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Coolmore is hoping lightning can strike twice in the TAB Everest with three-year-old Home Affairs given the job of repeating the 2019 victory of Yes Yes Yes in next Saturday’s $15m classic at Randwick.
Glen Boss will ride and Chris Waller trains the colt – it all sounds so familiar.
The colt's selection so close to the race in some way mirrors the successful Yes Yes Yes formula and Coolmore Australia Principal Tom Magnier said Home Affairs has shown more than enough talent to earn the slot.
Home Affairs won the Silver Slipper as a two-year-old and returned this spring with an easy all the way win in the Listed Heritage Stakes (1100m) last month and matched motors with stablemate Nature Strip in an exhibition gallop that appears to have sealed his place.
"Chris and his team have done an unbelievable job with this horse,'' Magnier said.
"He was a good two-year-old and he's come out at three and really filled into himself. He showed that on the racetrack the other day and when he trialled with effectively the best sprinter in the world.
"We've had Yes Yes Yes as a three-year-old in the Everest with Chris and Glen Boss so really we're just trying to repeat the formula that worked."
Home Affairs will be the second Coolmore representative to carry the navy colours in the TAB Everest and the second three-year-old after Tulip finished fifth in the inaugural running in 2017.
Yes Yes Yes is the only three-year-old so far to win the TAB Everest - he was successful in 2019 in the Chris Waller Racing slot as Coolmore imported Aidan O'Brien's Group 1 winning colt Ten Sovereigns to be its representative.
While Santa Ana Lane ran in the Coolmore slot last year it is normally reserved for a horse, preferably a colt, from their own stock and Home Affairs fits that bill perfectly.
"We have a slot and a couple of good colts so we were just trying to buy our time and wait and see which was the right one,'' Magnier said.
"He's gone to that next level which we were hoping he would. We've been looking at him as our Everest horse for quite a while.
"We have a really exciting sprinter on our hands. I know it is a big ask for a three-year-old to come up against the best sprinters in the world but Chris has faith in the horse and we just need a bit of luck on the day."
Home Affairs won the Group 2 Silver Slipper earlier this year on a soft 7 track and the weather forecast is the only thing concerning Magnier a week out from the TAB Everest.
He's $13 in TAB's all-in betting ahead of Tuesday's barrier draw.
"Hopefully we don't get too much rain. We're in there now, we're delighted to be a part of it,'' he said.
