenile colt by Almanzor, from the family of the G1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes winer Arlingtonboulevard.