It takes about 70 seconds to be run and won and split-second decisions can be the difference between life-changing fortunes or finishing with the also-rans.
So how exactly does a jockey navigate the frantic nature of The Everest?
For starters, three of the five winners in the short history of The Everest have speared out of the barriers to lead, or be in the front division. That’s not uncommon in any horse race, but the world’s richest turf race has alread been shown to favour horses capable of running their rivals into the ground from out in front.
But is it the only way to win The Everest? And how important is it to wait until the famous Royal Randwick rise in the home straight before making your move?
“I don’t think this will be one of the races in history where horses who are not a big name will win it,” former jockey Glen Boss said. “We’re not going to sit there and go, ‘Well, that was unexpected’. Maybe if we get a bottomless track. But I think generally the best sprinter will win it.”
Three-time victor Kerrin McEvoy, Yes Yes Yes’s pilot Boss and Nature Strip’s jockey James McDonald run through their wins in The Everest before the sixth edition on Saturday.
Redzel (2017)
Who was to have any idea how the first running of the race would play out? With so much money on the line, jockeys were bound to be a little impatient in riding their mounts. But for Kerrin McEvoy, his catch-me-if-you-can tactics worked a treat.
“The important part of riding Redzel was just containing him after a furlong because if he had to do too much work to get a position, he could just get racing and I was pretty happy after a furlong,” McEvoy says.
“I was sitting a half length off Houtzen and myself and Jeff [Lloyd] were able to control the race. As we topped the rise, I think I counted to five and then pressed the button. Away he went. He was dominant. The Snowdens had him cherry ripe and that was a huge buzz to win the inaugural The Everest.”
Redzel’s jockey Kerrin McEvoy celebrates his 2018 win.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Redzel (2018)
If the first one was comfortable, Redzel’s defence of his title was even easier. On a track rated in the heavy range, Kerrin McEvoy didn’t sit just off the lead this time, he went straight to the front solo and had no pressure at all throughout.
“The second one there was rain in the lead-up to the race,” McEvoy said. “Personally I was better equipped for the day the second time around. Redzel was actually beaten in a lead-up, but when it rained and rained I just got more confident. I was thinking, ‘Geez, we’re going to close again’.
“We drew barrier one and they gave us the lead this time. I was able control it and at the 600 I felt, ‘Wow, we’ve had it quite cosy here’. I let him improve around the last part of the corner. I was giggling to myself. At the top of the lane I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe this is happening again’. He was a warhorse that year.”
Yes Yes Yes (2019)
To this day, Yes Yes Yes’s win in The Everest is still the quickest time ever recorded over the Royal Randwick 1200-metre circuit.
“It was fast to start, it was fast through the middle and it was even fast at the end,” Boss said.
Yes Yes Yes wins The Everest under Glen Boss in 2019.Credit:AAP
Nature Strip, in the first of his four The Everest appearances, set the speed up front but it was his three-year-old stablemate which produced a stunning burst down the middle of the track under just 53kg.
“It was a ridiculously strong race,” Boss said. “It was always set up to break a record. All I was trying to do was get on the back of the grey horse [Classique Legend]. He was my bunny. He drew beside me and I just thought, ‘If I follow him, I know how quick they’ll go and he’s got an amazing turn of foot’.”
Classique Legend (2020)
When there’s so much money on the line there’s always a chance of a race being run at such breakneck speed that the leaders are going to get a stitch in the final stages. The first of the COVID-era races was a case in point.
Classique Legend notches up Kerrin McEvoy’s third win in the race.Credit:Getty
Eduardo and Nature Strip set an unsustainable tempo out front, so much so that the first four horses could only race in single file because it was so quick. It meant the big grey, Classique Legend, was poised to pounce from the second half of the field as the front-runners faded.
“This day worked unbelievably well,” Classique Legend’s jockey McEvoy said. “They went really quick and I just managed to slot into a trailing spot. They went quicker again at the 700 and as we rounded the corner I thought, ‘I know I’m going to finish [strong]’, but I knew I was a long way off them. I needed them to stop and they duly did after setting too a hot a tempo.
“My bloke was off and sailing after I gave him a reminder, and he hammered to the line. I knew 300 metres out I had them beat. I was a tiny bit worried at the top of the straight because I was a long way off them, but 50 metres later I had them covered.
“That was an unbelievable feeling, especially to do it in a different style to Redzel.”
Nature Strip (2021)
Nature Strip was a horse that everyone thought only really knew one style: bullying his rivals from in front. And so it proved in his third attempt at The Everest.
Having drawn a wide gate (10), McDonald navigated a relatively straight path out of the stalls and away from the fence and rival horses to allow Nature Strip to go through his gears before crossing Eduardo and setting the speed to the outside of his stablemate Home Affairs.
Although yielding ground late, Nature Strip still did enough to hang on from a flying Masked Crusader.
“I was pretty comfortable at the 800, but you’ve still got 11 very good horses chasing you,” McDonald said. “I’m not saying he won at the 400, but that’s where he was building and it was always going to be the last 50 when he was suspect. Dare I say it, I think he’s going better than last year.”
Nature Strip proved too strong for his opponents in last year’s Everest.Credit:Getty Images
How will this year’s race be run?
Maybe a lot like last year’s race.
Nature Strip has drawn an even wider gate this year (12) and will start as an even shorter-priced favourite on the back of a 12 months in which he’s morphed into the complete racehorse capable of taking a trail behind the speed.
“Eduardo took a sit last year and there’s probably a little bit more pressure on paper this year,” McDonald said.
It’s hard to see Nash Rawiller on Eduardo giving up a lead to Nature Strip this year, which means the little sprinter is likely to launch across and find a forward position with Joyful Fortune holding a position from barrier one.
Overpass, Lost And Running and Mazu, all drawn in the second half of the field, are expected to take positions behind the leading division. With so many of the speed horses drawn outside gates, it’s expected to add pressure into the race.
“Nature Strip is the best in the world for a reason so you’re really taking it on,” said trainer Bjorn Baker, who will saddle up Overpass and Shades Of Rose. “I think every trainer in the race has to have belief in their own horse and concentrate on getting them as well as they can.
“There’s no white flag in racing. Things can change. A day is a long time in racing. Horses have off days just like humans do. If he turns up, he’s going to be awfully hard to beat. What we’re all hoping is we can get a peak performance out of one of our horses and they can run the race of their life.”
