“Pass mark, needs to improve,” he said. “He hasn’t had a run for about a month and he hasn’t done too much serious work in that amount of time, so it was the first time he’s done anything competitive in a while.
“The track was a little bit soft for him. He’s not totally at home on that ground, but I thought he trialled well enough.
“Obviously, it’s going to be a competitive race, the horses in Australia are peaking at the right time so hopefully we can draw a good gate, get a dry track and I’m sure he’ll improve a bit off that.
“He had a big blow after the trial and he’ll have another 200m to run in The Everest, he’s got 10 days to do a bit more work and improve – hopefully he can.”
Hayes was of a similar opinion to Purton but was satisfied with what he saw.
“It was a good, solid trial but he did need it,” Hayes said. “He blew a few cobwebs out and he’ll really come on a lot for that. He’ll have a nice gallop on Monday [October 13] and he’ll be right for the big one.
“He’s about 20lbs [9kg] above his racing weight [which is about 521kg] and I’ll expect it to come down a bit in the next week.”
Before the trial, Hayes arranged a “dress rehearsal” for his star, spending time in the raceday tie-up stalls and Randwick’s Theatre of the Horse.
He was slightly agitated walking around the parade ring, but understandably so having raced solely at Sha Tin over the past couple of seasons.
“Hopefully he’ll improve from the experience,” Hayes said.
“He’s had a look at Randwick now. He hasn’t been away from Sha Tin for a long time – that’s his only track – so to have a look around here was very, very good for him.”
Hayes will compete against his son’s Ben, Will and JD in the Everest after their sprinter War Machine, yet another Kiwi-bred, gained a slot on Sunday.
– LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
