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Kerrin McEvoy first squeezed home on the last flight out of Melbourne on Saturday night - and was equally grateful to be relieved of babysitting duties the next morning - before booting home his first Goulburn Cup winner aboard Pythagorean on Sunday.
The jet-setting jockey, who rode in near 40-degree temperatures at Hawkesbury and then again two days later at Goulburn, sandwiched a hit-and-run trip in between to Ballarat on Saturday.
But he almost did not make it home in time for parent duty when he was needed most.
"I checked in online and got there as they were shutting the gate," McEvoy said of his mercy dash back to Sydney on Saturday night with the help of fellow hoop James Winks.
"It was the last flight back and I needed to get back because Cathy, my wife, was in Melbourne at a reunion so I had to relieve the babysitter when I got home.
"Then I had the kids all morning on my own until she got back and they were frying me. I was rapt to come down to Goulburn. The kids had me up at 5.30 [in the morning]."
McEvoy only whisked himself down the Hume Highway for the one ride on a scorching Goulburn Cup day, which had a welcome cool change arrive just in time for the main fare.
And the most high-profile hoop didn't disappoint, driving Chris Waller's Pythagorean to a one-and-a-half length victory in the $100,000 race at a track he only began riding at this year.
"When you get called up by Waller it's always good to be able to do the job," said McEvoy, who will jet out for Hong Kong and the international jockeys challenge next week. "We weren't coming down here for no reason and I got on the right horse and he did the job.
"He was always going to get a nice run and it was just a matter of getting him to switch off and relax."
The Waller-McEvoy tandem denied local trainer Kurt Goldman what would have been a fairytale first tilt at his new hometown Cup after he prepared the next three horses home. Faust and Court Connection filled the minor placings with Kazoom running fourth after hanging on at the pointy end of a fierce tempo.
"I just want to know how you beat Waller," joked Goldman, who now trains for prominent owner Alan Cardy.
"They all put in a huge effort. Court Connection was first up over a mile off the back of one trial. Faust put in absolute beauty and he copped a fair bit of interference from the horse outside of him that pestered him. It probably cost him the race.
"I was extremely with all three so it should be a good couple of months over Christmas."
