Meteorite sizzles for Maddie
Star sprinter Meteorite returned to the winner’s list at Mornington on the Queen’s Birthday holiday, Monday, June 14.
The Tony & Calvin McEvoy-trained four-year-old took out the prestigious Les Obriem Medal (1000m) on a heavy eight rated track.
Meteorite ($4.60 fav), ridden by 3kg claiming apprentice Madison Lloyd, scored a one length win from Elite Legacy ($21) with Peggy Selene ($7) a head away third.
Resuming from a spell, the speedster had been expected to lead but settled just behind the pace before coming wide on the home turn and proving too strong in the run to the finish.
Trainer Calvin McEvoy was delighted Meteorite had resumed a victor and pleased Madison Lloyd had been able to ride him.
“Maddie has just started coming up and helping us out riding work at Ballarat,” McEvoy said.
“It was nice to reward her with a winner, and a metro winner at that.
“I actually thought he would be up there battling out the lead.
“Now that he’s maturing he might be looking for a bit further.
“He just travelled so well into the bend, and came up three wide and Maddie had so much horse under her so it was a fantastic win for connections.”
McEvoy said Meteorite had gone poorly last time, so the stable had opted to take his tongue tie off.
“It was his first real poor run and it was his first with a tongue tie so we took that off and put the shades back on.
“Luke Currie galloped him for me the other day and gave me the confidence to bring him here today knowing he was going well.
“I want to give a shout out to Michael Shepherdson who had him down on the beach for 10 days and did a great job with him.
“When he won on a heavy 10 at Sale we didn’t think he really loved it but got the job done but maybe on today’s run he does like a heavy track.
“After today it looks like he might get 1200m.”
Winning jockey Madison Lloyd was delighted to ride a winner for the McEvoy stable.
“I finally got to ride a winner for them,” Lloyd said.
“They have been putting me on a fair bit and I’ve been riding work for them at Ballarat.
“I knew over a week ago that I was going to ride Meteorite today and I was pretty excited to be on him.
“I knew there was a lot of speed in the race, but I wanted to be positive out of the gates.
“I was hoping to be able to lead them up but there was way too much speed and I had to go to Plan B.
“I tried to come in behind them but then they put the brakes on and I just wanted him rolling into it nicely so I had to pull out and let him cruise home and he did it easy.”