Hey Doc's class was enough to claim the Group III Aurie's Star Handicap (1200m) off a light preparation at Flemington on Saturday.
Hey Doc won the Group I Australian Guineas (1600m) in March but his campaign continued onto the Group I Goodwood on May 20 before trainer McEvoy gave the gelding a break leading into his spring four-year-old preparation.
McEvoy said he wasn't sure of Hey Doc's fitness level before the $150,000 race but the four-year-old answered his trainer with a fighting win as a $5 chance over the Lindsay Park pair Cannyescent ($3.60 fav) and Grande Rosso ($12).
Hey Doc had no cover against the outside fence but held off the placegetters under jockey Luke Currie's urgings to record his seventh win from 15 starts.
"He wasn't wound up. People ask, 'was he 80 percent or 90 percent?' but I don't know," McEvoy said.
"He had a really light prep going into this with an easy trial down the straight and two strong gallops is all he's had.
"When the fight came, he was there for the fight and with the big weight, he lifted."
McEvoy said he would enjoy having more time to prepare Hey Doc for his next assignment, the Group I Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on September 2.
"It will turn his coat and it will bring him on in leaps and bounds and he's right on track to go to that weight-for-age Group I in three weeks," McEvoy said.
"Now I've got three weeks, I can really train him on and he'll improve a lot."
Group I winner I Am A Star ($5.50) pleased trainer Shane Nichols and jockey Dwayne Dunn with her effort to run fourth after knuckling at the start.
Nichols said the mare was likely to follow Hey Doc to the Memsie Stakes.
"She knuckled out of the gates and probably got back a bit further than we wanted to but she was pretty good," Nichols said. "They broke 1:10 and we didn't want to be that far away in the run so I think it was pretty good.
"I'd say we'd go to the Memsie on that but we'll just make sure the horse has pulled up well."
Lindsay Park's Tom Dabernig said the stable's Cannyescent, Grande Rosso and Snitzson (fifth) all pleased the stable and would head to open class races over 1400m in the coming weeks.
