McEvoy ready to take his chance

By Cornelius Lysaght BBC racing correspondent

Here comes the Aussie charge - and we don't even mean the Ashes.

Australian jockey Kerrin McEvoy gets a big chance to hit his rivals for six this week at Royal York at Ascot just as his bat-wielding compatriots aim to do the same to England's cricketers.

The 24-year-old McEvoy is number two to Frankie Dettori at the Godolphin stable.

McEvoy backed by Dettori

And he has been given the nod to replace suspended Dettori on the team's runners for the five-day showpiece, which starts on Tuesday.

McEvoy knows all about taking part in sporting showdowns Down Under, having won the Melbourne Cup in 2000 on Brew, and once being aboard a winner owned by Australia's cricket captain Ricky Ponting.

And the jockey has made a massive impact since arriving in England at Sheikh Mohammed's stable in the spring of 2004.

He was second on filly Sundrop in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, and also runner-up in the Epsom Derby on Rule of Law, before earning rave reviews for his tactically brilliant ride on the same colt to win the St Leger at Doncaster.

Critics who claimed he was weak in a finish, and disadvantaged by his unfamiliarity with British racecourses, were soon silenced.

"Obviously, when I first arrived it was something completely new and it took me time to get to know the racecourses and to get to know the different style of racing," he said.

"In Australia, it tends to be all about speed, whereas here stamina is all-important, and any jockey would find that difficult to adapt to straight away. But I feel I have adapted.

"This week represents the biggest chance of my racing life and I have every intention of grabbing it."

Champion jockey Dettori misses out after being handed a six-day ban by stewards at Lingfield for careless riding.

My mobile phone will be red-hot with Frankie ringing me from holiday in Sardinia to talk about the rides Kerrin McEvoy

The Italian's mount Royal Orissa switched right and led to another runner Aversham, and rider Fran Berry, taking a crashing fall.

"It's a huge disappointment for Frankie not to be here," said McEvoy.

"But we've sat down and talked about it, and everyone at Godolphin is just pleased that the horse and jockey involved in the fall are OK, and now Frankie has to accept the punishment."

Among the biggest York mounts for McEvoy, whose father and grandfather were also jockeys, are Sundrop in the Windsor Forest Stakes the following day and Papineau in Thursday's Gold Cup.

Attention should be given to all his rides because Godolphin traditionally does very well at this meeting - and Dettori clocked up six winners in 2004 to be the meeting's leading jockey.

"My mobile phone will be red-hot with Frankie ringing me from holiday in Sardinia to talk about the rides," said McEvoy.

After drawing a blank at the fixture in 2004, McEvoy is very hopeful he can break his duck this time.

"One winner at Royal Ascot at York would be fantastic, and if anything more comes along, that would be a dream," he added.

"Sadly, my family can't make it from South Australia, but this year it seems most of the races will be on TV, so I can imagine quite a few supporters in my home village of Streaky Bay will be up in the middle of the night to see what happens."