Who: NZ-bred world champ Ka Ying Rising is the favourite, while two other New Zealand-owned horses, Jimmysstar and Joliestar, are third and fourth in the market.
What
next? Barrier draw is revealed at 10pm (NZ time) on Tuesday.
Big question: The Sydney weather, as forecast rain could see a wet track.
The clash: The Everest is run at 6.15pm (NZ time) just after the All Blacks-Wallabies test match kicks off 24kms away at Accor Stadium.
A surprise new danger has emerged to Kiwi-bred world champion Ka Ying Rising defending his title in the A$20 million Everest on Saturday: Sydney’s weather.
The former New Zealand galloper, who is now trained in Hong Kong and officially rated the best horse in the world, is the $1.35 favourite to again win the 1200m slot race at Randwick in Sydney.
But while almost anybody who remotely follows horse racing agrees he is the best horse in the race, jockey Zac Purton says he doesn’t want a really wet Randwick track, which the Sydney forecast suggests could be the case.
There is rain forecast, for what that is worth, almost every day this week in Sydney including Saturday, with raceday rain usually the most damaging to track conditions.
Ka Ying Rising breezed through his final piece of public trackwork on Monday morning and trainer David Hayes says a wet track won’t bother the champion while admitting drier would be better.
Hayes said while the nine-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey Purton harbours doubts about Ka Ying Rising’s ability to cope with soft conditions, Hayes is confident the New Zealand-bred sprinter can handle rain-affected ground.
“The Hong Kong wet track is a bit different to the Australian wet track. The grass is a bit tighter and he has a daisy-cutting action,” Hayes said.
“Zac has a query on an Aussie wet but I don’t.
“I’m not worried. I think the other day Zac thought he laboured a little bit in the trial [last week].
“I think that was fitness and having a good look around, and it was his first hit-out in five weeks.
“Zac has given himself a bit of wiggle room, but when I bought him I saw him win a trial on heavy ground. It was only a trial but he looked pretty good, so I bought him.”
The track would need to get heavy for there to be much real movement in Ka Ying Rising price for Saturday, especially as he has looked a happy and healthy horse during this trip compared with last season when he didn’t look at his peak heading into the Everest.
He still won easily, beating Saturday’s second favourite, Tempted, who is a stronger and better mare this season but will be a lot closer to Ka Ying Rising in the weights.
Hayes liked what he saw at Monday’s trackwork session as Ka Ying Rising, partnered by regular track rider Roy Ip, cruised over 1000m at Canterbury Racecourse.
“He had a nice, long, steady canter to warm up and then he quickened from the 600m and was rolling down the straight,” Hayes said.
“I’m not sure if the times are right, but we got him at 36.5s (for the last 600m). The riding boy was very happy, and what I was particularly happy with was the recovery.
“He had an easier gallop going into the trial, but what the trial has done has got him back into game-day mode and that was his strongest piece.”
The barrier draw reveal for the Everest will be around 10pm (NZ time) on Tuesday, with the actual barrier draw conducted on Tuesday morning but kept strictly confidential until the official reveal.
Ka Ying Rising won’t be the only big name flying the New Zealand flag in the world’s richest turf race as Joliestar is owned by Cambridge Stud’s Sir Brendan and Lady Jo Lindsay while Jimmysstar was bred in New Zealand, started his career here and is still part-owned here.
Jimmysstar is the third favourite pre-draw with Joliestar the fourth elect with the TAB.
There will of course also be strong Kiwi interest with Chris Waller and Bjorn Baker each training multiple starters and champion Kiwi jockey James McDonald riding Joliestar.
There is one little hiccup for New Zealand racing fans who also love their rugby, or vice versa.
The Everest is set to be run at 6.15pm (NZ time), just after the All Blacks-Wallabies test match kicks off 24kms away at Accor Stadium.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.