{"id":503831,"date":"2025-10-16T09:45:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503831\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:45:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:45:26","slug":"bruce-mcavaney-details-how-the-everest-eclipsed-the-melbourne-cup-in-just-nine-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503831\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce McAvaney details how The Everest eclipsed the Melbourne Cup in just nine years"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the race that\u2019s part sport, part spectacle and this year, The Everest is reaching new heights.<\/p>\n

On Saturday at Randwick the world\u2019s richest horse race on turf, with a $20 million purse, will stop Sydney in its tracks.<\/p>\n

Channel Seven racing guru Bruce McAvaney says the 12-horse field is arguably the strongest ever in the nine years since the inception of the slot race.<\/p>\n

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McAvaney says The Everest has \u201ctranscended\u201d the sport of horse racing and having Hong Kong sprint sensation Ka Ying Rising as its star attraction this Saturday has only fuelled the buzz.<\/p>\n

But while 50,000 punters will pack out Randwick \u2014 which is more a concert than sporting event with the who\u2019s who of the Sydney social scene attending and a DJ set when the sun goes down \u2014 south of the border history could be made if Jamie Melham can ride favourite Half Yours to victory in the Caulfield Cup and become the first female jockey to win the Group 1 Spring Carnival feature.<\/p>\n

\"RacegoersRacegoers attend TAB Everest Day at Royal Randwick Racecourse on October 19, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Wendell Teodoro\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The action-packed hour of racing featuring The Everest and Caulfield Cup are the pinnacle events of a bumper day of racing coverage on Seven.<\/p>\n

The 1200m Everest is seemingly over in a flash, but McAvaney says it has eclipsed all other Australian race meetings \u2014 including the Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n

The race features just 12 slots, which owners or syndicates buy for $700,000. The winner takes home $7m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout doubt, it\u2019s not even a contest. It\u2019s a party. It\u2019s an event. It\u2019s been able to do this in less than a decade. But where it\u2019s gone to the next level is it\u2019s become this on-course experience different than anything else,\u201d McAvaney told The Nightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a fabrication. That is a fact. It\u2019s now become one thing for a Sydneysider to go to and then to tell their friends about. If I was to go to one race meeting in Australia I would say The Everest.<\/p>\n

\u201c I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s the most important race but I\u2019m saying it\u2019s unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fully supportive of the way they\u2019ve promoted it. They\u2019ve continued to attract great horses and great jockeys and trainers, and yet, at the same time, the interest in the race has transcended the sport in a way that the Melbourne Cup doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery sport has had to move for the time. Horse racing is under some pressure in terms of its long-term future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd one of the things that\u2019s crucial is that you attract a younger audience. Now, is that younger audience just for one day? Well, if that\u2019s the case, well at least it\u2019s for one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ka Ying Rising is a hot favourite at $1.75 and if he wins his first race on Australian soil it would be similar to Black Caviar winning at Royal Ascot in England in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine a better build-up, and it\u2019s hard to imagine more intrigue and expectations surrounding one horse. So, it\u2019s sort of a perfect storm,\u201d McAvaney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very strong race. This is a very good field. There\u2019s one or two horses that probably can\u2019t win, there\u2019s a field of 12, and nine of them have already won a Group 1 race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of them have raced in the race (The Everest) before. This is a very good Everest, with Ka Ying Rising in it \u2014 it\u2019s exceptional.<\/p>\n

\"KaKa Ying Rising gallops during a trackwork session at Canterbury Park Racecourse on October 13, 2025. Credit: Jason McCawley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ka Ying Rising produces the same form he has been displaying in Hong Kong over the last 12 months, he\u2019ll win. But the big question is, can he do that at a very different course, where the track itself is different, where the atmosphere is very different, and the build-up to the race is very different, because he has to be on course earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not going to be as sheltered as he is in Hong Kong, and there\u2019s every chance that he will run his race before the race. If Ka Ying Rising produces the best that we\u2019ve seen from him, I don\u2019t think any of these horses could beat him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he is slightly off his game, then I think there\u2019s at least a half a dozen horses including him that could win The Everest. Ka Ying Rising\u2019s barrier run was not as impressive as most pundits had expected and with a sprint race there would be little margin for error.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t trial brilliantly, and we all had this feeling that, because he normally trials very well in Hong Kong, he would go out and do something a bit special. It didn\u2019t happen,\u201d McAvaney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little bit of conflicting reactions from trainer and jockey. The trainer, David Hayes, said everything was good, the horse is overweight, I\u2019ll get that weight off him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on track. Whereas the jockey, Zac Purton, said he didn\u2019t really handle the ground that well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no wriggle room. If you miss the start, you\u2019ve done your chances. \u201dThe first sort of two to 300m is pretty crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Hayes-trained horse could win The Everest \u2014 it just might not be Ka Ying Rising, McAvaney predicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s probably the strongest Everest we\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s a very good group of horses. I think the smoky is a horse called War Machine, and there\u2019s a delicious irony in this because War Machine is trained by David Hayes\u2019 sons, Ben, JD and Will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianAustralian jockey Jamie Lee Melham. Credit: Scott Barbour\/Racing Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

An hour later when the Caulfield Cup runs, Melham, pictured above, will be under immense pressure to ride Half Yours to victory over 2400m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of pressure on Jamie,\u201d McAvaney said. \u201cJamie\u2019s having a quiet run. She\u2019s an extraordinary jockey. But at the moment, she\u2019s not knocking the door down.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not riding poorly, she\u2019s just not getting the success this spring, as she would have wished for,\u201d McAvaney, above right, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pressure ride for her. She may not get a better chance to win a Caulfield Cup in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese jockeys know these moments only come along rarely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is her challenge. She\u2019s got a good barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the race that\u2019s part sport, part spectacle and this year, The Everest is reaching new heights. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[288,1071,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-503831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-horse-racing","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115383208185206212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}