Why not have both? Trainer Ciaron Maher gets the money AND the prestige as he wins The Everest and the Caulfield Cup
Sydney’s spring riches or Melbourne’s majors? Choosing between The Everest and Caulfield Cup days has been a hot debate … but why would you care when you’re Ciaron Maher and you can have the best of both worlds?
The money or the prestige. What matters more?
That question has been the subject of hot debate over the last few years as The Everest continued its rapid growth into the Spring Carnival period once dominated by Melbourne.
Melbourne’s racing folk always decry the Johnny-come-lately Sydney carnival’s lack of history and prestige, that it’s only all about the money thrown at it by Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys.
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Ciaron Maher, however, doesn’t need to buy into the sometimes tedious argument.
He got both on Saturday.
The money and the prestige.
An hour earlier, Maher won the world’s richest turf race when grand mare Bella Nipotina led home an all Victorian-trained trifecta in The Everest, worth $20m.
Maher also prepared the third-placegetter Growing Empire, netting his business hundreds of thousands of dollars in training percentages.
BELLA NIPOTINA is our 2024 #TABEverest champion!
— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) October 19, 2024
A year of firsts in the $20m sprint - the first mare, a first Everest for @cmaherracing and slot holder @tabcomau's first win and it came via a gutsy @CWilliamsJockey ride. 2022 champ Giga Kick was game with Growing Empire third. pic.twitter.com/QsngURid3D
• ‘The plan was simple – trust Bella’: Racing’s iron lady wins The Everest
Maher runs his stable like a supreme military machine with bases scattered around southern Australia like nuclear missile silos.
The stable produces its immense firepower from Cranbourne, Ballarat, Fingal, Sydney and Bong Bong, leaving Ciaron Maher Racing poised to strike anywhere it chooses on the east coast of Australia.
Maher had four runners in the Caulfield Cup – none of whom started under $10 – with Duke De Sessa prevailing under jockey Harry Coffey, providing a wonderful story of an athlete overcoming adversity.
“It’s phenomenal,” Maher said.
• What the jockeys said: 2024 Caulfield Cup
“He had the right form going in. He’d had four 2000m runs before going to the mile-and-a-half with a bit of cut in the track.
Coffey has battled cystic fibrosis since the first few weeks of his life, which required him to take a lengthy break from the saddle as the Covid-19 pandemic worked its way through Australia a few years ago.
Coffey gave Duke De Sessa, an import that had failed to win in Australia in his previous 12 starts, a sweet passage near the lead until he was left in front approaching the home turn.
Judgement Day arrived for Duke De Sessa when he shot well clear in the straight but the six-year-old, sometimes maligned by punters in his previous defeats, staved off the favourite Buckaroo to give Maher his second Caulfield Cup and Coffey the biggest win of his career.
"This is your moment!"
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 19, 2024
Harry Coffey wins the 2024 Caulfield Cup aboard DUKE DE SESSA! 👑 @cmaherracing@HTCoffeypic.twitter.com/NyMviHWncs
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The narrowing margin at the end of the $5m race might have worried Coffey but Maher had no such concerns.
Maher watched the latter stages in the saddling area at Randwick as he readied Pride Of Jenni for the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes.
A broad smile remained on Maher’s face before a quick embrace with team members.
“It was a pretty easy watch. How good for Harry Coffey,” Maher said.
“Fair play to him. He rode him confidently, he rode him well.
“I was talking to him after his last run and he said he likes losing weight when he’s got a chance.”
The new Caulfield mounting yard has been the subject of bitter infighting at the Melbourne Racing Club but its position provided Coffey and Duke De Sessa to enjoy their deserved adulation from the more than 25,000 racegoers as the jockey guided the new Caulfield Cup winner down a ‘victory row’ in front of the members’ area and general public sections.
• What the jockeys said: 2024 The Everest Day
Owner Sean Duke couldn’t have cared less about the location as he needed space to jump for joy, celebrating one of the great days of his life after 10 years of owning horses with his mates.
Funnily enough, Duke dropped a thick wad of fifty dollar notes during his unbridled exertions but had enough presence of mind to quickly snap them.
“We gelded him about six or seven months ago and he has improved since,” Duke said.
“I breed a few horses and I’m a builder.
“It’s just fantastic.”
Perhaps Duke and his fellow owners might want to chip in for a 29th birthday present for Coffey.
After all, he did deliver Maher and the owners $3 million in prizemoney.
Originally published as Why not have both? Trainer Ciaron Maher gets the money AND the prestige as he wins The Everest and the Caulfield Cup
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