Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have underlined their status as Australia’s top training partnership after adding a Melbourne Cup to their mantle piece of feature wins.
The pair had an incredible five chances in Tuesday’s race, and finished with first, third (High Emocean) and seventh (Smokin’ Romans), with Gold Trip ranked by punters as their second-best chance.
David Eustace (left) and Ciaron Maher (right), pictured with jockey Mark Zahra (centre) after Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup win.Credit:Racing Photos
Now into their fifth season in partnership, the prolific duo are closing in on $100 million in prizemoney winnings, with the Melbourne Cup victory their 20th at group 1 level.
It adds to a record which includes the 2020 Cox Plate with Sir Dragonet, two ATC Derbies and a VRC Derby, two Magic Millions 2YO Classics and 15 other group 1 wins.
Warrnambool product Maher, who described Tuesday’s win as “a dream come true”, also completes the trilogy of Melbourne’s spring majors, having won a Caulfield Cup in his own name in 2016 with Jameka.
Eustace had only months earlier joined the then-Caulfield trainer as an assistant, but it wasn’t until August 2018 at the start of the new season when the English-born Eustace officially became Maher’s co-trainer.
“It’s just a great honour to be working with these horses and working for Ciaron, and it’s not lost on me what a privilege it is,” Eustace said post-race on Tuesday.
“As Ciaron touched on, most of the staff are here, and it’s an amazing team effort. Honestly, the farrier has performed a miracle with this horse. It’s pretty surreal at the moment.”
All the focus coming into Tuesday’s race was on Eustace’s former housemates James Ferguson and Ed Crisford, who trained the leading internationals Deauville Legend and Without A Fight, respectively.
The three of them lived together in Newmarket, with Ben Hayes a few doors down, and Crisford joked in the lead-up to the race that never in their wildest dreams would they have imagined to all have Melbourne Cup runners in the same year.
Gold Trip won the Melbourne Cup.Credit:Justin McManus
“Obviously, you know the race, that it exists, a bit later in my life, I suppose from English racing,” Eustace said.
“But ever since I’ve been here this is the race you want to be contesting and just getting the chance to do that, to win it, is quite extraordinary.”
Eustace said he was extremely grateful to be training in partnership with Maher.
“I can’t believe it. I’m obviously a bit overcome,” he said.
“It’s a dream that we all want to [win]. It’s the pinnacle for our sport to do it with Ciaron.
“Full credit to the team of staff. To get five here and this horse who was so unlucky in the Caulfield Cup. We were so gutted when he got beaten. We thought, ‘Oh he got beaten again!’.”
Gold Trip had been the winner in all but the last stride in the Caulfield Cup, beaten by Durston, and the trainers decided to back him up seven days later in the Cox Plate, where he was simply luckless.
They weren’t certain to run in the Melbourne Cup with Gold Trip, but the former European came out of the Cox Plate well and was favoured by a soft track.
He had little support in the market, but looked a class above on Tuesday.
In the immediate aftermath of the race, Maher said it would take a while to sink in.
“Dave and I are lucky enough to stand up here,” Maher said.
“Most of our staff are here today and friends and family, it’s just fantastic.
“Fantastic effort by the whole team. My farrier, John Bunting – he’s quite dicey, this horse, and he’s done a fantastic job.
“My mum and dad are here. We’re got a really big team. I want to thank Will Bourne and Jamie from Australian Bloodstock for finding the horse and there are a lot of good clients in it.”
The pair had four runners in last year’s Cup, with Floating Artist the best performed, finishing fourth, and in 2020 they had three runners, with Persan and Sir Dragonet finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
Jockey Mark Zahra said he never had any doubt that Maher and Eustace would have Gold Trip spot on for Tuesday.
“They’re the best trainer of stayers. That’s one thing I had confidence in, that they trained it,” he said.
