Being bred by Grant & Joanne Dwyer at Brackley Park in Victoria (St Jean x La Gazelle), Half Yours is the first Australian-bred horse to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups Double since the mare Rivette in 1939.

He’s also the first Melbourne Cup winner to be bred in Victoria since Gala Supreme in 1973.

Rivette is another great tale of Australian racing, as she was bred, owned and trained by WWI veteran Harry Bamber, who bred the horse in 1933 during the peak of the Great Depression when Bamber was almost broke… the story was that Bamber got the money to service his broodmare Riv from backing Peter Pan to win the 1932 Melbourne Stakes & Melbourne Cup (He won both), and 6 years later, the mare that Riv foaled won him £13,000 in a month, and also made Bamber the first person since 1876 to breed, own and train a Melbourne Cup winner.

Prior to that, Poseidon (1906) and The Trump (1937) were both Cups Double winners that were bred in Australia, and that also doesn’t take into account Viewed (bred in NSW) winning the 2008 Melbourne Cup followed by the 2009 Caulfield Cup for Bart Cummings, which isn’t a Cups Double as we know it… I believe it’s the Clayton’s Cup Double.

Cups Doubles between 1940 and today:

Rising Fast (1954, in which he also won the Cox Plate) was bred in New Zealand

Even Stevens (1962) was bred in New Zealand

Galilee (1966) was bred in New Zealand

Gurner’s Lane (1982) was bred in New Zealand

Let’s Elope (1991) was bred in New Zealand

Doriemus (1995) was bred in New Zealand

Might and Power (1997) was bred in New Zealand

Ethereal (2001) was bred in New Zealand

Without A Fight (2023) was bred in Ireland.

And now you have Half Yours, ridden by an expat South Australian Jamie Melham and trained by expat South Australians Tony & Calvin McEvoy… that now means Tony McEvoy has won all 3 major races in Melbourne, considering this year’s Cups Double and when he won the 2003 Cox Plate with Fields of Omagh while training at Lindsay Park.