Victoria officials blast Sydney ‘try-hards’ over The Everest
As the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up in the colours of jockey silks with the barrier draw for The Everest, the world’s richest race on turf, Victorians continued to whinge about the timing of the $14m race.
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The barrier draw for Australia’s richest horse race was conducted in spectacular fashion last night with the Sydney Harbour Bridge lit up in the colours of jockey silks.
Two time Everest winner Redzel turned the pylons red and took barrier seven which should still gave him a chance at a third payday.
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But as the colourful images of a Sydney icon were beamed around the world to promote both the $14 million race and Australia, Victorians continued to whinge about its timing.
The Everest has taken the racing world by storm but upset Victorians because it is being held on the same day as the Caulfield Cup and is being compared favourably with the Melbourne Cup.
Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas grizzled yesterday: “I suppose you could compare a sprint down a straight line against a race that stops a nation if you were, I dunno, parochial and Sydney based.
“But I can’t see there are too many reasons why anybody would see that there is merit in trying to compete with something that is very much part and parcel of the tradition of this nation.”
And then he fired: “Ultimately the try hards in Sydney can do what they want, they can throw as much money at it as they want, it really just does show that they are suffering from a profound inferiority complex.”
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That brought guffaws from NSW Racing Minister Kevin Anderson who said: “Victoria can stop the nation as much as they like, in NSW we like to keep the nation moving.
“The Victorians gaze at mountains, The Everest is the mountain.”
The Victorians have fired up after Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys had the temerity to suggest they move the date of the Melbourne Cup.
Yesterday he told The Today Show: “One thing I love about Melbourne is their parochialism, their passion for their state. I want to have that in NSW, I want to have that in Sydney. Why aren’t we as passionate in Sydney as they are in Victoria? Why don’t we take pride in all our sporting events?”
NSW Racing chairman Russell Balding this week called out the Victorians for blocking The Everest from receiving Group One status because they wanted it to be staged on a different date.
The Everest this Saturday is on the same day as The Caulfield Cup in Victoria and its bumper crowd is expected to double the numbers attending the meeting south of the border.
That has clearly hurt the sensitive southern egos. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was asked what he thought about people who say The Everest is better than the Melbourne Cup and sneered: “I don’t think much about those people.
“I don’t think that’s really a very logical argument at all. I don’t think the Everest stops the nations does it?
“There are many people around the country who are very jealous of Victoria’s major events calendar — The Melbourne Cup is the biggest horse race in our nation. It stops the nation. It will have record crowds there this year and be a fantastic event as it is every year.”
At last night’s harbour front party for owners and trainers of the 12 lightning fast horses who will cover the 1200 metres of The Everest at Royal Randwick on Saturday, the Victorian reaction was easily shrugged off.
Sunlight trainer Tony McEvoy backed up his earlier comments that the Melbourne Cup had “lost its Australian-ness” and that The Everest “is our big race now”.
“I don’t want to get in a slanging match with anybody,” he said. “But the facts speak for themselves. You have got 12 horses running in one race in Sydney and 11 of them are Australian and you have 24 horses running in Melbourne and just one of those is Australian.”
Coolmore’s Tom Magnier is bringing that one horse — Irish sprinter Ten Sovereigns — to The Everest.
“Anyone you speak to at home knows about The Everest. It is incredible for a race in its third year to have the same recognition as The Melbourne Cup or races in Europe that have been running for 150 years,” he said.
This year’s barrier draw was less controversial than last year’s, when Racing NSW overcame opposition to beam it onto the sails of The Opera House, but was just as eagerly awaited.
It was no, no, no for Chris Waller’s horse Yes Yes Yes which drew outside barrier nine, far from ideal for the young three-year-old.
Favourite Santa Ana Lane drew prime position, barrier two, but as a back marker is likely to let that advantage slip away and drift to the back.
Waller’s speedy Nature Strip lit the bridge in blue and took out the perfect outside draw of barrier 12 — just as jockey Tim Clark hoped, saying it would help control his lightning bolt horse.
Amid the war of words between NSW and Victoria, The Daily Telegraph revealed Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne has chosen Royal Randwick over Caulfield on Saturday to ride the black stallion she trains in Victoria.
Victorian racing’s golden girl said riding Kaspersky in the Sydney Stakes in front of a packed crowd on the same day as The Everest would be a career highlight.
“The atmosphere is unbelievable at Randwick and something we in Victoria could really take a leaf out of,” said Payne, who won the Melbourne Cup in 2015 on Prince of Penzance.
Her history making win has just been made into movie called Ride Like A Girl while Payne has moved into training horses and restricts her rides to those and horses trained by her father and brother.
The Sydney Stakes has a $500,000 purse and will be Kaspersky’s comeback race after a two-year lay-off.
“It will be an amazing day,” Payne said. “If we get in it will be one of the best days of my riding career. It would mean a lot because I have put so much effort into this.”
Payne last rode the nine-year-old stallion at Royal Ascot in the United Kingdom and said: “He loves a big crowd and will love it at Randwick.”
Payne said the course at Randwick would be better for Kaspersky’s come back race with the track at Caulfield too firm. “The track at Randwick is always superbly maintained,” she said. “It is the best day to be there with that incredibly crowd and it is unbelievable to have $500,000 in prize money for a Group Three race.”