Randwick's $10 million warchest to make The Everest even bigger

Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club are set to open a $10 million war chest to expand Royal Randwick's facilities so they can grow The Everest meeting after another phenomenal success in the second running of the race on Saturday.

In just two years, The Everest has changed the culture and perception of racing and attracted a new, younger audience to the sport. Now Randwick is set for a further makeover to make sure anyone who wants to get to the races can be accommodated at the track.

Stands full: Belflyer wins the Kosciuszko at Randwick on Saturday.

Stands full: Belflyer wins the Kosciuszko at Randwick on Saturday.Credit:AAPIMAGE

“We wanted to engage the next generation and we have,” Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said. “We have only just began. We have the Randwick development fund, which has more than $10 million in it and it is available to the club straight away to improve public facilities.

“We used $10m of it to build training tracks, which were desperately needed, but the rest will be used to give a better raceday experience, particularly in the public areas.”

The crowd was up just under 20 per cent from the first running of The Everest, with Redzel running away with the $13 million race again. It was remarkable result considering it was a showery afternoon.

ATC chief executive Jamie Barkley finished his first week in charge of the club by watching 40,578 people roll through the gates at Randwick. Now he wants to expand the public areas to get the crowd up towards 50,000 in 2019.

He also wants to give the members’ area an even more top-end feel.

“We need to improve the public facilities and grow the areas we can use at Royal Randwick,” Barkley said. “This is already a flagship event in Sydney and we can, and will, make it better.

“I had a good look around on Saturday and there is so much we can do. There is the scope to extend the leger lawns and use some areas better. Given the weather on Saturday, there is scope for this day to get bigger.”

Barkley, who came from running the SCG Trust for the past 17 years, can see only upside in The Everest and Randwick in general. He is excited at the opportunities that racedays offer and will target premium events.

The Everest is at the top of that list but Golden Slipper day at Rosehill and The Championships at Randwick during the autumn are, in his opinion, also growth markets.

“In two years, The Everest has joined the biggest and most traditional sporting events in Sydney,” Barkley said. “It is already bigger than day-night cricket, Twenty20 cricket, Swans games and NRL finals at Moore Park.

“The only thing that I can compare it with is the Test at the SCG. It is up there with State Of Origin, the Bledisloe Cup Test and the NRL grand final. That is exclusive company in Sydney sport.

"These events have long histories. We are building our own history with The Everest. We start working towards taking the next step with The Everest from tomorrow. We need people to know that they are going to be able to have a better experience next year.”

Randwick got to near capacity on Saturday, with police monitoring crowd levels from mid-afternoon. It makes creating more areas for people to enjoy the day at the races a priority.

Barkley said The Everest meeting was a showcase window for racing and that its strength was that 78 per cent of the public tickets were sold to those aged 35 and under.

“Any sport in the world that had that level engagement in that younger age group would be amazed,” Barkley said.

"There is a lot we can do and there are other things that might take a bit of time because you need DAs to develop some other areas."

Other indications of success on the day were up as well, with betting growth of nine per cent on the TAB. It is expected that figure will be similar when corporate bookmakers figures come in later in the week.

V'landys was delighted with the betting turnover, which was particularly strong for the country-only slots race the Koscuiszko.

"The Everest continues to go from strength to strength, but the Kosciuszko was the third biggest betting race on the program, which shows its engagement around the state," he said.

"We are also getting strong crowd figures from other tracks that raced, which is the flow-on effect of having such a successful meeting."

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