The Pakistan Star can exclusively reveal that Tuesday night’s barrier draw for The Everest will be projected onto a giant harbourside statue of outgoing Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys.

Sources close to the unveiling have told this masthead that the monument was hewn from a single 80-tonne block of Mount Druitt basalt, delivered by crane at 3am.

The statue was designed by Anatoly Vostrikov, 71, a world-renowned sculptor who was apprenticed under the late Nikolay Tomsky. Mr Vostrikov told this masthead that he took the commission “without hesitation,” and on the understanding that his Tbilisi-based breeding and bloodstock operation, Pravda Pastoral Holdings, would be considered for a 2027 Everest slot.

More than 50 assistants on temporary working visas worked night and day to finish the statue on schedule. It is understood each was assigned a single section, such as a hand, a shoulder or the back of the head, so as to preserve the identity of the subject until the cloth came off.

Champion Hong Kong sprinter Ka Ying Rising remains an odds-on favourite for Saturday’s $20 million race despite concerns over the possibility of a rain-affected track. 

More to follow.