On this page last year we predicted that Ka Ying Rising was about to go around as the shortest-priced favourite in Everest history.

We were wrong.

For now, the shortest-priced favourite in Everest history - in fact, the race’s only odds-on favourite - remains Nature Strip at $1.90 in 2022.

Like Ka Ying Rising will be on Saturday, Nature Strip was the defending champion. He ran fourth. The winner was Giga Kick, at $21 still the roughest Everest winner.

As it transpired, Ka Ying Rising started in black figures in the 2025 Everest - just. He was officially the $2 favourite, but if you backed him on the local tote you had to cop $1.50, his World Pool price weighed down by his legions of Hong Kong fans.

Why the bookies were so generous is a mystery. An objective reading of the form would have suggested the tote price was closer to the right odds.

Presumably doubts arose from a lacklustre lead-up trial at Randwick and the fact that Ka Ying Rising had never raced anywhere but Sha Tin.

Additionally, the record of northern-hemisphere sprinters in Australia’s richest race was inglorious - four starts for a ninth, two 10ths and a 12th.

With those queries answered, and despite another trial defeat, it’s probably safe to assume that Ka Ying Rising will be odds-on this Saturday. Unless it keeps raining.

Otherwise, the only local given much chance of beating him is Tempted. Like Ka Ying Rising, the Godolphin mare hasn’t been beaten since they ran the quinella in last year’s Everest.

No Everest champ has defended the title successfully since Redzel won the first two in 2017 and 2018. The others to try were Redzel again (eighth in 2019), Classique Legend (fifth in 2021) and Nature Strip (fourth in 2022).