SOUTH Australian sprint star Gytrash is on the road to the $15m TAB Everest.
Trainer Gordon Richards, wife Jacqui and their stable star departed Adelaide on Sunday morning following an impressive track gallop at Morphettville on Saturday where he sat off stablemates Bold Star and Garner before easily rounding them up with Jason Holder in the saddle.
“Jason said he felt better than ever,’’ Richards said following the gallop.
Richards is hoping the regular travel between Adelaide and Melbourne for sprint majors will have helped condition the horse for his three-day road trip.
They will float from Adelaide to Broken Hill on Sunday, then to Dubbo on Monday before arriving at his Warwick Farm base where he will campaign.
“The way it works out it’s roughly eight hours each day which is basically what he would do when he’s gone to Melbourne, raced, then come home the next day,’’ Richards said.
“He should be fine with that, he’s been to Melbourne enough and usually travels pretty well,’’ he said.
Richards said he was conscious to get the horse to Sydney as early as possible so he can familiarise himself racing the anti-clockwise direction which will include a trial at Warwick Farm on Friday before he makes his Sydney race debut in the $150,000 Group 3 Concorde Stakes over 1000m at Rosehill on September 5.
“Getting up there a couple of weeks out from his first race should hold him in good stead,’’ Richards added.
“The plan is to have a trial at Warwick Farm and then run in the Concorde Stakes a fortnight after that,’’ he said.
That race promises to be a genuine entree to Australia’s most prestigious sprint with Gytrash set to clash with current Everest favourite Nature Strip.
“It’s obviously going to be a pretty strong race, which you’d expect,’’ Richards said.
“Nature Strip will be there. No one expected us to beat him last time in the Lightning so hopefully he can do it again,’’ he said.
Gytrash is the third horse to secure an Everest slot in combination with Inglis where he was purchased for $40,000 at Premier Yearling Sale and has been promoted as the “Giant Killer”.
Inglis Managing Director Mark Webster said they were thrilled Richards and connections had agreed to join them on the 2020 TAB Everest journey.
“Gytrash ticks all the boxes, he’s proven at the top level, his on-speed racing pattern is favourable, he’s proven on both dry and wet tracks and in 19 career starts he’s only been out of the top three once,’’ Webster said.
“He really has become a giant killer of racing, you only need to look at the scalps he accrued during his autumn campaign to see that on his day, he is at the very least every bit as good as the other leading sprinters around.
“He’s a lightly-raced five-year-old who we believe is the best up-and-coming sprinter in the country and we can’t wait for these next two months as we target the Everest with Gordon Richards and Gytrash’s connections,’’ he said.
Gytrash is currently sits on the third line of Everest betting behind Nature Strip who is a $3 favourite with tab.com.au.