The Tony and Calvin Mcevoy stable did not know what to expect when My Boy Birmingham made his debut in the middle of the year.
Now six starts later, My Boy Birmingham is set to run for a major slice of $500,000 when he lines up in the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final (1600m) at Flemington on Thursday.
Calvin McEvoy said Thursday’s race had come around at the right time for the four-time winner who had not been specifically set for it.
My Boy Birmingham was successful on the Ballarat synthetic track on debut before flopping on heavy ground at Morphettville at his second start.
Returning to the Ballarat stable, My Boy Birmingham won twice and was placed on one occasion on the Ballarat synthetic before success at Benalla on September 26 qualified the gelding for Thursday’s race.
“He’s a horse that hasn’t been the easiest to train,” McEvoy said.
“He does a lot of work on the treadmill, so leading into his first and second start he was hard to get a guide on him and we went in a little blind.
We labelled him a bit of a Polytrack horse early on but he’s now winning on turf.
“When he was winning so well on the Poly, and being the Poly season, we just kept him that because the right races were there.
“He’s won four races this prep and has earned his way into the final.”
My Boy Birmingham has yet to race beyond 1500m which is a slight concern for McEvoy.
“I would love it to be 1400 metres, but he’s a nice horse that will bowl along in front,” McEvoy said.
“He’ll be there for quite some way, and it will be nice to see if he runs a strong mile, especially when he’s running for $500,000.
“It’s a great opportunity and he’s been a fantastic horse this prep for the owners.”