In the winner's enclosure at Royal Randwick, the ashen-faced man in the blue pinstripe suit with the red Oakley wraparound sunglasses atop his bald head is bouncing around like a pinball.

His name is Peter Piras. He has staved off cancer, kidney disease, bone-marrow transplants, a few bad horses.

Perhaps worse than that, he says, was missing out on part-ownership of 2003 Golden Slipper winner Polar Success because he was in hospital at the time the syndicate was being pieced together.

Right now, it doesn't matter. He's part-owner of Redzel, the Snowden-trained five-year-old gelding that just won the richest race we've ever seen, the $10million The Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick.

"I was in so much pain," Piras said. "Thank you, Dr Redzel. It's amazing. He's amazing. Doctor Red.

"I've been through a lot. I've had to battle leukemia, kidney disease and had some bad luck when I was in hospital with a syndicate that cost me being in a Golden Slipper winner. So this was my day. I didn't give up. Other people would've given up but I didn't."

Piras – a Manly rugby league fan from Wollongong – tells you this as the enclosure turns into a mosh pit. It's the first time this race has been held but the huge throng of people in the grandstand, marquees and grassed areas marked this race as a watershed moment in Sydney racing.

The collect for coming first? $5.8million. $5,800,000. No, that's not a typo.

No wonder the father-and-son training combination of Peter and Paul Snowden cried in each other's arms in front of a live TV audience after the race. They've had massive wins over the years but this was right up there.

Said Paul with quivering bottom lip: "I could've stood in front of you all week and said black and blue how good he was going but everyone kept writing him him off." Then he hugged his father, who had tears welling in his eyes. "There's a lot of stories in the owners, there's some sad ones as well," Peter said. "This is the best feeling I have had on a racecourse by far. It just means a lot, to a lot of different people. Richest race on turf in the world. A year ago, this horse couldn't run a 1000m."

Of course, it wouldn't be a headline race day at Randwick without waking to dark skies and the threat of rain. Officials were hopeful it would blow away by the first race but how many fickle racegoers did it blow away? None, apparently. It was the biggest crowd since 50,000 came to watch Octagonal win the AJC Derby in 1996.

The ATC and Racing NSW could not have done any more to promote this race.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys is best known as a street-fighting administrator but in the past few weeks he's resembled a boxing promoter, talking up The Everest with Don King-like gusto.

The original name was "The Pinnacle" but the website domain was already taken.

V'landys then discovered the domain name for one of the seven natural wonders of the world wasn't taken, snapped it up and now jokingly answers the phone with, "Hello, Edmund Hillary speaking".

The Melbourne racing mafia argue this race will be more Mount Druitt than Everest, sneering that it doesn't have an international runner and it will never rival Flemington's Newmarket Handicap, which is held over the same distance in the autumn.

"They've had a monopoly for 50years or more," V'landys said of the sniping from down south. "All of a sudden NSW is coming out and doing things and they're not used to it. They think they're better than anyone else. Boys, you're not."

Let's be realistic, though. The Everest will never dwarf the Melbourne Cup. It will not turn the Cox Plate into an afterthought. But it doesn't have to.

What's at stake here for Sydney racing ultimately won't be judged on which race offers the most prizemoney, even though it's crucial in attracting the best sprinters.

"The prime objective of this race was to procure a new audience outside of racing," V'landys said. "It's achieved that in spades. Naturally, people in the racing industry are still coming to terms with the success of this. People complain about it being Monday on a Monday. But it wasn't aimed at them."