The debut of World Pool on The Everest Day at Randwick in Sydney last weekend saw new local highs reached for World Pool with more than A$57 million wagered across nine races and five different bet types.
For the first time ever on an Australian race meeting, totalisator Win, Place, Quinella, Trifecta and Duet wagers from the state of New South Wales were combined with bets placed in Victoria and Western Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory through S-TAB.
A total of HK$284.3 million (A$57.5 million) was held on the nine races offered from Randwick, topping the HK$253 million wagered on Lightning Sakes Day at Flemington in February. It also set a new benchmark of almost HK$31.6 million (A$6.4 million) per race, compared with almost HK$26.7 million (A$5.4 million) on five races from Turnbull Stakes Day last weekend.
Significantly, the feature A$20 million The Everest–won by Think About It–had the third-highest turnover of all 195 World Pool races worldwide in 2023 at HK$51.5 million (A$10.4 million).
Only the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot, which attracted HK$66.2 million in bets, and the G1 Dubai World Cup, which generated HK$54.5 million, garnered more betting attention–and both had six bet types to The Everest's five.
Additionally, the A$8,000 World Pool Moment of the Day was awarded to Raj Kumar, the groom of Front Page, who became a back-to-back winner of The Kosciuszko. Kumar is now in the running to win a trip to Hong Kong next year should his victory be selected as the World Pool Moment of the Year.
World Pool action returns to Melbourne next weekend for Caulfield Cup Day (Oct. 21), which will be held in conjunction with British Champions Day at Ascot in the UK, before Cox Plate Day (Oct. 28) and Victoria Derby Day (Nov. 4) are also taken globally.
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