Redzel’s 2017 The Everest trophy mystery in District Court battle
Champion sprint horse Redzel won a $320,000 trophy when it took out the inaugural Everest race in 2017. Its whereabouts and an allegation that it was secretly sold are now at the centre of a potentially explosive court case.
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The fate of this $320,000 diamond-encrusted racing trophy is a mystery — one that is set to be finally answered in court.
On one side are eight of the owners of champion sprinter Redzel, which took home the trophy plus $5.8 million in prizemoney after winning Australia’s richest race The Everest in 2017.
They have launched legal action against Triple Crown Bloodstock, which sold shares in Redzel and manages the syndicate of owners, claiming it sold the trophy without their permission to an unknown third party for an undisclosed amount.
In the other corner is Triple Crown, which yesterday said the company “will be vigorously defending the claim”.
“We are surprised and disappointed that this action has been taken,” the company said in an email.
“The proceedings are completely without merit. The allegations were investigated by Racing NSW last year and Triple Crown was cleared of wrongdoing.”
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The company did not respond to questions about whether the action could be ended by simply producing the trophy.
The statement of claim was filed by the owners’ lawyer Mark Carmody in the Sydney District Court on February 20.
According to the document, the owners are seeking “restitution”, “damages”, “interest” and “costs” over the trophy.
The matter has been listed for a pre-trial conference on April 8.
“The owners simply want the trophy they own,” Mr Carmody said.
“It’s early days as we’ve only just filed the statement. Check in when we’re on the home straight and the whips are cracking.”
To say the trophy is a serious piece of hardware is an understatement. The centrepiece of the trophy is a horse encrusted with about 8000 black and white diamonds topped off with seven kilograms of silver and two rubies.
Timothy Cheng, a 5 per cent owner of Redzel, is listed as the first plaintiff and is joined by eight other shareholders in the horse who own a combined 50 per cent of the seven-year-old.
“The owners just want to be told if the trophy has been sold,” Mr Cheng said.
“If it hasn’t, we just want to see it.”
Nine other owners hold the other 50 per cent and have not joined the legal action.
According to the documents, Triple Crown “assumed possession” of the trophy “on or about” October 14, 2017, the same day Redzel won the 1200m race at Royal Randwick Racecourse.
The owners claim in the documents that Triple Crown was only to hold the trophy and had no rights to sell or transfer it.
They also claim the alleged sale was a breach of the “syndicate deed”, a legal document that stipulated the rules of the syndicate arrangement between the owners and Triple Crown.
According to the document, the deed said Triple Crown “does not share in any prizemoney earned”.
The deed also said: “As the syndicate manager does not participate in any prizemoney earned, should a trophy, sash, voucher … or similar be won by the syndicate then this will be retained by the syndicate manager for their use …”
Whispers of an alleged sale emerged last year with a former employee of Triple Crown airing the allegation on Twitter.
A news report last October quoted a Racing NSW steward as saying the organisation cleared Triple Crown of beaching the syndicate deed following an investigation.
Redzel also won the race in 2018, netting its owners $6 million in prizemoney and another trophy.
Originally published as Redzel’s 2017 The Everest trophy mystery in District Court battle