Close but not quite: Local star Think About It resists the challenge of the great Kiwi hope I Wish IA contentious approach and preparedness to challenge traditions seems to comes naturally to Peter V’landys.
Observing the Racing NSW and NRL CEO from afar over the past few years, I – and I daresay many other New Zealanders – have found it difficult to understand just what makes him tick.
He has copped most of the blame for what has descended into something akin to dysfunction between New South Wales and the rest of Australia’s state racing jurisdictions.
Central to that has been competition between the big two, New South Wales and Victoria, to gain ascendancy in race programming. That’s where tradition – or bucking it – came to bear, and the applecart was tipped on its head.
Six years ago V’landys floated the idea of a race that harked back to the very earliest model of sweepstaking between neighbours in 16th Century England, combined with tapping into that peculiar Australian DNA, the love of the punt.
Thus in 2017, The Everest was born as a Randwick sprint with a stake of A$10 million underwritten by 12 slot-holders committed to a three-year investment of A$1.8 million. Connections of 12 top-grade sprinters joined forces with slot-holders and the first edition of The Everest was run at Randwick to rapturous applause.
Fast forward to October 2023 and the seventh edition of the world’s richest race on turf at A$20 million, V’landys had a firm grip on bragging rights to the unequivocal success that The Everest has become. On the eve of the race, with a quality field of 12 runners confirmed and the prospect of breaching the 45,000 attendance figure at Royal Randwick, he reflected on what his dream event had become.
“The Everest is a home-grown event, it’s very Sydney, it has captured the imagination of such a wide demographic that racing didn’t previously – most of all women and a whole new young audience,” V’landys told attendees at last Friday’s official sweepstake luncheon.
“When I put up the proposal they called it derogatory names – and now look at it. In business and in racing most boards are risk averse, but the Racing New South Wales Board under Russell Baldwin, they were the opposite. They supported my idea and let me build it.
“Anything you do you’ve got to create controversy – and I’m certainly good at that. You can’t be bland, you’ve got to be disruptive.”
When a crowd of more than 46,000 flocked to Royal Randwick on Saturday under perfect blue skies, V’landys could afford a rare smile. What unfolded was everything he could have imagined six whirlwind years earlier.
As The Everest field headed to the start against a background of stands and lawns packed to the gunnels, more than 40,000 voices belted out what has become an annual tradition to the Neil Diamond classic Sweet Caroline.
The stage was set and the field of 12 delivered in spades. At the end of a helter-skelter 1200m run in 1:07.64 and a final 600 of 33.13 seconds, local star Think About It was the winner by a long neck over the great Kiwi hope I Wish I Win. Completing a superb result for young Warwick Farm trainer Joe Pride and syndicator Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds, Private Eye was another neck back in third.
For racing’s egalitarian cabal, the result was a victory in itself – a pair of geldings with a combined auction cost of less than $150,000 bracketing another whose conformation had ruled him out of the sale-ring.
There’s no denying that I Wish I Win lost nothing in defeat. Predictions that his inside gate would hinder rather than help rang true. If only he had been able to find clear space that little bit earlier, and even allowing that Think About It had a full head of steam on the way to his 11th win from 12 starts, the finish would have been a cliff-hanger.
Mark Chittick and his Waikato Stud cohort, slot-holders Entain and the trainer-jockey combo of Peter Moody and Luke Nolen were united in the satisfaction they still took from the result and their acceptance of yet another raceday outcome.
As the dust settled on The Everest, as the winners celebrated and others were left to wonder what might have been, I watched a race replay with Moody.
“He’s run super, we’re all so proud of him,” the big fella said. “I’m not going to use the draw as an excuse, that would be taking the credit away from the winner. He’s a very good horse, possibly the best sprinter we’ve seen this year.
“Mate, if it’s not a rude question, what was the money for second – a couple of mill?”
“How about a measly $2.9 million,” I replied after a quick flick through my racebook.
“Well, if you had just won a race with that sort of first stake, a man could get drunk for a week!”
