The Everest rivals Chautauqua, English, Fell Swoop and Redzel are among the nominations for the 2017 Group 2 $200,000 Bowermans Office Furniture Shorts (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Favourite for The Everest, Chautauqua, above, is among the nominations for The Shorts at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.

Jockey Brenton Avdulla is very excited to get his first race day feel of the Team Hawkes trained Chautauqua in the Shorts after being booked to ride the brilliant sprinter in the $10m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on October 14.

“I’m very excited to get the ride and very thankful,” Avdulla told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“I haven’t opened up the cylinders on him yet, I have to wait until Saturday. I have just given him a couple of quiet trials and I don’t ride him trackwork, but he feels like a nice horse, as you would expect. I’m looking forward to Saturday and the Everest.

“At the end of the day, he’s a horse that was under the stick at the 600m in the TJ Smith [Stakes] … He just seems to take a while to get to his top and then he gets there and sustains it.”

Chautauqua has had two barrier trials in preparation for his return to the races for a third over 800m at Warwick and a fifth over 1020m at Rosehill for Avdulla who replaces Tommy Berry who has steered the grey flash to victory in the last three runnings of the Group 1 $2.5m Darley T J Smith Stakes over the same course and distance as The Everest.

Berry has taken up duties in Hong Kong and was unable to obtain a release from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to ride in Sydney on October 14.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained English hold a slot for The Everest and will be out to justify that with a bold first up showing in The Shorts.

English will be facing the stater for the first time since running sixth to Secret Agenda in the Group 1 $1m Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville on May 6 while the Matthew Dale trained Fell Swoop is also stepping out for the first time since finishing ninth to Redzel in the Group 1 $700,000 Doomben 10000 (1200m) at Doomben during the 2017 Brisbane Winter Carnival.

Redzel is among the nominations for The Shorts and resumed with a sizzling win in the Group 3 $150,000 Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on September 2 but Team Snowden had indicated that the Snitzel speedster would be heading to Melbourne for the Group 1 $500,000 Moir Stakes (1000m) at The Valley on September 29.

Nominations for the 2017 The Shorts (1100m)