Brilliant colt Yes Yes Yes reaffirmed trainer Chris Waller’s faith in him when he stormed home to win the 2019 $14m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick today.
Yes Yes Yes filled the slot owned by Chris Waller Racing and gave the older sprinters a galloping lesson with a powerful finish from near the tail of the field.
Winning jockey Glen Boss let Yes Yes Yes ($9) settle near the tail of the field and waited until the field had topped the rise before starting to wind up down the centre of the track.
Yes Yes Yes’s stablemate Nature Strip ($21) had crossed from the outside barrier and led the field into the straight but was overhauled in the final fifty metres.
Santa Ana Lane ($5.50) was held up in the early stages of the straight before running on strongly for second, half a length behind the winner, with $31 chance Trekking also running on from the back to climb into third spot.
Waller’s third runner in The Everest, Arcadia Queen, was sent out as the $5 favourite, and after racing midfield, never threatened to finish in eleventh position, four and a half lengths from the winner while the two times Everest winner Redzel ($13) took up his usual position in the first three but faded in the run to the line to wind up in eighth spot.
Waller was relived that his faith in Yes Yes Yes had paid off for the owners and the syndicate behind Chris Waller Racing and added that his experience with Winx over the last four years had prepared him for an occasion like this.
“To tell you the truth it was an amazing feeling. Where we’ve been with Winx, where she took us has set us up for days like this. She took us on an emotional ride,” Waller said.
“There is so much at risk. You have to go to the owners in Coolmore plus the original owners as he wasn’t my horse. You have to suggest it can win an Everest, you can’t say you’re going to run second and third. Then you have to go to the slot holders to choose it.”