Cup Winning Trainers Take Personality of the Year
It was a two ''horse'' war down the straight as a pair of candidates cleared out from the small but select field in the race to win the Victorian Racing Media's Personality of the Year contest.
Cups double winning duo Tony and Calvin McEvoy waged a titanic struggle for votes against their globetrotting Ballarat based rival Henry Dwyer as they left a strong field, including Cups winning jockey Jamie Melham and champion rider Blake Shinn, toiling in their wake.
It was nip and tuck to the line but in the end the VRMA's near 100 strong membership gave the nod to the McEvoys, with Dwyer, whose exploits with the super sprinting mare Asfoora ensured he remained in the headlines for much of the year, just behind.
Either would have been worthy winners in a contest which every year generates plenty of interest among the organisation's members, who vote based upon the help and assistance participants give to the media, the personality they display and the contribution they make in broadening racing's appeal to a wider audience.
McEvoy senior was delighted to win the trophy for the first time and in his acceptance speech mapped out next season's campaign for the Cups double winning Half Yours, who will now be aimed squarely at weight for age races.
He will, said McEvoy, run in the Makybe Diva Stakes next spring, followed by the Turnbull and then the Cox Plate, which next year will be staged at Flemington while Moonee Valley is being reconfigured.
And the Cup? Well, said McEvoy with a grin, that might depend on the handicapper - but he did stress that Half Yours is ''a real Flemington horse''.
The VRMA's other major trophy, the Bert Wolfe Award, went to The Age racing writer Danny Russell, whose body of work over the past 12 months was judged to be of the highest calibre covering a range of racing related stories.
Russell also won the Best Feature Story award for his piece on former Richmond Tigers Premiership player Merv Keane, whose connection with the Melbourne Cup helped him return to his Wycheproof roots and rebuild his life after a difficult period in which he lost his daughter and his wife.
The Best News Story went to Gilbert Gardiner of the Herald Sun for his exclusive on the plans to raise the Melbourne Cup prizemoney to $10 million.
Bronwyn Healy won the Photographer award for a portfolio of pictures the judges felt captured the essence of racing, while youngster Darcy Cosgriff won the newly minted VRC award for an emerging talent.
Tony Rickards collected as the winner of the autumn tipping competition, while Michael Manley saluted as the spring tipping maestro.
Thanks once again to the VRC and Neil Wilson and his colleagues for being the event's major sponsor, and it was great to see industry luminaries such as Aaron Morrison, Tim Eddy, Cameron Fisher, Leigh Jordon and Adam Lennen join Mr Wilson and others at the gathering at The Emerald.