Latest news with #EverestDay
Herald Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- Herald Sun
At The Track: Sydney racing scores with Everest slot deal
The Australian Turf Club's decision to lease their Everest slot to Hong Kong Jockey Club for at least two years is a coup for Sydney racing. The deal ensures that barring injury or some unforeseen circumstance, the world's number one-ranked racehorse, Hong Kong's superstar sprinter Ka Ying Rising, will contest the Group 1 $20 million The TAB Everest at Royal Randwick on October 18. Hall of Fame trainer David Hayes has also indicated Ka Ying Rising will stay in Sydney for the $3 million Russell Balding Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens two weeks later. Racenet iQ members get full access to our Pro Tips service, where Greg and our team of professional punters provide daily tips with fully transparent return on investment statistics. SUBSCRIBE NOW and start punting like a pro! ATC will benefit financially from the World Pool, the international commingling parimutuel betting operation which is managed by HKJC and will be available to punters on Everest Day. There is also speculation the World Pool will be added to more Sydney race meetings next season, most notably Golden Slipper Day which boasts five Group 1 races. HKJC executive director of racing, Andrew Harding, told Hong Kong media the club has secured the ATC's Everest slot for two years with an option to extend. 'For this year, the club will use the slot to enable Ka Ying Rising to take part in The Everest,'' Harding told South China Morning Post. 'In future years, we will use the slot to either facilitate a Hong Kong horse running or to target Australian or New Zealand sprinters to come onto the Hong Kong International races after The Everest.'' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Ka Ying Rising joins Briasa (slot holders Max Whitby, Neil Werrett and Col Madden) and Private Harry (Yulong) as confirmed Everest starters. Sunshine In Paris, owned by Everest slot-holder John Camilleri of Fairway Thoroughbreds, is also being set for the big race. This leaves eight slots remaining and competition for an Everest start will be fierce – but not everyone is happy. A leading Sydney trainer contacted At The Track incensed that ATC had not used their slot for an 'ATC trained horse'. 'Surely that's the idea of a slot,'' the trainer said. 'That's like Wayne Bennett picking a player from another club for the grand final. What a disgrace.'' The trainer's disappointment is understandable but the financial benefits to ATC for leasing their slot HKJC and having the World Pool alignment on Everest Day is considerable, and the club wants the best possible field for the world's richest turf race so securing Ka Ying Rising was the number one priority. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Is Coolmore's three-year-old filly Minnie Hauk, winner of the English Oaks yesterday, the most valuable potential broodmare still racing? Minnie Hauk, a daughter of English superhorse Frankel and closely related on her dam's side to another champion, Kingman, was purchased for about $A4 million as a yearling at the Goffs Orby Sale and her Oaks win means she is now a priceless broodmare once her racing days are over. The regally-bred Minnie Hauk gave Irish training genius Aidan O'Brien his 11th Oaks win when she defeated her stablemate Whirl. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ The US triple crown isn't on the line but the final leg of the famous series, the Belmont Stakes, takes on special significance with the return clash of Godolphin's Sovereignty and Coolmore's Journalism in New York on Sunday morning. Sovereignty won an epic Kentucky Derby from Journalism last month but missed the second leg, the Preakness Stakes. In his absence, Journalism scored an incredible Preakness win and is early favourite with TAB Fixed Odds for the Belmont at $2.60 with Sovereignty pressing at $2.80. Originally published as Australian Turf Club partners with Hong Kong Jockey Club in landmark deal for their slot in The Everest
Mint
31-05-2025
- Mint
A lightning fast ascent of Everest is rocking the mountaineering world
KATHMANDU , NEPAL : Four men left London's Heathrow Airport for Nepal on a May afternoon. Within five days, they were atop Mount Everest, the 29,000-foot peak where an ascent typically takes weeks of acclimatization and bursts of climbing punctuated by rest. Instead, the four British army veterans prepared for the world's highest peak using a new pre-acclimatization regime involving inhaling xenon gas—once used as an anesthetic but now more commonly found in rocket propellant. Their ascent is rocking the mountaineering community and Nepali authorities, with their use of a substance banned from competitive sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency provoking the criticism this amounts to cheating. Nepal's mountaineering authorities are studying the climb and its implications. On May 29, when the country marks the first recognized summit of the mountain in 1953 as Everest Day, Nepal's prime minister lamented the use of xenon. 'Dishonesty even with Mount Everest?" he said. 'If it did happen, it should be stopped." Alistair Carns, a climber in the group, said critics should take the long view. 'We have just got to accept we're at the cutting-edge of science," said Carns, Britain's veterans minister. He said using xenon was no different from using supplemental oxygen, an innovation climbers made about a century ago that gained wide use. Xenon gas was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2014 after Russian athletes acknowledged using it for Winter Olympics contests. Mountain climbing is a largely unregulated endeavor, though climbing Everest requires permission from Nepal if climbing from the south face, and from China if climbing from the north. Himal Gautam, director at Nepal's tourism department, said the government hasn't certified the expedition as a successful ascent or verified it as a record. The government gives certificates for successful ascents based on photos, videos and climber accounts, but doesn't verify all record claims. The climbers believe they set a record for the fastest round-trip Everest expedition, less than seven days including the return to London. A Ukrainian man said he made it from his home in New York City to the summit of Everest in four days, reaching the peak on May 19, just ahead of the British group. That claim hasn't been verified either. Austrian mountaineer Lukas Furtenbach, who organized the xenon-assisted ascent, said it wasn't just about speed. He described it as a scientifically planned effort to explore the future of high-altitude mountain-climbing—and make it safer. 'We use xenon to protect the body from altitude sickness, not to hasten the ascent," said Furtenbach. 'I don't believe that anyone is against increasing safety on Everest, when the whole world is every year reporting about the many deaths on Everest." Climbing times for the most experienced mountaineers have steadily lowered since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first recognized ascent of the world's tallest peak. That historic climb began in Kathmandu on March 10, 1953, reaching the summit on May 29. In 2019, nutrition scientist Roxanne Vogel summited Everest in two weeks, door-to-door, from her home in California. The fastest climb from base camp to Everest, meanwhile, was by Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa in just under 11 hours in 2003. But for more typical climbers—even when aided by the best gear, experienced Sherpas, climbing ropes and oxygen—Everest is an endeavor that typically spans six to eight weeks. That includes more than a week to trek to base camp, days spent acclimatizing there, and circuits to higher camps often followed by a descent to allow the body to adjust. Failure to acclimatize properly can mean headaches and dizziness in milder cases, and in the worst instances, fatal mountain sickness. Carns said his work as a government minister and personal commitments—he has young children—didn't permit him weeks away from home. Another reason to make news was to raise money for Scotty's Little Soldiers, a British charity focused on the children of fallen soldiers. His fellow climbers were Kevin Godlington, Anthony Stazicker and Garth Miller. Furtenbach had the four British climbers prepare for weeks at their homes in the U.K. by sleeping for a total of over 500 hours each in tents that simulate the low-oxygen conditions on Everest. That has long been part of Furtenbach's expeditions offering a 'flash" ascent of Everest in about three weeks. The men also worked out using masks that simulated thin mountain air. Their regime included a new feature—a roughly 20-minute, one-time hit of a mix of xenon and oxygen some weeks before the men began their climb in Nepal. The formulation was developed and administered to the men in Germany by Dr. Michael Fries, head of anesthesia and intensive-care medicine at St. Vincenz Hospital in the German town of Limburg an der Lahn. After hearing Furtenbach speak on the radio in 2018 about his efforts to help climbers pre-acclimatize, Fries said he contacted him to propose his idea: breathe in xenon gas before a challenging climb. The gas, said Fries, appears to have neuroprotective properties and prompts the production of a hormone that triggers red blood cell production, improving the blood's ability to carry oxygen. Furtenbach and at least a dozen other climbers experimented with the gas in their climbs in the following years, said Fries, and their experiences convinced them it helped prevent altitude-related symptoms. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation said in January that scientific literature didn't support the idea that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains. Given how swiftly it can work—putting people to sleep in a minute—highly experienced medical supervision is vital, said Fries. Furtenbach on his Instagram account has warned climbers against trying to copy their example, noting his group used the gas under medical supervision—and not on the mountain itself. Several mountaineers, while crediting the British climbers achievement and the preparations of Furtenbach's outfit, expressed concern that less experienced climbers or unethical expedition outfits could try to replicate the experiment with dangerous results. 'I'm happy for the four climbers," said Alan Arnette, a mountaineer who chronicles Everest climbing. 'I just think we have to be very aware of unintended consequences of other people trying to take this and replicate it and not doing it safely and thinking that it's some kind of magic bullet or shortcut to the top." Stephan Keck, head of the Austria-based expedition operator Himalayan Experience, said he worried commercial impulses could encourage xenon's use to help inexperienced people summit quickly. 'I don't want to have a circus up there," he said. Some mountaineering experts said it is hard to assess the effects of xenon for a climbing group that also prepared extensively with hypoxia tents and had past physical training in the military. After arriving in Nepal on the morning of May 17, the men took a helicopter to reach base camp after noon. Pasang Tendi Sherpa, who worked with the climbers, said the group prayed at base camp before beginning. They began climbing around midnight, skipped the first camp and arrived at the second camp the next morning. The following day they climbed to Camp 3 and on May 20, made it to Camp 4, into the infamous 'death zone." The pace was relentless, said Godlington: 'We barely stopped to rest." At Camp 4, three of their Sherpas turned back because of a storm. The rest continued to climb overnight, reaching the summit at 7:15 a.m. on May 21. 'We were the only guys on the mountain," Godlington said. Carns said he had given the group a 30% chance of success. Reminders of how wrong climbing Everest can go were all around. When he turned into Camp 4 'there was a dead body just frozen to my left," said Carns. He doesn't foresee a spate of copycat climbs. 'This is one of the hardest things I've done," said Carns. 'So I don't think we're going to see a whole glut of people trying to get up in a week." Write to Krishna Pokharel at and Tripti Lahiri at
India Gazette
28-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
New Zealand Foreign Minister arrives Kathmandu on two days' visit, ahead Everest Day
Kathmandu [Nepal], May 28 (ANI): New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has arrived Kathmandu on his maiden two days' visit to the Himalayan Nation. Peters was received by Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai at the airport along with other Foreign Ministry officials. The New Zealand Foreign Minister is scheduled to make courtesy meeting with Nepali President Ram Chandra Paudel, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday itself. Apart from the President and the Prime Minister, Peters will also conduct bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba. He also will be holding meeting with leader of opposition and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal today itself. Deputy PM Peters tomorrow will embark on Everest flight and visit the heritage sites of Kathmandu, as per the Foreign Ministry of Nepal. Visit of Peters comes a day ahead of the Everest Day. It was New Zealand's Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay Sherpa who first summited the Everest. On Thursday, Winston Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand will depart for India. According to a media advisory of the Ministry of External Affairs, India Peters will arrive in Delhi at 3:35 pm at IGI Terminal 3 on Thursday. Later in the evening, at 6:30 pm, he will meet with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the Hotel Taj Mahal. On Friday, May 30, Peters is scheduled to meet JP Nadda, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, at the Hotel Taj Mahal at 3:30 pm. His departure is scheduled for 9:55 pm on the same day. India and New Zealand have historically shared close and cordial ties. Similarities such as membership of the Commonwealth, common law practices and pursuing shared aspirations of achieving economic development and prosperity through democratic governance systems for diverse communities in both countries (NZ prides itself as one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world with 213 ethnicities officially recorded) provide an excellent backdrop for deepening the friendly ties, according to MEA. Tourism and sporting links, particularly in cricket, hockey, and mountaineering, have also significantly facilitated goodwill between the two countries. Both countries share commitments to human rights, global peace, a rules-based international order, ecological preservation, and combating terrorism. People-to-people contacts have flourished since migration from India began around the 1860s. New Zealand has approximately 3,00,000 persons of Indian origin and NRIs, a vast majority of which has made NZ their permanent home. India and New Zealand have shared significant high-level visits over the years, which have strengthened the bilateral relations. In 1968, Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, visited New Zealand, contributing to the strengthening of diplomatic ties between the two nations. In 1986, Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, visited New Zealand, further advancing the dialogue and cooperation between the two countries. In 2016, Former President Pranab Mukherjee conducted a state visit to New Zealand from April 30 to May 2, and in August 2024, President of India Droupadi Murmu paid a state visit to New Zealand. New Zealand has seen several high-level visits to India, including Prime Minister John Key's state visit from October 25 to 27, 2016. Other notable visits include Prime Minister John Key's visit in June 2011, Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand's visits in January 2011, October 2010, and September 2008, and Prime Minister Helen Clark's visit in October 2004. (ANI)
