October 13, 2023
AUSTRALIA — By Michael Wrona
The Everest, with an astounding purse of AU$20 million that makes it the world’s richest race on turf, will have a first-ever Spanish broadcast to complement FanDuel TV’s telecast from Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse this Friday night. DRF En Espanol TV will show Races 5 through 9, with coverage anchored by Roberto Rodriguez. Jamie Salvador will co-host, with David Merida providing the race calls. FanDuel TV’s Andrew “Dubbs” Anderson will join Sky Racing World’s Jason Witham trackside, where last year’s 46,000-strong crowd for The Everest was Randwick’s biggest in half a century.
A sunny, 83-degree forecast should entice another huge turnout, after the public’s appetite was whetted by the presentation of the post position draw aboard a $15 million superyacht on Sydney Harbour. The Everest is the 7th on a sensational 10-race (9-stakes) card that also features the inaugural $5 million King Charles III Stakes. First post this Friday is 6.30 p.m. Pacific, 9.30 p.m. Eastern.
The Everest distance of six furlongs is reflective of Australia’s strength in the realm of global turf sprinters. One of this year’s leading chances, I Wish I Win, reunites the trainer-jockey combination which found global fame with the incomparable Black Caviar, whose 25-for-25 career record included a Royal Ascot triumph in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes (at six furlongs). The three-time Australian Horse of the Year was the world’s co-highest-ranked racehorse of 2013, and ended her career with a victory at Randwick in the G1 TJ Smith Stakes.
Exactly one decade later, trainer Peter Moody gave jockey Luke Nolen a leg-up on I Wish I Win in the TJ Smith – and win they did. The 5-year-old gelding (4-1) will now attempt a calendar sweep of Sydney’s two biggest sprint races, which would emulate the 2021 feat of recently retired Nature Strip (like Black Caviar, a Royal Ascot winner and multiple Horse of the Year). I Wish I Win would also clinch the big-money double of Australia’s two richest races, having won the $10 million Golden Eagle last year. The 2023 Golden Eagle, a new concept restricted to 4-year-olds, will be run in early November at the conclusion of The Everest Carnival.
Indeed, this year’s The Everest feels like a “changing of the guard,” such was the career longevity of Nature Strip and some of his regular combatants. Only three horses return from last year’s edition: runner-up Private Eye (6-1), 3rd-placegetter Mazu (60-1) and 6th-placed Overpass (9-1). Private Eye forms half of a strong pairing for trainer Joe Pride, whose streaking Think About It (4-1) seeks a 9th straight win from 12 career starts. Pride was the trainer of Eduardo, a longtime great rival of Nature Strip who finished 3rd in The Everest of 2021.
Nature Strip’s trainer, Chris Waller, also has a pair of runners: Shinzo (15-1), winner of the world’s richest juvenile race, the Golden Slipper; and the mare Espiona (16-1), who has attracted the services of Hugh Bowman from his new Hong Kong base – thus reconvening Winx’s trainer-jockey combination. Godolphin, which has fallen just short of the summit with three minor placings in The Everest, also brings a one-two punch: Golden Slipper runner-up Cylinder (8-1 and, like Shinzo, a 3-year-old colt whose stud value would skyrocket with a win on Friday night); and the mare In Secret (14-1), who has attracted another Australian rider based in Hong Kong: last season’s champion jockey, Zac Purton.
The King Charles III Stakes (Race 9) will showcase a spectacular field of 16, including nine individual Group 1 winners (one more than The Everest’s field of 12). For all its depth and quality, the race strictly goes through 6-5 favorite Mr Brightside, by virtue of his superlative 10-for-14 record at the distance: any race at a mile makes Mr Brightside smile. The field includes a pair of highly credentialed international shippers: Light Infantry Man (10-1) makes his second visit Down Under, having finished 6th of 20 in the aforementioned 2022 Golden Eagle won by I Wish I Win; while the Joseph O’Brien-trained Buckaroo (20-1) shares the name of North America’s leading sire of 1985, an honor earned through the deeds of Kentucky Derby-winning Horse of the Year, Spend a Buck.
The Randwick card will be broadcast live on FanDuel TV and for the first time ever in Spanish language on DRF En Espanol this Friday night (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT). All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, FanDuel and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances, and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.
About Michael Wrona
A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael’s vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders’ Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.