Racing NSW raise the stakes with $20 million Everest and race named after The King
George Main Stakes rebranded the King Charles III Stakes and moved to Everest undercard with prize-money of $5 million
A $20 million The Everest (1200m) and $5 million King Charles III Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) are the headline boosts to a further lucrative Sydney Everest Carnival, with the changes announced by Racing NSW at a lavish event in London on Saturday evening.
With the $5 million increase to its prize-money, the trailblazing The Everest will become the second-most richest race in the world, surpassing the Dubai World Cup (Gr 1, 2000m), which earlier this year was worth US$12 million (approx. AU$18 million), and trailing only the Saudi Cup (1800m), which offers a purse of US$20 million (approx. AU$30 million) and had its fourth renewal in February.
The King Charles III Stakes is a rebrand of the George Main Stakes, and will add further clout to The Everest undercard, with total prize-money for the raceday, which attracted a crowd 46,000 in 2022, to exceed $30 million this year.
The George Main Stakes, named in honour of the former chairman of the Australian Jockey Club, was previously held in September and last year carried prize-money of $1 million when won by champion racehorse Anamoe (Street Boss). It will be replaced in its former position on the calendar by a new $1 million race called The 7 Stakes, which will be run over 1600 metres at weight-for-age.
The boosts to prize-money, totalling $12 million for The Everest Carnival, defy the wider context of an economic downturn in Australia, which contributed to thoroughbred sales across the season posting year-on-year decreases in turnover, while earlier this month Racing Victoria revealed details of across-the-board purse decreases in the state, declaring the prize-money arms race with Racing NSW of recent years as ‘over’.
However, Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys yesterday told ANZ Bloodstock News that the prize-money increases announced for the upcoming Everest Carnival are in keeping with revenues rising for Racing NSW, a boost in turnover that has not least been derived from the success of The Everest.
“Our revenues are still going up, they’ve not declined, and one reason for that is certainly that The Everest has a 12-month effect. It attracts a new generation of punters, who participate all year round, and so the bigger it is, the more people’s attention it gets. There’s no need for us to be cutting prize-money, in fact we’re doing the opposite,” V’landys said.
“We always take the policy that we give these dividends to our participants. If you were a public company, and you’re doing very well with your profits, you issue dividends to your shareholders. In our case, the prize-money is the dividends to our participants. They put on the show, and they compete for the prize-money.
“We could probably do more [prize-money increases], and we may well look at doing more.”
Criticism has been aimed at Racing NSW for directing its funding towards high-value feature races, such as The Everest, instead of investing in grassroots racing or infrastructure, however V’landys refuted such suggestions, saying $190 million is being invested in infrastructure, describing those that raise such condemnation as ‘underachievers’, while pointing the governing body’s record on prize-money for Country racing, which has been increased ‘more than in any other sector’ in recent years.
“These criticisms are just diversions,” V’landys said. “If you look at any other jurisdiction in Australia, the most they have spent in the last couple of years on infrastructure is between $20 and $25 million. So [the criticisms] are a nonsense, they fall flat on their face.
“We’ve put $120 million away for infrastructure and there’s a further $70 million available from the government for infrastructure projects, so we’ll be investing that.
“We’re adding 300 stables and a brand new Polytrack at Scone, that’s about to start, and we have a major innovation project at Kembla Grange racecourse that’s about to start. These things take time as you have to go through the relevant government authorities with your applications. There’s a high demand for builders and we have to attract contractors to do the work. We won’t be rushed, we will do it in the time it requires.”
On the announcement for rebranding the George Main Stakes to the King Charles III Stakes, and allocating $5 million in prize-money, V’landys said: “We wanted to honour King Charles and that’s why we made the announcement in London.
“We pride ourselves on being only one of two ‘royal’ tracks in the world, along with Royal Ascot. Our grandstand is named the Queen Elizabeth II grandstand and one of our major races is the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. It’s only just that we continue the royal tradition and honour the great King, and that’s what we’ve done.”
In other changes, the $2 million Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) for three-year-olds will be held on October 28, a week later than last year, and once again one week prior to the running of the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) at Flemington. The Spring Champion Stakes will stand alongside The Invitation (1400m), which is also worth $2 million in 2023.
V’landys dismissed any suggestion the race was placed a week prior to the Derby in a bid to lure runners from that race. The Spring Champion Stakes was won by Sharp ‘N’ Smart (Redwood) last year, who then failed to win the Derby when backing up a week later, finishing second behind Manzoice (Almanzor).
“This move [would have been the result] of a request of the consultation process with our participants, the trainers,” V’landys said.
A further new race, the Alan Brown Stakes (1400m), will be run under handicap conditions on October 7, alongside the feature $2 million Hill Stakes (Gr 2, 1900m), with this meeting set to be staged at Rosehill, allowing for a two-week break between the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) meeting at Randwick on September 30, and The Everest raceday on October 14.
The Golden Eagle (1500m) for four-year-olds will again be worth $10 million, and will be staged on the same day as the Giga Kick Stakes (1300m), commemorating last year’s winner of The Everest, on November 4, which concludes the Sydney Everest Carnival.
The announcement of prize-money increases in NSW came after Racing Victoria on June 7 released details of cuts to prize-money totalling $2.5 million.
The All-Star Mile (1600m), Racing Victoria’s response to The Everest, will have its prize-money cut to $4 million from $5 million, while midweek metropolitan and country races were also hit with trimmed purses, provoking criticism from sectors of the industry, including the TROA, TBV and VJA, who released a joint-statement in the days after the changes were revealed, condemning the proposed alterations.