Everest headed for greater heights
Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys has declared The Everest is here to stay and will only get bigger next year with the world’s richest race on turf set for a prizemoney boost after a record-breaking day at Randwick on Saturday.
While Redzel was the winner on the track, the event generated revenues beyond Racing NSW’s wildest expectations from its first running.
It could see a rise to the A$10 million prize purse after record betting on a race meeting held in NSW.
‘‘Sydney has a new event and we will be reinvesting in it to make it bigger next year,’’ V’landys said.
‘‘You can’t help but be excited by what we saw at Randwick on Saturday and full credit to the ATC for the way they put the event together.
‘‘We have always said that we are going to invest back into the race from anything that comes from our betting revenues and the early figures we have are remarkable.’’
While a record crowd of more than 33,000 turned out, it was the betting figures that were the biggest surprise, outstripping expectations by more than 60 per cent, which could net Racing NSW more than $1 million more than what it had budgeted for, once all betting is taken into account.
Tabcorp reported the meeting held more than $28 million on the NSW and Victoria totes and fixed odds on its preliminary figures. The Everest was the biggest betting race for the TAB in NSW on its preliminary numbers, holding more than $11.4 million, which was almost double the amount for this year’s Golden Slipper.
‘‘It is an incredible result for a race that has been around for less than a year,’’ ATC chairman Laurie Macri said.
‘‘We have been able to introduce a new audience to racing, which was one of the key objectives of The Everest, but it is the engagement with our regular audience that has been a bonus.
‘‘To get those preliminary figures from the TAB, and I’m sure the bookmakers will have similar results, it shows that the racing industry and punters in particular have embraced the concept.
‘‘We can only make it better, from the experience of Saturday, in conjunction with Racing NSW.’’
Winning slot-holder James Harron called the day ‘‘phenomenal’’ but doesn’t have an option to have The Everest winner Redzel back up in his slot to defend his title in 12 months.
Harron has become one of the racing industry’s leaders and a rising star of the bloodstock scene in the past 10 years. He bought a Melbourne Cup winner in Fiorente, before starting his successful stallion syndication, which took last year’s Golden Slipper with Capitalist.
However, he had never experienced anything like Saturday.
‘‘It was a different feeling after the race to have won it. We share the success with some great people and to see their excitement was probably the best thing about the whole experience,’’ Harron said.
‘‘I have never seen a day like that in Sydney and to have won the first Everest as the slot-holder is amazing, especially with Peter and Paul [Snowden] and the boys from Triple Crown.’’ Harron has paid for his $600,000 slot in the race for next year courtesy of Redzel, but there is no guarantee that the sprinter will fill his slot.
‘‘I think he is going to be pretty popular,’’ Harron said.
‘‘It is too early to be thinking about next year now, we are just enjoying the win.
‘‘We didn’t do an option and after being part of that [on Saturday] I would really like to have a horse good enough of our own to run in The Everest.
‘‘If you can’t have that, you get the best horse and were able to do that with Redzel. It is a credit to my team.’’