Leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees says the strong interest in Saturday’s $1 million The Hunter confirms to him the feature sprint has just about established itself as the city’s signature race.
That's no disrespect to the Newcastle Cup, but Kris Lees believes the positioning of the meeting as a complement to Sydney's Everest Carnival and its status as a stand alone metropolitan card is a recipe for success.
With 31 nominations for the third running of $1 million feature, The Hunter has also entered the psyche of trainers and for the first time the race will carry current Everest form when Lost And Running takes his place.
John O'Shea's emerging star sprinter finished fourth behind Nature Strip in the $15 million classic then chased Eduardo home in the Classique Legend Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill two weeks ago.
"I think the first couple of years, I wouldn't say an afterthought, it wasn't in people's minds,'' Lees said.
"But Lost And Running's heading there and I don't think there has been any Everest runners back up. That would suggest people are planning for it and it will keep growing.
"I think it will overtake our Cup as the main day. It probably already has, the fact it is a stand alone Saturday.
"It was a huge shock when it was first announced, from our point of view it came out of nowhere, but now crowds are coming back we'll have a good crowd and it will be better again when we have normality in the next couple of years.
"We've been restricted in the last two years, though, to compare (to Cup Day) but we've been fortunate all the Hunters have been Covid free."
Lost And Running was TAB's $2.50 favourite on Monday.
Lees has finished second in both editions of The Hunter so far, with Tactical Advantage in 2019 and Special Reward last year. He has campaigned his previous Everest runners, Le Romain and Graff, in the race but not in the same preparation.
With six nominations for Saturday's race Lees is set to have a strong representation headed by last season's Newcastle Newmarket Handicap winner Gem Song, Special Reward will be back for another shot, and he has Wandabaa, Acquitted, Countofmontecristo and Never Talk as possible runners.
"I reckon this is going to be the strongest running,'' he said.
"We've been setting Gem Song for it first-up, he's not quite up to the better ones so we targeted this race for him to resume in. He's going really well and the forecast of rain for Friday probably helps.
"Special Reward is going better than his form guide reads, he was a bit of a hidden run last Tuesday. I think he is going as good as he was last year."
The Hunter program is being supported by the inaugural running of the $300,000 The Beauford for the stayers over the 2300m, the Max Lees Classic (900m) for the two-year-olds and the Group 3 Spring Stakes (1600m) for three-year-olds.
