The romance of the Melbourne Cup lies in the idea that anyone can win Australia’s most famous race, be it the battler or the blueblood. This year, royalty reigned in the sport of kings.
Ciaron Maher, who cut his teeth in the stables of the legendary Bart Cummings, did what the Cups King himself could not – training the trifecta of the great race for the first time in its 165-year history.
Integral to the champion trainer’s historic feat was a horse he bought from King Charles III for an estimated $4 million – Point Of Law – who the monarch did not let go easily.
Among the ownership are advertising guru John O’Neill, investment banker and former chair of the Australian Sports Commission John Wylie, and champion footballer Chris Judd, who stood on the edge and out the back at the trophy presentation. Not often has the dual Brownlow Medallist and premiership captain been on the periphery.
The King may have let slip a Melbourne Cup winner, but he was far from trumped. His Majesty knows how to wheel and deal.
As Maher and his mother lunched with the King at Windsor Castle during the Royal Ascot carnival, an offer was made to buy the son of Frankel – arguably England’s greatest racehorse – after he had run fourth in the Queen’s Vase.
“Nothing really happened, and then he ran again,” Maher said.
He won.
“We upped our offer, and they accepted it,” Maher said.
Maher had a professional connection to the King after training several of his horses, including the stayer Gilded Water. The personal connection came through his mother, Eileen, who had handwritten a letter to the King expressing her gratitude at sending a horse to her son to train. The King and Queen Camilla wrote back.
“When I said I was going to be travelling with my mother, they said we would love to have your mother,” Maher said. “That was amazing. Mum’s first time overseas, and sitting up next to King Charles for lunch at Windsor Castle was, yeah, I was like ‘God’.”
Maher did not elaborate when asked the role his mother played in negotiations, but one of his owners Damien Degenhardt, who races dozens of horses with the stable, believes her part was important.
“Ciaron’s mother had an affinity with the King, and she, I believe, talked the king into selling us this horse,” Degenhardt said.
A non-disclosure agreement was signed as part of the deal so it’s not publicly known how much Maher paid but industry estimates have the price tag at about $4 million.
Connections have already recouped that sum with interest. First prize at Flemington was $4.5 million, not to mention the $300,000 they banked by winning the Geelong Cup, and the prospect of more to come with a regally bred horse that Maher believes can take on the world.
The King got his kick from the Cup win as well.
“He got a nice little bonus for him winning because he owns the mare, but it was in the deal that he got a good bonus,” Maher’s head of bloodstock, Will Bourne, said.
“He’ll be fine, put it that way.
“He is like any other thoroughbred owner. They try and be commercial, or try and make it wash their face. No matter how rich you are, you try and get some money back in.”
Bourne identified both Point Of Law and Juja Kibo, who ran third after looming just before the 200-metre mark as the horse most likely to grab tearaway leader Royal Supremacy, which held on for a brave fifth.
Judd, who also had a share in James J Braddock, was thrilled to have now laid his hands on another prized trophy in Australia sport.
“Those things, they’re comparable in that they’re sort of high-stress events where you sort of really focus in on that and nothing else,” Judd told this masthead moments after the race.
“There’s some similarities, albeit you’re doing a lot more work on the footy field than you are sitting your ass in the stands. It was good fun.”
Maher dominated the Cup. He trained five of the first six home, and six of the top 10. Of the race’s $10.2 million purse, Maher’s horses cashed $6.83 million.
This was Maher’s second win in Australia’s most famous race. He needs 10 more to equal Cummings’ record of 12. At the age of 45, Maher has time to at least eat into the difference.
As a jumps jockey, Maher spent two seasons working for Cummings, where he learned the art of training stayers. He practices what Cummings preached.
“He always talks back to Bart Cummings, still quotes him today,” Bourne said.
“You’ve got to be brave to win these races. You’ve almost got to overwork them and risk overdoing it, and it’s not an easy thing to do. He does that.
“He worked him a fair few times leading up to this race, and with the potential of being flat. And he pulled it off.”
Maher has spoken openly this spring of his confidence in his Cup runners. He was even more bullish behind the scenes.
“I’ve never heard Ciaron so confident about a horse,” Bourne said. “I was trying to talk him out of it. ‘Mate, it’s a group one. It’s a Melbourne Cup’, and he told me a week out he would win the Melbourne Cup.
“He honestly he looked him in the eye and said, ‘Oh, mate, yeah, that will win’.”
The boy from Warrnambool was right, and so were the punters. Point Of Law was the favourite. On this day, the battlers and the bluebloods won.
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