Owner Paul Teasdale of RP Racing has described Big Evs (Ire) as “a horse of a lifetime” as the Mick Appleby-trained colt prepares for his career swansong in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Saturday, November 2.
Named after Paul Evans, a friend of Teasdale who died of lung cancer in 2022, Big Evs won four of his six starts in a memorable two-year-old campaign, including at Royal Ascot where he shed his maiden tag with victory in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes.
Group-race successes followed in the G3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood and G2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster, before Big Evs signed off for the year with Breeders' Cup glory in the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.
“He had an amazing season at two, culminating at the Breeders' Cup which was just incredible,” Teasdale said of that experience. “I guess we should have expected him to win, but we never expected anything like that.
“He travelled over there well, took all the proceedings well, and then just acquitted himself in a fantastic way. Turning for home there was only one horse in the race and [jockey] Tom Marquand's view was he just wasn't getting beat. We were all delighted with him.”
He added, “There was a lot of temptation to retire him last year. We had some huge offers to retire him, but we really wanted him to have a three-year-old career.”
This year Big Evs has justified the decision to keep him in training in no uncertain terms, proving himself one of Europe's top sprinters in finishing third in the G1 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot and winning the G2 King George Stakes at Goodwood.
Now, all roads lead back to the Breeders' Cup with the son of Blue Point (Ire), who will bid to bounce back from a rare poor effort in the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes when he lines up in the Turf Sprint, with this year's Molecomb winner Big Mojo (Ire) (Mohaather {GB}) also set to represent the same connections in the latest edition of the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
“He's absolutely a horse of a lifetime for us,” Teasdale said of Big Evs. “We've had a fantastic run of success and he means the world to us. It would mean everything for him to go back there and win again. It would be a fantastic way for him to sign off and say 'look who I am and how good I am'.
“I think he is a very well followed horse and someone described him to me as being the 'people's horse'. Everyone always asks about him and it would be great and synonymous with how he's been in his career to just finish off in style.
“He's proved everyone wrong and has trained on really well this year. He won a nice Group 2 at Goodwood and was third in the King Charles at Royal Ascot. We look forward to going back to the Breeders' Cup, which will hopefully suit him.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Appleby, who said, “He's so quick and he's not the biggest, so he can nip round that bend. With his natural speed, America just seems to suit him. It will be nice to go back and it would be great if he could win.
“He's a once in a lifetime horse and a lot of trainers dream of having a horse like this. All credit has to go to Paul for bringing horses to us and putting his faith in us. You have to savour days like last year because they are far and few between.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
