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By Ray Hickson

He’s a $75,000 horse with over $10 million in the bank but that’s not why trainer Bjorn Baker has a soft spot for Overpass.

Trainer Bjorn Baker (Pic: Bradley Photos).

Baker said he owes Overpass a lot, he’s become a better trainer because of horses like him and would like nothing better than for him to run the race of his life in Saturday’s Group 1 $20 million TAB Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick.

It’ll be the gelding’s fourth appearance on TAB Everest day and third in the world’s richest race on turf following a sixth in 2022 and tenth in 2023. He won the Sydney Stakes a year ago.

“Overpass is every trainer’s dream, especially when you’re trying to make your mark in the hardest racing jurisdiction arguably in the world,’’ Baker said.

“He’s a warhorse, he’s really put me on the map. He’s actually made me a better trainer too.

“I’ve learned to be more patient, I’ve learned to have him fit fresh up and he’s been a remarkable horse.

“He’s brought a lot of clients to the stable, opened up a lot of friendships particularly in West Australia. He’s so much more than just a horse in the stable and he’s cemented my relationship with Darby Racing which has been so fruitful.”

You wouldn’t guess that a horse who started $3.70 in a two-year-old race at Orange, and scrambled in, in April 2021 could have built the record that Overpass has.

He’s won 10 of his 32 starts including back-to-back Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes in Perth.

“He puts himself up on speed and he’s run so many great races,’’ he said.

“Early days I thought he was just a horse. He’d trialled okay, we took him out to Orange to win. Even at Orange he only just won.

“He’s been around since he was a two-year-old, it seems like he’s been around forever but he’s only a seven-year-old.”

While Overpass has been somewhat dismissed by the market, as a $51 chance following the barrier draw, it’ll be the first time he’s tackled the Everest first-up.

That’s one of the lessons he’s learned about the gelding and the fruits of that were shown last year when he ran faster time than the Everest in winning the Sydney Stakes.

In an ideal world he’d perhaps have wanted to draw inside Ka Ying Rising but he's had a look at the favourite, when running second in that highly publicised trial earlier this month, and Baker said Overpass has had the preparation he’s wanted to run a big race

“In his first Everest we tried to get into the Everest, if you go back in time you’d love him to be fresh up,’’ he said.

“His two best runs at Randwick were in the Sydney Stakes last year and in the autumn in the TJ Smith (close second to Briasa).

“Both runs were fanastic, I believe he is going as well as those two days and he’s going to need to be. He’s capable of running a very high rating race and if he can do that he’s not out of it.

“He’s got that natural speed, he'll be fast, we’ll look to be in the first three and ideally we won’t cover ground.”

Baker has five runners in the Group 3 $2 million Toyota Forklifts Sydney Stakes (1200m) including Everest emergency Iowna Merc, Sandpaper and Caballus first-up, Randwick specialist Disneck and talented mare Shezanalister.

After a runaway in over the Randwick mile two weeks ago, Baker hopes Perfumist can repeat the dose up in class in the Group 3 $250,000 Asahi Super Dry Angst Stakes (1600m).

The mare didn’t run up to expectation in her first two runs this spring but since she’s risen in distance she’s roared back to form and that was on display when she led all the way.

Overpass runs second in a Randwick trial on October 7

“She’d been building to that. Her form very much mirrors what she did last preparation,’’ he said.

“She started out in the bush and couldn’t win, as she got fitter and up in trip she got better and better. If you take into account the grade she kicked off in she’s running to that level.

“I thought she was amazing the other day, we know she’s good at a mile and set weights and penalties work well for her.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s TAB Everest meeting at Randwick