Overpass back in favour – Field banks on Baker’s sprinter for third shot at Everest

Slot race king Overpass will contest his third Everest in four years with the consistent sprinter snapped up by the Newgate-GPI syndicate on Wednesday to run in the $20 million race next month.

Overpass is headed for his third title at The Everest. (Photo: Bronwen Healy- The Image Is Everything)

The Bjorn Baker-trained and Darby Racing-owned Overpass, who ran sixth behind Giga Kick in 2022 and 10th in the 2023 edition, trialled at Randwick on Tuesday with his second placing enough to convince slot holders Newgate and Greg and Barb Ingham to represent them in this year’s Everest.

Overpass won last year’s Group 3 $2 million Sydney Stakes, the Everest undercard’s consolation sprint, first-up from a spell.

“We feel that Overpass is a logical choice for us this year, given he is such a high-class sprinter that turns up preparation after preparation and is always competitive at the highest level,” Newgate managing director Henry Field said. 

“Bjorn Baker is very keen to run the horse first-up in the TAB Everest and by locking him in for the slot now it will allow the horse to be trained with the one goal in mind.”

Overpass has proven a hardy sprinter over a number of seasons, winning the first two editions of The Quokka, Western Australia’s version of The Everest, before finishing fifth in this year’s race.

He has also won back-to-back Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes during Perth’s Pinnacles late spring and summer carnival.

Darby Racing principal Scott Darby is optimistic that the ‘fresh is best’ approach taken with Overpass can pay off in The Everest.

“He is a horse that is exceptionally effective first-up having won the Sydney Stakes on Everest day last year in faster time than the Everest was won,” Darby said.

“He was also dynamite first-up in the autumn when narrowly beaten in the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes.”

Overpass is the second horse to be confirmed for this year’s Everest in three days after Fairway Thoroughbreds’ John Camilleri secured the Arrowfield and Hermitage Thoroughbreds-owned Lady Shenandoah, a luckless second in the Concorde at Randwick on September 6.

Camilleri intended to run his own multiple Group 1-winning mare Sunshine In Paris in his slot for the Everest but she was recently retired to stud after sustaining an injury in trackwork as she was being prepared for the spring.

Newgate and GPI won the 2023 Everest when they combined with Proven Thoroughbreds and trainer Joe Pride to take out the lucrative race with Think About It.

Hong Kong’s superstar Ka Ying Rising, the odds-on favourite for The Everest, is set to arrive in Sydney to be trained from Canterbury’s quarantine on Monday.

Three horses who have already secured Everest slots – Private Harry (barrier 5), Briasa (4) and Joliestar (9) – are set to resume in Saturday’s Shorts over 1100m at Randwick.

TAB’s representative Jimmystar ran on from last in the Concorde to finish fifth for trainer Ciaron Maher.