I have loved racing and horses all my life with the first Tuesday in November being a day seen as not far short of Christmas, but the times are changing and while the Melbourne Cup has history and tradition on its side, the future belongs to The Everest.
Two years ago when The Everest was born I speculated in some editorial that The Everest may one day surpass the Melbourne Cup, but I don’t think it now, I know it and this is why.
1/ Achievable – Run over 1200 metres The Everest is a sprint race meaning virtually every horse in the country has a chance to win it on pedigree given our breeding industry is focused on speed. If you own a horse, you can dream!
2/ Affordable – Again because this race is run over a sprint trip the majority of yearlings offered at auction will be potential Everest contenders and a look at the sale mail for the race this year reveals not all the runners were super expensive. Yes Yes Yes was bought for $200,000 and runner-up Santa Ana Lane for $80,000 as yearlings.
Yes you do need a slot-holder to give you a start in the race, but if you have the right horse the slot-holder will find you!
3/ Repeat offenders – Redzel has already proven that a good sprinter can win more than one Everest and Yes Yes Yes has proven that a three year-old can win it, so in theory there is no reason a horse can’t keep coming back year after year if their form warrants a start. Winx did win four Cox Plates, how many Everests could Black Caviar have won?
4/ Best of the Best - A track record this year set by Yes Yes Yes confirms that this is the best sprint race in the world on turf and history is only going to highlight this fact as time goes on, money talks and this race will eventually be a Group I, to not be a Group I is an insult to the winner.
5/Horses to Cheer For – And this is important, it’s hard to get excited about horses that we don’t know from the other side of the world owned by rich people and trained and ridden by people we don’t know or really care about.
Now one of the hottest stallion prospects in the country, Yes Yes Yes is hardly owned by paupers, but he’s a horse we know and his trainer is Chris Waller, who put the polish on Winx and his rider Glen Boss won three Melbourne Cups on Makybe Diva. This is a horse we can cheer for!
His sire Rubick is a young gun, who covered 263 mares last spring at Coolmore a fee of $17,600 to be the busiest sire in the country… am thinking those breeders with a mare foaling to Rubick this spring had a big cheer for Yes Yes Yes!
Five Reasons Why The Everest Will Soon Displace the Melbourne Cup
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