[AusRace] Redzel's trophy

[L.B.Loveday]

Redzel's 2017 The Everest trophy mystery in District Court battle


Champion sprint horse Redzel won a $320,000 trophy when it took out the
inaugural Everest race in 2017. Its whereabouts and an allegation that it
was secretly sold are now at the centre of a potentially explosive court
case.

Brenden Hills, Court Reporter, The Sunday Telegraph

Subscriber only

| 

March 8, 2020 6:00am

	
dailytelegraph.com.au7:56


Redzel flies home in the Concorde 


The reigning Everest champion, Redzel, is back again this year running for
Yulong Investments, in the hopes of winning for a third time. The
seven-year-old gelding, trained by...

 

The fate of this $320,000 -diamond-encrusted racing trophy is a mystery -
one that is set to be finally answered in court.

On one side are eight of the owners of champion sprinter Redzel, which took
home the trophy plus $5.8 million in prizemoney after winning Australia's
richest race The Everest in 2017.

They have launched legal action against Triple Crown Bloodstock, which sold
shares in Redzel and manages the syndicate of owners, claiming it sold the
trophy without their permission to an unknown third party for an undisclosed
amount.

In the other corner is Triple Crown, which yesterday said the company "will
be vigorously defending the claim".



A dispute over Redzel's The Everest 2017 winning trophy will be played out
in court.

"We are surprised and disappointed that this action has been taken," the
company said in an email.

"The proceedings are completely without merit. The allegations were
investigated by Racing NSW last year and Triple Crown was cleared of
wrongdoing."

The company did not respond to questions about whether the action could be
ended by simply producing the trophy.

The statement of claim was filed by the owners' lawyer Mark Carmody in the
Sydney District Court on February 20.

According to the document, the owners are seeking "restitution", "damages",
"interest" and "costs" over the trophy.

The matter has been listed for a pre-trial conference on April 8.

"The owners simply want the trophy they own," Mr Carmody said.

"It's early days as we've only just filed the statement. Check in when we're
on the home straight and the whips are cracking."

Jockey Kerrin McEvoy rides Redzel to The Everest victory in 2017. Picture:
AAP/Brendan Esposito

To say the trophy is a serious piece of hardware is an understatement. The
centrepiece of the trophy is a horse encrusted with about 8000 black and
white diamonds topped off with seven kilograms of silver and two rubies.

Timothy Cheng, a 5 per cent owner of Redzel, is listed as the first
plaintiff and is joined by eight other shareholders in the horse who own a
combined 50 per cent of the seven-year-old.

"The owners just want to be told if the trophy has been sold," Mr Cheng
said.

"If it hasn't, we just want to see it."

Nine other owners hold the other 50 per cent and have not joined the legal
action.

According to the documents, Triple Crown "assumed possession" of the trophy
"on or about" October 14, 2017, the same day Redzel won the 1200m race at
Royal Randwick Racecourse.

The owners claim in the documents that Triple Crown was only to hold the
trophy and had no rights to sell or transfer it.

Peter Piras is one of the eight owners of Redzel who have decided to take
legal action. Picture: Jason McCawley/Getty

They also claim the alleged sale was a breach of the "syndicate deed", a
legal document that stipulated the rules of the syndicate arrangement
between the owners and Triple Crown.

According to the document, the deed said Triple Crown "does not share in any
prizemoney earned".

The deed also said: "As the syndicate manager does not participate in any
prizemoney earned, should a trophy, sash, voucher . or similar be won by the
syndicate then this will be retained by the syndicate manager for their use
."

Whispers of an alleged sale emerged last year with a former employee of
Triple Crown airing the allegation on Twitter.

A news report last October quoted a Racing NSW steward as saying the
organisation cleared Triple Crown of beaching the syndicate deed following
an investigation.

Redzel also won the race in 2018, netting its owners $6 million in
prizemoney and another trophy.

 

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