By David Nagel
The Cranbourne training partnership of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace has achieved many great things over the last few years – but their form last week took their great consistency to extraordinary new levels.
Six runners for six consecutive winners…that was the story that began at Sandown Hillside on Wednesday.
The Maher-Eustace team saddled up three runners at Sandown, with Universal Lady kicking things off in style, in race five on the card, the $50,000 BenchMark-70 Handicap (1000m).
Jockey Jye McNeil settled off a hot speed early before producing the four-year-old mare for a final crack at the leaders.
McNeil got busy at the 200, and kicked clear for an impressive win at the lucrative odds of $11.
Victoria’s number-one stable then rounded out the program with a winning double, with Saint of Katowice being perfectly ridden by Jamie Kah to win race seven on the card, before Theodore Nugent took the reins for a winning ride on Black Bolt.
The Savabeel four-year-old gelding began from the widest gate, and was used up by Nugent to sit outside the leader.
Black Bolt took control of the race at the 300-metre mark and held on bravely, with Marimenko and Lafargue hitting the line strongly over the concluding stages.
Leigh Allen, a representative from the Maher-Eustace team, said Black Bolt was recently brought to Melbourne, from Sydney, to avoid the wetter tracks.
“Better surfaces, finding a better track, obviously racing up there it’s hard to pick out a suitable race at the moment,” Allen said.
“We set Theo a pretty hard task there. We wanted him to slot in, but he didn’t panic and sat outside the leader and he’s given it a very good ride, so well done to Theo.”
With a Sandown treble tucked away nicely in their back pocket, the Maher-Eustace camp then headed to Kilmore on Thursday with three runners and, yes you guessed it, three winners on the day.
Short-priced favourite, The Squire, won race one, before Staredown held on narrowly to win race five on the program.
A perfect two days was then complete with Harry Coffey piloting Sonora to victory in race seven, the $25,000 BenchMark-58 Handicap (1462m).
Coffey rode a confident race on the $1.80 pop, sitting behind the leaders before barging clear in the straight for an impressive victory.
That’s now two-on-the-trot for Sonora, who broke her maiden status at Ararat on March 4.
Declan Maher, brother of Ciaron and stable rep for the day, said Sonora still had a lot to learn.
“I spoke to Harry before the race and he said he wasn’t going to panic,” Maher said.
“At Ararat she hit the front and is still not quite sure how to finish her races off, so he didn’t panic, ended up on the fence, and it opened up, it can be a bit like that at Kilmore.
“He was pretty confident in the horse and it was good ride, it probably worked out well that she could dive late on the line.”
The Maher brothers spoke post-race and indicated that Sonora could now be sent to town for the three-old-filly to chase her first metropolitan win.
