NO EVEREST RUN THIS YEAR, BUT PRIVATE EYE LOOKS SET TO MAKE HIS PRESENCE FELT AT CAULFIELD

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, October 14, 2025

The Joe Pride trained Private Eye will not take part in The Everest for the first time in three years when the field for the $20 million Group 1 contest line up at Randwick on Saturday … but the eight-year-old warrior is also scheduled to be in action on the day, swopping Everest Day at Randwick for Caulfield Cup day in Melbourne where he will contest the Group 3 Moonga Stakes over 1400m.

Private Eye finished second when getting to within 0.44 lengths of Giga Kick in the 2022 Everest, third in the 2023 Everest behind stable companion Think About It … when just 0.76 lengths behind the winner … and then sixth last year when coming home only 1.56 lengths behind Bella Nipotina.

No cigar, but that is a really proud record against the best sprinters of the day in each of those Everest editions … with Private Eye’s overall record, in which he has finished in the first three places in half of his forty-three starts, showing notable wins in the Group 1 Epsom, the Queensland Guineas, the Gilgai and the Shorts (all Group 2 races), with his most lucrative win coming in the $3 million Nature Strip Stakes … and with his most recent and emphatic win, in the Group 2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes adding more fire to that list.

While The Everest chapter has now been closed for Private Eye, his undeniable, inherent class means he will be well worth a second glance in Saturday’s Moonga Stakes.at Caulfield.

That latest win in the P.B. Lawrence Stakes came over the same track and distance over which Private Eye will compete on Saturday. That was his only career start at Caulfield to date, and he appeared to relish the occasion, coming home a comfortable two lengths clear of Desert Lightning, who would frank that form by winning at his next start.

In his two starts since that P.B. Lawrence Stakes, Private Eye finished a 1.20 length second behind Pericles in the Group 2 Tramway (Pericles went on to finish third behind Autumn Glow in the Group 1 Epsom) and fourth behind Fangirl in $1 million 7 Stakes. Fangirl is a twelve-time winner and a $10.6 million earner.

And there is one more point in the positive column. Nash Rawiller is expected to forgo Everest day and instead be in Melbourne to take the ride on Private Eye, who he has partnered in five out of the horse’s last six starts. That is a big advantage.

Clearly, even at eight years of age, Private Eye never lies down, never gives anything away and seemingly remains committed to race to the very best of his ability.

Whether that is still good enough for him to land career win number fourteen on Saturday, which would add another $144 000 to Private Eye’s already burgeoning stakes earnings tally of $12 497 685, remains to be seen, but the chances are he is not going to go quietly and it might take a very good performance to beat him.

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