For Australia’s top jockeys, the toughest distance on Saturday isn’t the 1200 metres of The Everest, Australia’s richest race that has a prizemoney pool of $14 million. And it’s not the 2400 metres of the time-honoured Caulfield Cup, a race won by champions including Rising Fast, Tulloch, Let’s Elope and Northerly.

Rather, the toughest distance is the 914,000 metres that separates Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse and Melbourne’s Caulfield track.