Racing
Ambassadorial on song in Easter Cup
Ambassadorial has stretched his winning sequence to three taking out the Easter Cup at Caulfield.
Ambassadorial has been a revelation since transferring into the care of Melbourne Cup winning trainers Tony and Calvin Mcevoy.
Stretching his winning sequence to three on the bounce, Ambassadorial landed his biggest win, taking out the Group 3 Easter Cup (2000m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
Now the McEvoy's will see if the son of Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente can stretch out further than the 2000m he was successful over on Saturday with the Listed Mornington Cup (2400m) on April 18 the gelding's likely next start.
Sent out the $4 favourite under apprentice Logan Bates, Ambassadorial scored a 1-½ length win from Sea What I See ($6) with Immediacy ($17) a short-half-head away third.
"A big thank-you to Anne Peacock and Jane Chapple-Hyam for sending us the horse and giving him the opportunity with us," Tony McEvoy said.
"He's been such a pleasure (to train). There will be no problem rehoming him as everyone in the stable just adores him.
"He's such a gentleman and what a magnificent racing pattern he has.
"He's gone from strength to strength."
McEvoy joked the turnaround in form was their decision to 'not train him' but rather keep him on the fresh side.
Ambassadorial started his career with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott before having a brief stint with Alex Rae at Cranbourne.
But in five starts for the McEvoy father-and-son team, Ambassadorial has now been successful on three occasions with a further two placings.
"We've decided not to train him," McEvoy senior said.
"We're still charging training fees - I hope Jane didn't hear that, but we're keeping him really fresh.
"He's a very light fleshed, athletic horse and doesn't require a lot and if you look at his CV, he has been with trainers that do train them, so we decided to make a change."
McEvoy said Ambassadorial would press on with his campaign with the potential to run in the Mornington Cup to test the gelding at 2400m.
"He's a gelding, he's perfectly sound and he's in rare form," McEvoy said.
"What we need to know is whether he runs a mile-and-a-half. If he does that, it opens a brand-new chapter for him."
The McEvoy stable completed a running double after Rue De Royale took out the Geoff Murphy Handicap (1200m).
McEvoy indicated the Group 1 The Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville next month may be on the agenda.
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