‘It’s not an alien position to find ourselves in’

Inglis isn’t panicking about the potential need for a last-minute switch to fill its Everest slot if Skybird is ruled out of the $20 million race due to injury.

Skybird’s participation in the Everest is under a cloud. (Photo: Bronwen Healy – The Image Is Everything)

The auction house, which has been a slot holder in The Everest since its inception in 2017, faces the likelihood of the Mitch Freedman-trained Group 1-winning mare being sidelined after pulling up lame from last week’s Manikato Stakes in Melbourne.

Inglis and connections of the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes winner had only confirmed their Everest partnership a day prior to the feature Moonee Valley sprint, which was won by Charm Stone, who also looms as a possible late Everest contender, and who had a 10 per share sold for $310,000 on Inglis Digital last week.

Five-year-old Skybird finished second last, beaten 7.6 lengths, in the $2 million Manikato, with a post-race veterinary inspection deeming her to be lame in the left foreleg.

Racing Victoria stewards also ordered her to barrier trial before she races again, creating a tight timeline for Freedman to have Skybird in peak condition for The Everest if she recovers from her lameness issue. 

It’s not the first time Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch has faced such a scenario.

In 2022, Inglis secured Snapdancer for the race, but the mare was withdrawn less than a fortnight out for the race.

“When it was effectively decided that Snapdancer wouldn’t take her place in The Everest, it was on the public holiday Monday, 12 days out from the race, and I think within 48 hours we’d come to an arrangement with Jamie Walter for Private Eye to run the slot,” Hutch told The Straight. 

“It was very timely because he’d won the Gilgai impressively on the Saturday and a few weeks prior we’d sold a 5 per cent share on the horse to a new client on Inglis Digital and it became an excellent story. 

“He ran second in the race, got beaten a whisker by Giga Kick, he won the Winners Stakes and he’s been a great advertisement for Inglis Digital since then.

“So, it’s not an alien position for us to find ourselves in.”

Hutch remains hopeful that Skybird can be the horse to run for Inglis, but if not, then the company will pay close attention to what happens in the Premiere Stakes in Sydney and the Gilgai in Melbourne for potential alternatives.

“We entered into the agreement with the owners in good faith that if she was going to be right, she’d be the horse to take our spot in the Everest, so to that end we’re inclined to be patient until they say otherwise,” he said.

“If it was to materialise to be the case that Skybird couldn’t run, that’d be disappointing because I genuinely felt that at her best, she was capable of producing a career-best in the race, the way it was shaping up, being a high-pressure race.

“You’d think her turn of the foot had been a particularly potent weapon through the closing stages of a strong six-furlong race.”

Godolphin has Beiwacht, the emphatic Golden Rose winner, three-year-old filly Tempted who ran third in the Group 1 at the weekend behind the Bivouac colt as well as Tentyris who could all potentially fill its Everest slot.

Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, Tentyris is slated to resume in Saturday’s Group 2 Danehill Stakes against his own age, with a strong performance putting the Everest firmly in contention.

It is the same race Giga Kick won in 2022 on his way to winning that year’s edition of the lucrative race for owner-breeder Jonathan Munz and slot holder James Harron Bloodstock.

Beiwacht’s trainer Chris Waller seems more likely to want to focus on the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington with the Bivouac colt, while the Coolmore could also be Tentyris’ main aim rather than heading to The Everest in between.

Therefore, the Ciaron Maher-trained Tempted, who was a dominant winner first-up in the Run To The Rose, could be Godolphin’s number one seed.

Coolmore and Mike Gregg’s Mulberry Racing are also yet to lock in a runner for this year’s race.