Mayan lands a plunge

First starter Mayan, trained by Tony McEvoy, landed a good betting plunge in a brilliant debut win at Morphettville Parks on Saturday, March 9.

Opening markets had the two-year-old quoted at $4.60 but such was the support Mayan ran the $2.40 favourite in the TAB Handicap (1000m).

After settling back early, jockey Jason Holder had the colt poised behind the leaders turning for home before bringing him wide in the home straight.

Mayan showed magnificent acceleration to sprint away and win by three lengths from Kalmar ($16) with Rose Tiara ($2.50), a half-length away third.

McEvoy’s SA stable foreman John Cornell was impressed by the ease of the win.

“We’ve always liked him, he’s a nice Nicconi horse,” Cornell said.

“He handled the race day atmosphere beautifully.

“We had a lot of very happy owners here today, and the boss’ wife has a share, so she is pretty happy.

“Tony will have a look at him early in the week before deciding what to do with him going forward.”

Winning jockey Jason Holder said he had ridden Mayan work and liked him.

“He actually did a couple of things wrong in the run and missed the start by half a length,” Holder said,

“He is doing everything on natural ability, and it was good to ride a winner for Jo McEvoy.

“He responded to hands and heels riding so I didn’t have to punish him.”