The Tony and Calvin McEvoy stable will have to play a waiting game to see if Silent Sovereign will get a start in her hometown Cup.
Transferring their Melbourne base from Flemington to Ballarat earlier this year, the McEvoy’s would dearly love to win the Listed $500,000 Ballarat Cup (2000m) on Saturday.
But Tony McEvoy is concerned that Silent Sovereign’s rating of 84 may not be enough to get her into the field despite being a Group 3 winner of the Auraria Stakes (1800m) as a three-year-old.
Silent Sovereign has had two runs back from a break finishing second first-up behind Imperial Lad at The Valley last month before running second to Saturday’s Cranbourne Cup runner-up Our Playboy at Flemington on November 6.
“She’s a Group 3 winner, a good mare, and the Ballarat Cup, third-up is ideal for her,” McEvoy said.
“It would be a nice target race for us, and she goes there in really good form.
“My one concern is her rating.
“She’s only an 84-rater, and going on last year, she would not have got a run, so we’ll have to see what is nominated and hopefully she gets in.
“She’s ticking along beautifully, the 2000 (metres) is what she needs now and she’s a good quality mare.
“And it would be nice to tick-off the Ballarat Cup having set up our stables there earlier in the year.”
Meanwhile two of McEvoy’s sprinter that were entered to head to Perth are instead having a break.
With COVID restrictions in Perth, eastern state horses could not travel for this year’s carnival, but McEvoy had already decided to bypass the carnival with Savatoxl and Despatch who had been nominated for the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes.
“Savatoxl has gone to the paddock, he’s got a little bit of a quarter-crack in a hoof,” McEvoy said.
“And Despatch, his blood picture has all been wrong.
“I can’t get his blood right, so he’s going to have a month on the water-walker to rejig himself.”