Why Seven’s Sam Armytage will be trackside at Royal Randwick for The Everest

Former Sunrise host Samantha Armytage wants to be trackside at Royal Randwick for The Everest on Saturday. Here’s why she “genuinely loves” the richest race on turf.

There is only one place Seven presenter Samantha Armytage wants to be this week and that is trackside as the horses thunder down the straight in The Everest.

“I genuinely love The Everest,” the former Sunrise host said on Sunday. “I love the sprint down the straight at Royal Randwick. All that horsepower. It is like the 100 metre final at the Olympics for me.”

The Everest, the world’s richest race on turf, runs on Saturday with $15 million in prize money and a build-up all week that captures the attention of the world. On Monday Tabcorp will announce it has become naming rights partner for the whole Everest Race Day.

As a presenter on Sunrise, Armytage, 46, would spend a lot of time regaling viewers with stories from her time spent at the races on the weekend. She now hosts The Farmer Wants a Wife and has joined the Channel 7 Racing team.

Her move to covering racing is a natural fit for Armytage, who grew up riding on her father’s farm in the Snowy Mountains and whose grandfathers owned race horses. Her great uncle Peter Armytage headed the Victoria Racing Club for years.

Samantha Armytage at her Southern Highlands home with Chris Waller-trained horse Seafall. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I happily met and married a man who is obsessed with racing,” she said.

Farmer Richard Lavender, 63, also wanted a wife. They live on a property in Bowral in the Southern Highlands with his stable of 20 thoroughbred racehorses and three brood mares, two of which are in foal.

Armytage is involved in all aspects of the horse breeding business and spends time with her husband riding and concentrating on the horses including two-year-old filly Seafall, who is being trained by Chris Waller and is being prepared for The Golden Slipper.

“Married life is great,” she said. “We only recently wed so it is still great. We are great mates.

“It has been a really nice time for me to just get back to where I came from and what life is really all about,” Armytage said. “I love getting in the paddock.”

She certainly does not miss the 3am starts and is happy to leave pre-dawn track work with their horses to the trainers. She heads back regularly in her role as racing roving reporter.

Seafall is being prepared for The Golden Slipper. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I am very lucky, I can go back into the city easily when I need to. I was quite ready to leave years ago but I didn’t because of the job,” she said. “I love being in the country where my heart is.”

The couple have also rehomed retired racehorses on their farm. “Horse people are good people and these horses are really well cared for. As a wife of a horse breeder I can tell you the horses get more attention than the wives sometimes,” she joked.

On Friday she will interview Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys at the Business Sydney lunch. “He has done such a great job to keep racing going through Covid, introducing new races to get more people back to the track and with the welfare of the horse at the forefront.

“People now look at us as the best in the world but we are not just doing it really well, we are doing it responsibly and as a country we should be proud of that,” she said.