'He's an absolute machine' - Big Evs provides poignant victory as late friend of 40 years is remembered

Big Evs was the nickname of a close friend of owner Paul Teasdale and the horse which runs in his memory provided connections with an emotional success, and in emphatic style, in the Windsor Castle Stakes.

Teasdale, who owns horses with wife Rachael run under the RP Racing Ltd banner, was close to tears after the two-year-old showed a blistering burst of acceleration to land a major shock at 20-1 in the final race at Royal Ascot on Wednesday.

The success too was a memorable first at the meeting for Mick Appleby, who described Big Evs as a "machine" after his win, but immediate reflection was on the late Paul Evans, a friend of Teasdale, nicknamed Big Evs.

The owner told ITV Racing: "He's named after somebody very special, a gentleman I knew for 40 years who died last November. He was called Paul Evans but we called him Big Evs. He was a big guy and we went racing together for 25 years. This horse means so much to us."

Big Evs is of great importance to Appleby too. His three-length success from favourite Johannes Brahms ended Appleby's "hoodoo" at Flat racing's most prestigious meeting at the 20th attempt.

Connections were confident about the son of Blue Point after he produced a good piece of work with the 109-rated Annaf – and Appleby's best. Morning odds of 40-1 with bet365 had halved by race time.

Appleby said: "He worked with Annaf last week, so I thought this is going to have a great chance here. He's an absolute machine.

"Well done to all the team at home. They've been working hard all week while I've been enjoying coming here. He's got so much speed – I've never had a two-year-old as quick as him.

"Finally, we've broken the hoodoo of having a Royal Ascot winner – it's great."

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