Redzel, a local underdog galloper, won the inaugural Everest horse race, the World’s richest on turf worth 7.9 million US dollars.

The thoroughbred weight-for-age sprint race took place at Randwick racecourse in Sydney, over 1200 metres on Saturday.

Redzel, trained by father-and-son team Peter and Paul Snowden and ridden by Kerrin McEvoy collected 5.8 million Australian dollars in winnings.

Vega Magic, which came second, took home 1.4 million Australian dollars.

“I can’t talk. It’s a massive thing for the stable. Just so, so relieved,’’ said Paul Snowden after the race.

“I had to remind myself how old Redzel was this morning. He is only five and is at the peak of his career. He has got another couple of years in him at top level and it’s all before him.

“So privileged to be riding this horse, It’s still early in his career and he’s paying the dividends now.

“It couldn’t have worked out any better in the run. We had a dream run outside of the leader. I am over the moon,’’ said an elated Jockey McEvoy.

McEvoy won the Melbourne Cup with Almandin in 2016.

The world’s top-rated sprinter and race favourite Chautauqua came a distant fourth.

No one from overseas participated in the Sydney race though the winning is much larger than Australia’s top attraction, the Melbourne Cup with prize money of 6.2 million Australian dollars, which takes place in November.

Both the Melbourne Cup and the Everest are turf races.

The horse race with the fattest purse in the world is Pegasus World Cup, a 1,800-metre dirt track race, which took place earlier this year in Florida, with 12 million U.S. dollars prize.