Spring racing fever is in the air, and nowhere is the excitement more electric than at the starting gate of the 2026 EPIC Cup – the energy industry’s rival to the Melbourne Cup and Sydney Everest. Ted Woodley with this year’s odds.
While the ‘sport of kings’ is notorious for separating mug punters from their cash, the EPIC Cup – “Electricity Projects Incompetently Costed” – celebrates the ‘sport of governments’, in saddling taxpayers and consumers with atrociously costed, outrageously expensive, electricity mega-projects.
The EPIC Cup was created in 2017, the year Snowy 2.0 was foaled. Once again, the perennial crowd favourite is at unbackable odds to win by a country mile and complete an unprecedented ten-peat.
Yearling sale steal
What a steal Snowy 2.0 was at the 2017 yearling sales when legendary horse whisperer Malcolm Turnbull snapped him up for just $2B and promised his first stud season as soon as 2021.
When it all started…
Six years later, Snowy 2.0’s new Labor owners were thrilled to discover that his value had bolted to $12B, and his stud servicing had drifted to 2028.
More jubilation followed last October when Snowy Hydro flagged a sixth blowout. The Italian trainer, WeBuild, nicknamed “Lento e Incredibilmente Costoco” or “slow and incredibly expensive”, was asked to complete a meticulous nose-to-tail reassessment.
Taking only a year to complete, incredibly fast for WeBuild Lento, Snowy 2.0’s weight was declared last week to be an off-the-charts $25bn, whilst his stud servicing has drifted to 2029. Celebrations are likely to continue for weeks.
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Florence, oh Florence!
But there’s more to come. Once again his ever-humble owners have only guesstimated Snowy 2.0’s liveweight. Pundits are tipping his gross weight, once financing, extra gear and transmission connections are loaded into his saddlebags, will be approaching $50B – a staggering 25:1 return on his purchase price!
The EPIC organisers have ordered another digit for the tote board.
What genius it was for Snowy Hydro to switch to a cost-plus training contract, gifting WeBuild Lento an open chequebook, and no spurs to step the pace up to ‘pronto’.
Florence, the rarely boring machine, has been hobbling through soft turf and hard rock for five years, recently making it to the halfway marker of the seventeen-kilometre headrace tunnel. Her year-long breather in the sinkhole she dug at the start is now a distant memory. Surely WeBuild Lento will soon give her another well-earned spell.
Meanwhile, Monica, ‘Go-slo-Flo’s’ wunder-filly bred for rock fault tracks, has been floated to the far end to mosey back to Mum. But it’s odds on that even under the whip, their underground reunion will be years away.
Image: Future Generation
Thankfully, there is Buckley’s chance of Snowy 2.0 being sold or scratched given the Government’s lifetime sponsorship deal and taxpayers’ deep pockets. Still years from maturity, who knows what further records we will see.
The also-rans
Even though EPIC remains a one-horse race, let’s turn our binoculars to a few fancied runners in the parade ring.
Pleasingly, Snowy 2.0’s transmission links to his patiently waiting mares in Sydney and Melbourne are starting to hit their stride.
SnowyLink North, now HumeLink, was picked up at the 2020 yearling sales by TransGrid, on a tip from AEMO, for just $1B. By 2024, she had bulked up fivefold to $5B, and slipped years behind schedule. Another weigh-in is due, hopefully this time with the $2B northern link, Sydney Ring South, tucked under her saddlecloth.
Twin sister SnowyLink South, now VNI-West, was also picked up at the 2020 sales for $2B. By last year her value had quadrupled to $7.5B, with an upper estimate of $11B.
Unfortunately, VNI-West is being heckled by local spoilsports objecting to her gallivanting across vast tracts of Victoria. Also, punters were recently spooked when the Victorian Labor Government ordered an independent review, and the Coalition Opposition and One Nation vowed to scratch her altogether.
Surely sense will prevail so she and her sister can continue to prance over 1,100 kilometres of picturesque landscapes and farms, delighting racegoers and milking mug consumers.
Snowy Hydro’s flatulent runt
The Kurri Kurri Gas/Diesel/Hydrogen Power Station, nicknamed KK, has been doing his best to keep up with his dad and twin sisters but lacks their physique and staying power.
KK was snapped up by the greenhorn Morrison-Taylor Syndicate in 2021 at the bargain price of $600m to replace Liddell before his knackering in 2023.
When it was discovered there was no gas within Cooee, 50 kilometres of massive pipelines and storage had to be built, quadrupling his cost beyond $2B. Even so, KK will run out of feed after ten hours. The word is that his connections are a bit embarrassed KK will only be capable of half-day sprints and will never develop into a stayer like other gas-powered stations.
Years late, KK has yet to clear his barrier trials, with chronic colic hampering his preparation. Last year, the EPA Stewards sent him to the spelling paddock after he belched putrid diesel smoke as far as Newcastle.
KK signals his first track run, to the delight of locals (July 2025)
Sadly, KK seems doomed to have few track outings, pinning his hopes on the promised Albanese-Bowen hydrogen wonder-feed arriving one day from cloud cuckoo land to supercharge his cost and prepare him for net zero.
EnergyConnect, a cunning owner
EnergyConnect, the sprightly interconnector between NSW and South Australia, was valued at $300 – $700m in 2016.
By 2020, EC had firmed to $1.5B and was cleared by the Stewards, the Australian Energy Regulator. A year later her price firmed again to $2.3B: $1.8B for TransGrid’s NSW section and $500m for ElectraNet’s South Australian section. The stewards waved her through again.
True to form, in 2025 TransGrid doubled the cost of its NSW section without bothering to get the stewards’ nod. When TransGrid submitted the paperwork, the betting ring was stunned by the steward’s rejection. The smart money is on normality prevailing, with TransGrid’s protest being upheld and consumers slugged the additional $1.8B.
Contrast cunning TransGrid with the naive ElectraNet, which completed its South Australian section on time and on budget, three years ago, gobsmacking the racing fraternity. Such blatant competence is inexcusable these days, resulting in immediate disqualification from the EPIC field.
A dead cert winner
Many other promising runners are crowding the parade ring, including Queensland’s CopperString with a sevenfold cost increase, Tasmania’s scaled-back Marinus Link (fourfold increase) and Victoria’s Western Renewables Link (threefold increase).
Also, if trackside rumours are on the money, the Snowy dynasty will soon swell to six stablemates with Snowy 3.0 and HumeLink 2.0 thought to be in the breeding pen.
But for this year, once again, you can put your glasses down.
Australia’s ‘Electric Phar Lap’ is at unbackable odds for an EPIC ten-peat in 2026!
You can bet your bottom dollar that Snowy 2.0 will be first past the post again, further burnishing his national and international fame. Rumours are rife of a livery change to Snowy 50.0 to flaunt his snowballing value and unrivalled EPIC pedigree.
It’s anyone’s race for second, which is shaping up to be a photo finish between HumeLink, VNI-West, EnergyConnect(NSW) and Copperstring.
How lucky are we Aussie taxpayers and consumers to be bankrolling such a world-class EPIC field, headed by the invincible Snowy 2.0. What a thrill to watch these mega-projects strut their stuff at our expense.
Back in the marquee
This year’s ACE Plate – “Accurate Cost Estimating” – was again cancelled for lack of eligible runners. Its sole contender, EnergyConnect(SA), was disqualified because of its coupling with the over-budget EnergyConnect(NSW).
With no runners, the Stewards have locked the Plate in the trophy cabinet for what promises to be a lengthy spell.
Snowy 2.0. A snow-job costing taxpayers twenty times its budget
Ted Woodley is a former managing director of PowerNet, Gas Net, EnergyAustralia and China Light & Power Systems (Hong Kong).