Sydney v Melbourne: The Battle To Stage Dream Showdown Between Ka Ying Rising, Autumn Glow & Sheza Alibi

If Sydney race club officials have any sense of theatre, the marketing machine should click into gear a couple of hours before The Everest is run next month.

In the shadows of the grandstand named after the wonder mare Winx, Royal Randwick’s race day stalls are a hot, sweaty mess of voyeuristic humanity just wanting to have a look at good horses on a big day.

Hong Kong legend Ka Ying Rising will be there waiting to defend his title in the A$20 million The Everest. They should put him in a stall and call it the blue corner.

So, too, will be Australia’s best horse, Autumn Glow. Despite efforts from a baying public wanting her to take on Ka Ying Rising over his pet distance of 1200 metres in The Everest, she will be waiting for the A$5 million King Charles Stakes over a mile. The best they’ll do is pass like ships in the night as he walks from the track and she walks onto it. Let’s dub her bay the red corner.

Just for fun, put them on opposite sides of the complex. Give them the chance to look each other in the eye. He can see her, she can see him. A date? Not in the romantic sense, but how does March sound?

Because if Australian powerbrokers have their way, the next time the two bump into each other it will be part of a unique promotion to bring three of the world’s best horses together in a made-for-television event.

Ever since David Hayes blurted out on Melbourne radio earlier this month he had been approached about a showdown with Australia’s two super mares, Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi, punters have wondered: is it really going to happen?

The short answer is it’s complicated.

Having the world’s highest-rated horse and winner of 21 consecutive races would be appealing to any top race club official, but a quasi-war has broken out between Sydney and Melbourne to host the super race … if it happens.

Undoubtedly, Ka Ying Rising and the Hong Kong Jockey Club hold the whip hand because the race needs him more than he needs the race.

“I think we’ve got to get through spring before we start thinking about match races,” Ka Ying Rising’s trainer David Hayes said.

“(But) personally, I would love it. (Ka Ying Rising’s owner) Mr Leung is half-half and I’m not sure what the thoughts of the Jockey Club are. All three of the parties would have to be behind it because it is a bit of a risk travelling these horses all over the world.”

The only conceivable time it could be held in 2027 is March – Sydney wants it to be Golden Slipper day and Melbourne are planning for a week later on the Australian Cup program – to allow Ka Ying Rising time to complete quarantine and return to Hong Kong for the Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

Already hosting Ka Ying Rising for a second time in an environment he’s familiar with should provide Sydney’s Australian Turf Club with a leg up, and they’ve sounded out connections about the contest being held over 1500 metres at Rosehill.

Golden Slipper day is already Australia’s largest Group 1 race day with five majors and the contest would be a major boost for a racetrack which was on the cusp of closure, subject to a $5 billion proposal from the NSW government to turn it into a mini city. ATC members vetoed the sale.

There are two options for how the race could be staged: the three horses could line up in an existing Group 1 race in the George Ryder Stakes, which would also be open to other entrants. The race’s current $1 million prize purse could be inflated by connections offering to put up $1 million each of their own money, added to by corporate support, and the first horse home out of the three would scoop the pool.

According to multiple sources spoken to for this story, the other alternative is to just schedule a race specifically on the program for Ka Ying Rising, Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi, with connections putting their money on the line with a major backer adding to the purse. It would be held late in the day, possibly as the last race, to be simulcast with the World Pool back into Hong Kong at a favourable time.

The 1500 metres seems to be the best meeting point. Ka Ying Rising would have to stretch out to a distance he’s yet to contest. It’s in Autumn Glow’s sweet spot after her George Ryder demolition earlier this year. Perhaps Sheza Alibi might be most disadvantaged given she has excelled at a mile, but she should be versatile enough at the trip. Her co-trainer Peter Moody is known to favour the three horses contesting a full field race like the George Ryder to generate genuine tempo for his mare.

“Obviously, it’s a bit of a longshot,” Australian Turf Club chief executive Steve McMahon said. “But we’re determined to make it happen.

“It would be the best promotion for Rosehill in years. We’d pack the joint out. This is the next step of innovation we need in the sport.”

But Melbourne, too, is hellbent on having Ka Ying Rising glide across their famous Flemington turf for the first time.

It wasn’t widely reported at the time, but Idol Horse has learnt the Victoria Racing Club was close to securing Ka Ying Rising for a second Australian run last year after he conquered The Everest in Sydney.

It was going to be in the $3 million Champions Sprint down Flemington’s famous straight six furlongs. The only catch was the VRC had to find enough money to offer a bonus to connections if Ka Ying Rising won, to match what he could have earned if he had stayed in Sydney and won the Russell Balding Stakes two weeks after The Everest. The shortfall was about $1.5 million.

In the end, it was decided Ka Ying Rising would return to Hong Kong without a second run in Australia – in either Sydney or Melbourne.

This time, the VRC has scoffed at reports they’re playing catch up with Sydney in putting together a match race concept, adamant they opened discussions with Hayes about their proposal back in May.

“The VRC are very keen to host the match race in that March period and we would offer the connections the chance to race over 1400 metres,” VRC’s executive general manager of racing Leigh Jordon said.

“We’re open to conversations about other distances as well. We’d like to get Racing Victoria, the TAB and ourselves involved in funding the venture.”

Australian officials are adamant they would also be open to the idea of the three-horse race being repeated in Hong Kong, although it would require significant support from connections of Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi.

Autumn Glow’s managing owner, John Messara, is one of the sport’s most ardent traditionalists. After years of infighting between Australian states over the pattern, the programming which determines the country’s major races calendar and the value of bloodstock, Messara has been one of the impasse’s biggest critics.

He wants to travel Autumn Glow internationally next year, most likely to Royal Ascot. But he’s also embracing the idea of a showdown with Ka Ying Rising and Sheza Alibi.

“I am aware that discussions are taking place among race club officials to entice Sheza Alibi, Autumn Glow and Ka Ying Rising to meet in an existing race or in a three-way challenge in the autumn,” he told Idol Horse.

“I think this would be an exciting clash, and subject to discussion with our partner and our trainer, I would be supportive of it. It would be a great showdown, and I expect it to be a big drawcard for racing if it could be arranged.”

The Jockey Club has already fostered closer relations with Australian race clubs through its World Pool push.

Ka Ying Rising is so popular with Hong Kong punters he’s swallowing win pools every time he steps out onto a racetrack. In his season-opening win earlier this month, the sprinter accounted for 97.52 per cent of the hold. He returned $1.05, a dividend which the Jockey Club has to stimulate by pumping its own money into the tote.

The quinella place bet type – or duet for Australian punters – is one of the most popular in Hong Kong. Having a three-horse race with their pin-up horse in Australia stifles that immediately, which would be a drawback for the Jockey Club and its longtime boss Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who has much thinking to do.

Next month, Engelbrecht-Bresges and Jockey Club officials will fly to Sydney to see if Ka Ying Rising can defend his crown in The Everest. It was a great source of pride when the Hong Kong hero dominated Australia’s best in their own backyard last year.

While the crowds below them again mill for a very public vantage point of Ka Ying Rising and Autumn Glow, the private conversations as they clink glasses in a corporate suite will also be where the action is.

They might go a long way to deciding if a dream three-horse contest will become a reality. ∎

Adam Pengilly

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