Ciaron Maher’s journey from the dairy farm to jockey to top trainer

CIARON Maher realised long ago he was not going to win a Melbourne Cup in the saddle.

Ciaron Maher with his Melbourne Cup runner Jameka.

CIARON Maher realised long ago he was not going to win a Melbourne Cup in the saddle.

But the former jockey reckons his uncomplicated upbringing, milking cows on the family dairy farm, has given him the work ethic and unflappable nature to win the Cup as a trainer.

The curly haired kid from Winslow, near Warrnambool, inherited his father John’s hair and also his dogged determination.

Maher was told he would never make it as a jockey when local trainers initially refused to give the starry-eyed teenager an apprenticeship.

He would not listen and started the first steps of a jockey career, working with a trainer after school each day, and ending up as an apprentice hoop with Peter Hayes in Adelaide and Melbourne.

But Maher had to admit to himself his dreams of riding a Melbourne Cup winner were “stuffed” after he returned from a trip to Ireland, where plenty of hearty stews had caused his weight to balloon to 73kg.

So he took another racing path and only a decade after starting as a fledgling jumps trainer in Warrnambool, Maher has a fabulous chance to win the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double with his mare Jameka.

Ciaron Maher with his Melbourne Cup runner Jameka.

“My background on the dairy farm really helped me reach some of the heights I am reaching as a trainer,” Maher said.

“I am pretty sure I was bred for hard labour.

“Dairy cows are seven days a week, morning and night, and I was put to work as a kid as soon as I was strong enough.

“It gave me a really good grounding for life and instilled a work ethic which is vital as a horse trainer.

“It also helped (that) I could read animals from when I was young, rearing new-born calves or trying to work out why cows were a bit sick.”

Maher enjoyed rapid-fire success as a trainer, bursting into the Group 1 club when Tears I Cry provided a big result for bookies in the Emirates Stakes in 2007.

The 35-year-old Maher has been a smash hit in Queensland in recent years, thanks to the feats of super sprinter Srikandi who won the rich Stradbroke Handicap last year and then also claimed the Group 1 Tatts Tiara.

In a training industry which is often high tension and high stress, affable larrikin Maher is one of the most relaxed and dry-witted characters you will ever find on a racetrack.

But even he admits he was a trifle flustered when he arrived at the 2014 Melbourne Cup with $200-1 outsider Mr O’Ceirin.

You would think Maher would feel much more pressure heading into Tuesday’s Cup, carrying a big weight of public and personal expectation with the well-fancied Jameka.

But that’s not the case.

“I don’t really feel any pressure with Jameka because I am very, very confident with her,” Maher says.

Trainer Ciaron Maher kisses the Caulfield Cup.

“It was far more pressure when I had Mr O’Ceirin, who had poor form on good ground.

“Half of the owners wanted to run in the Melbourne Cup, because they thought they may not get the opportunity to have a Cup runner again.

“And half the owners didn’t want to run, so it turned into a bit of a shitfight to be honest.

“But I guess I am generally a pretty calm person in what is a very competitive game.

“The one thing that has probably helped me is I have always had at least one nice horse in my stable. And that probably alleviates any stress.”

Maher’s dad will be there on Melbourne Cup Day and was also there when the horse racing bug bit his son.

The boy who refused to go back to school at the end of Grade 10 was taught how to handle horses by family friend and Warrnambool trainer Shayne Fisher.

But it was his Maher’s dad who initially encouraged and nurtured his racing dream.

“When I was a kid, I just said to the old man one day that I wanted to learn how to ride a horse,” Maher remembers.

“We had a couple of stock ponies on the dairy farm and I just hopped on one of them.

“I went from riding around the yard that day to rounding up cattle that night.

“I asked all the local trainers for an apprenticeship but they all told me to go away because I was too big.

“I did get a start as a jockey but I ended up training and everything has happened pretty quickly.”

Maher enjoys a good time and a celebratory tipple after a big win and staff at his Caulfield stables reckon there was a two-day bender after Jameka’s Caulfield Cup romp.

Bookies would post short odds about Maher painting the town red if Jameka becomes the first horse to win the Cups double since Ethereal in 2001.

However it is also a good bet it won’t be long before Maher is back to business at the Caulfield trainer’s hut he shares with Mick Price, Robert Smerdon, Colin Little and Clinton McDonald early each morning.

On the surface, Maher appears all fun and games, beer and skittles.

But he is also an incredibly dedicated horseman, whose work ethic and determination drives him to bigger and better things.

One Melbourne Cup won’t be enough. He will want more.

Originally published as Ciaron Maher’s journey from the dairy farm to jockey to top trainer