The Tony and Calvin McEvoy stable has always held English Riviera in high regard, and it came as a relief when the filly broke through for her maiden stakes win on Saturday.
English Riviera took out the Group 3 Thoroughbred Club Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield to hand the filly her second win from seven career starts.
The daughter of Deep Field showed her potential as a two-year-old with a placing in a Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield and opened her three-year-old season with a 10-length win on the synthetic track at Ballarat in August.
Consistent performances in two subsequent races, including a last start third in the Group 3 Champagne Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley added to the McEvoy’s frustration.
Ridden by Blake Shinn on Saturday, English Riviera ($8) held off a late lunge from Mumbai Jewel ($21) to win by a short-half-head with La Danseuse Rogue ($31) a neck away third.
“She’s a really good quality filly and not much was going right for her and to win this stakes race today really was so pleasing,” Tony McEvoy said.
McEvoy said he was surprised English Riviera was beaten for speed adding he thought Shinn would be able to control the speed on the filly.
He said the Listed Crockett Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on October 22 or the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington the following week, a race McEvoy won with Sunlight in 2018, could be on the agenda for English Riviera.
“She goes well down the straight and I’ve had a bit of luck with fillies in the Coolmore,” McEvoy said.
“So, I’ll talking to the ownership group. That was a big tick today.”
Shinn was partnering English Riviera for the first time and said he was surprised with how relaxed the filly was during Saturday’s race.
“They indicated to me that she was a high-speed filly but from the get-go all she wanted to do was put her head on her chest,” Shinn said.
“I allowed the other horses to go and just rode her as I felt.
“I was wide, but she got into a nice rhythm coming to the turn. When the second horse challenged, she responded, and it was a good effort.”