Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys insists a decision on whether The Everest will be brought forward to earlier in the meeting will be made with many considerations in mind as a bottomless Royal Randwick finally prepares for a reprieve from the weather.
Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club will work through the programming for The Everest day early this week after being forced to cancel the remaining four races on Saturday’s Silver Eagle program due to deteriorating conditions.
The track was one of the most demanding in recent memory after a week of heavy rain in Sydney, with horses positioned close to the eight-metre rail and up on speed virtually the only winning chances.
The rail will revert towards the true position this week, but there have been suggestions officials should consider programming the $15 million sprint towards the start of The Everest meeting to allow the best possible surface for the world’s best sprinters.
The Everest has traditionally been run as race seven after The Kosciuszko and Sydney Stakes, a consolation event for sprinters unable to make The Everest field.
“You’ve got to balance the interests of everyone and one of the considerations we need to balance is maximising revenue,” V’landys said.
Brenton Avdulla rides through the mud at Royal Randwick on Saturday.Credit:Getty
“You can’t pay $15 million in prize money if it’s race two or three because it won’t generate the investment. We’re going to look at the weather and if it’s fine all week, we shouldn’t need to [move The Everest]. We’ll consult the trainers and the jockeys before we make a decision.”
The Silver Eagle and Angst Stakes have both been added to The Everest meeting after they weren’t able to be run on Saturday. They are likely to be slotted into the front half of the card.
Racing NSW will consider moving the Silver Eagle program to Rosehill next year to give Royal Randwick a break before Australia’s richest raceday. It will at least get some relief this week with an improved forecast and only minor rain forecast late in the week.
“We’ll take stock on Monday and there’s no track in the world which would have been able to handle the rain we’ve had in Sydney the last week,” V’landys said.
“In hindsight, we did well to get those six races in [on Saturday]. The tracks team have done an unbelievably good job. I hope this sequence of rain has been a once-in-100-year event and I still remember a couple of years ago we were bone dry for three months.”
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