Liam Payne to close The Everest with exclusive performance

IT’LL be all Payne with a lot of gain at the world’s richest race on turf with news the former One Direction star Liam Payne will be flying in for an exclusive performance to wrap up The Everest later this month.

• Redzel wins world’s richest race
• Waterhouse’s horses under injury cloud

IT’LL be all Payne with a lot of gain at the world’s richest race on turf with news the former One Direction star will be flying in for an exclusive performance to wrap up The Everest later this month.

Two months after his debut EP First Time was released, The Daily Telegraph can exclusively announce that Liam Payne will be hitting the stage at Royal Randwick to bring the day to an epic finale during a whirlwind Sydney visit.

“I’m a big fan of horse racing and to be performing at the TAB Everest is very exciting — I can’t wait to get down to Australia for it,” Payne said yesterday.

Former One Direction member Liam Payne will perform at this year’s TAB Everest. Picture: Esteban Calderón/Raven & Snow.

MORE NEWS

The latest Everest betting updates, market moves

Interest in richest race growing across the world

The 25-year-old will perform an exclusive 45-minute set after the races at Royal Randwick on October 13 in the Theatre of the Horse. It will be free for all ticket holders.

Payne will be flying in especially for the performance and will jet out the next morning.

The Everest is attracting a new audience to racing — almost three quarters of the 33,000 who attended the race and a concert by Jason Derulo last year were under 35 and had not been to Royal Randwick before.

Payne has 17 million followers on Instagram and with 100,000 of those living in Sydney racing bosses are confident the singer will attract even more to the country’s richest race day.

“The TAB Everest is a showpiece event for Sydney on the global stage and we’re delighted that racegoers will celebrate the world’s richest race on turf with a free performance by an international star,” Australian Turf Club chairman, Matt McGrath said.

Redzel took out the honours last year which came with a $10 million prize. But this year it has been increased to $13 million. Picture: AAP Image/Brendan Esposito

Winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy with The Everest trophy which is worth almost half a million dollars. Picture: AFP Photo/Peter Parks

The Everest has a total prize money of $13 million — a $3 million increase on last year — with 12 runners also vying for a $430,000 trophy crafted by Sydney Jeweller Cerrone and encrusted with 8,000 diamonds.

Run over 1200m, the race is a joint venture between Racing NSW and Australian Turf Club,

It was rated the equal best sprint race in the world for 2017 — in the race’s first year too. And 2018 is set to be bigger than its extraordinary debut.

Payne was a former member of One Direction before the boy band decided to take a break in 2016. Picture: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

The field for The Everest is ahead of that of last year’s, with nine individual Group 1 winners already confirmed for the race including the three placegetters from the last year’s renewal.

Payne has visited Australia four times in the past, most recently three years ago with One Direction before the band’s split. He’s believed to be a big fan of our beaches and has previously threatened to stay on.

“I always thought Australia would be somewhere that I’d move to,” Payne has said.

It will be a welcome breather for the singer of the 10 million selling platinum smash hit Strip That Down after his very public surprise split from pop star partner Cheryl Cole in August. It is not certain if he will be coming alone or bringing new model girlfriend Cairo Dwek for the whirlwind trip.