Famous Seamus has returned to winning form in impressive fashion at Sandown this afternoon; maintaining a strong sprint in the final straight to beat a talented field to the line in the Group 3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes (1300m).

Jumping from the gates well, jockey Kerrin McEvoy allowed Famous Seamus to stride forward and taken an ideal early position on the rails just off the pace of early leader Java, who flew the barriers but set only a fair tempo.

Rounding onto the final straight in a perfect position, the Elusive City gelding charged forward and took up the pace; pulling clear and maintaining a strong enough sprint to withstand a late charge from Generalife; Gracious Prospect boxing on for third.

McEvoy secured his second win of the card in partnering Famous Seamus to victory in the Kevin Heffernan Stakes, but was quick to lay all the praise on the gelding in the success.

“It seems like he’s been around for ages and I took plenty of confidence from his weight-for-age form up in Sydney,” McEvoy said after crossing the line.

“From a good gate today we were able to put him a bit closer and he really did the job.

“I was a little bit worried because he was towing me out of the saddle at the 800m but he was in front earlier enough.

“He was full of running once we got out of the dip and he was too hard for them to catch. He’s a quality horse and I gave him a good chance today.”

Wife of head trainer Noel Mayfield-Smith, Emma Mayfield-Smith was on hand for Famous Seamus’ Kevin Heffernan Stakes win and revealed plans have not been set in stone for the veteran sprinters with a view towards 2016.

“We’ve never lost faith in him because he’s always given everything, every time he races,” Mayfield-Smith said.

“He deserved this more than any horse today, really, really happy.

“He just does what you ask. He’s not a very hard horse to ride – you just press the button and away you go.

“Coming to autumn we’re always at loggerheads with the tracks because of the wet tracks and he’s not 100% on them. He’ll still to his best but he’s at his best on better ground.

“We’ll just see how we go.”

Punters who backed Famous Seamus to win the Kevin Heffernan Stakes with leading online bookie Ladbrokes.com.au have been paid out on generous $8.50 odds for success!

2015 Kevin Heffernan Stakes Results

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	2	FAMOUS SEAMUS (NZ)	Noel Mayfield-Smith	Kerrin McEvoy	–	3	59kg	$8.50
2	3	GENERALIFE	John O’Shea	James McDonald	0.4L	6	59kg	$3.20
3	5	GRACIOUS PROSPECT	David Hayes & Tom Dabernig	Damian Lane	1.65L	4	59kg	$41
4	4	UNDER THE LOUVRE	Robert Smerdon	Mark Zahra	2.15L	7	59kg	$2.70F
5	11	IN STYLE (NZ)	Michael Moroney	Steven Arnold	3.15L	1	57kg	$31
6	8	JAVA	Lee & Anthony Freedman	Dwayne Dunn	3.35L	5	59kg	$11
7	9	GALAXY PEGASUS	David Hayes & Tom Dabernig	Michael Walker	4.1L	2	59kg	$41
8	6	MISTER MILTON	Norman Waymouth	Ms Sally Wynne	4.2L	9	59kg	$201
9	7	TADDEI TONDO	Gerard Moloney	Patrick Moloney (a)	5.95L	11	59kg	$61
10	10	BRING ME THE MAID	Peter G Moody	Glen Boss	6.7L	8	57kg	$19
11	1	SMOKIN’ JOEY	Wez Hunter	Chris Parnham	9.45L	10	59kg	$16