Gytrash to hit the road for shot at Everest riches
Adelaide sprinter to wear Inglis colours in $15 million slot race
Mark Webster is confident that Group 1-winning sprinter Gytrash (Lope De Vega) is Inglis’ best chance of collecting a major share of the $15 million up for grabs in this year’s The Everest (1200m).
The sales company yesterday confirmed that the Gordon Richards-trained Gytrash, this year’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner, would be its representative in the fourth edition of the rich slot race to be run at Randwick on October 17.
Inglis managing director Mark Webster revealed that the auction house, which has a non-compete clause written to its Everest contract preventing Magic Millions or another rival from participating, had cast the net far and wide, including internationally, searching for potential Everest candidates, but it was Gytrash who stood out.
“Nature Strip is the favourite, who is another Inglis graduate but he’s out of play, so we’ve selected a horse who has beaten Nature Strip and a number of other horses who are in the market for the race. From our end, he ticks a lot of boxes,” Webster said yesterday.
“An important way to look at it is, yes, he’s got ability and he’s won at Group 1 level but what I really like about this horse is that he’s run 19 times and he’s run top three in 18 of those starts.
“There’s only one occasion where he hasn’t finished top three and that’s in all his races, as a two-year-old, the whole lot. Even in his trials he’s always a top three finisher. He has something about him and he doesn’t like being beaten.
“That consistency of being a top-three performer is really important for The Everest because the prize-money of the top three is where it really makes a difference when you have to pay $600,000 for a slot.
“You want to be top-three otherwise it’s costing you as a slot owner.”
The Adelaide-trained Gytrash ($15) is the third sprinter to be locked away for this year’s 12-slot race, joining Nature Strip (Nicconi) (Tabcorp) and Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) (Bon Ho).
Rubisaki (Rubick), an Inglis Classic graduate, and $22,500 Inglis Digital buy Bella Vella (Commands), a last-start Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner for Will Clarken, were also contenders for the auction house’s slot, as was Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible).
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly given the rate and spread of infection in Victoria, racehorses from that state are currently prevented from racing or being trained in NSW in a ruling implemented by Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys.
“We did raise that with Racing NSW a week or so ago as a slot owner that it is something that needs to be clarified because we all need to be locking in horses and it’s difficult to do that when there’s no guarantee that the horse can come,” Webster said.
“It’s not only about attending on race day, but it’s about being able to come up and settle in as horses like to do.
“We did raise that and we were told that it wasn’t going to be changed right now and that it would be reviewed in a few weeks.
“I still think, in the end, and we went through a very thorough process, that Gytrash was right up there anyway. I am not saying we chose him because we couldn’t have a Victorian horse, but it did make it easier for us to make that decision.”
Gytrash, who has not raced since finishing runner-up in The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) in May, will have an exhibition with two stablemates at Morphettville today before Richards and his wife Jacqui set off with the five-year-old gelding in tow for a three-day, 1650-kilometre trip.
A mirror in the float will keep Gytrash company until they arrive at Clare Cunningham’s Warwick Farm stables on Tuesday.
“We’ll have a good sleep Saturday night and then we’ll head off just before midday on Sunday to head to Broken Hill. We can’t go through Victoria to get there, so we have got to go through NSW,” the trainer said.
“He’s used to travelling in the float. I have towed him to Melbourne when we used to take him across and race him and bring him back the next day.
“They are ten-hour trips, so he will take this trip in his stride. It’s probably five and a half to six hours to Broken Hill. We will stay the night and then it’s about eight to Dubbo and then five or six into Warwick Farm, so we will break it up into three days and stop overnight.
“He’s a pretty casual bugger, so I don’t think that will worry him too much. I’d rather do it now so he has time to get up there and he is going to trial at Warwick Farm next Friday. It’s only 800 metres and it’s just to give him a go that way of going.”
Richards said there was interest from two other slot holders but when Inglis returned with an offer this week, connections jumped at the chance to link with the sales company which sold Gytrash to the Adelaide trainer for $40,000 at the 2017 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.
He said: “It’s fantastic, it really is. Inglis approached me six weeks ago I suppose and just asked what our intentions were. All the time our intentions were to go to Sydney with him to race this preparation in the hope that we get picked up.
“I never heard from them again and I had interest from two other slot holders and I was doing presentations for them, but then Inglis came back the other day and jumped in. They trumped them and the others were still thinking about it.
“We bought him at the Inglis sales, so we’re rapt. We would have been happy to get a slot with anyone, but I am really happy that it is with Inglis. It’s great.”
Richards and his wife will stay at the William Inglis Hotel for the duration of Gytrash’s Everest campaign, which is expected to start in the Concorde Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick on September 5 before using The Shorts (Gr 2, 1100m) or the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) as the gelding’s lead-up run.
“I know it’s an old cliche, but he seems to be getting better every prep. You can see little things that he’s doing wrong in other preps (that he isn’t now),” he said.
“Until he starts racing you’re not going to know, but to me he has come back bigger and stronger. Proof of the pudding will be in the eating I guess, but I am really happy with him.”
Fell Swoop (Not A Single Doubt) (2017, 12th), Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega) (2018, sixth) and In Her Time (Time Thief) (2019, ninth) represented Inglis in the first three runnings of the race.