Night Passage thrashes rivals
Late-maturing mare Night Passage, trained by Tony & Calvin McEvoy, returned to winning form at Ballarat on Sunday, September 19.
Night Passage, a well backed $2.40 favourite, thrashed her rivals by 6-3/4 lengths in the Porter Plant Benchmark 64 Handicap (1400m).
Ridden by Luke Currie, the five-year-old mare settled second early on a good tempo before dashing clear turning for home to win easily.
Suppression ($3.60) was a distant second with Mr Cancun ($4.80), 1-1/2 lengths away third.
It was Night Passage’s fourth career win from just 16 starts but definitely her most impressive.
Trainer Tony McEvoy was delighted the ease of Night Passage’s win.
“It was a really easy watch,” McEvoy said.
“This mare has shown us so much at home, but she has really frustrated the stable.
“I keep saying to the ownership group how good this mare is and she has shown glimpses that she has got that type of form in her.
“She is a genuine Saturday-class mare but hasn’t been able to get it right.
“That was really good to watch today and hopefully she can take it further now.”
McEvoy said he had made a few gear changes with Night Passage.
“She was a little bit strong the other day, so we thought we would put the Norton (bit) on her, just to help the rider rate her better.
“They rolled along quite solid today, but she was in a beautiful rhythm, and I think that little tinkering of the gear helped.
“We will just be going for low-hanging fruit with her for the minute and we will continue that way, here or in Adelaide.
“There is a $100,000 race at Hamilton, a benchmark 70, over a mile (1600m) that we might consider on the 10th of October.”
Winning jockey Luke Currie believes Night Passage is finally maturing.
“She cruised over outside the leader, picked it up quite quick then put it away,” Currie said.
“It was good to see her in that form.
“She showed us last time that the ability was there, but she was still very new, very raw, doing a few things wrong.
“She seems to have matured this time, and both her runs have been really good.
“She’ll improve off the back of today as well.”