Eight wins notch Ciaron Maher, David Eustace milestone

Ciaron Maher and David Eustace are hurtling towards a maiden win in the Australian trainers’ premiership and Saturday’s racing, right across Australia, highlighted why.

The Victorian training partners dominated the Sandown meeting in Melbourne, training five winners, while also picking up wins at two different venues in Queensland.

Group 1 J J Atkins victory to King Colorado was the highlight at Eagle Farm, where they also won the first race with Namesake, while they also chimed in with a win on the Gold Coast synthetic track with Who Invited Her.

The eight wins took hem past the 300-win barrier for the second season in a row, to 301, and Eustace said it was a day that everyone within the team could celebrate.

“It’s a really good day and I think it just reflects on what a great team we’ve had,” Eustace said.

“We’ve had winners from every stable in two different states, it’s the first time we’ve had a winner on the synthetic at the Gold Coast as well… so we’re really just grateful to everyone who has been working so hard across the board.”

Maher and Eustace won the first three races at Sandown, including the quinella in the first two races, before winning with Flash Flood and Pacific Ruby.

It bettered their previous best of four at a Saturday metro meeting and took their Victorian metropolitan winners tally to 87 for the season.

Their first two wins at Sandown came via promising fillies with Links bouncing off a debut fifth placing at the same venue two weeks earlier to win the 1000m juvenile event that kicked off the card, while three-year-old Toronado filly Extratwo backed up a six-length Kyneton maiden win with a dominant performance as favourite in the 1000m second event.

Links defeated stablemate Mantua, while another Maher/Eustace galloper Hazel Baby was first home behind Extratwo.

Maher and Eustace completed their early hat-trick with Strawberry Rock, who won the race in which Jaykayann disappointed as $1.90 Ladbrokes favourite, while Colin McKenna-owned pair Flash Flood and Pacific Ruby rounded out the quintet.

Matthew Cartwright was the only jockey who enjoyed multiple wins aboard Maher/Eustace gallopers at Sandown, getting the job done on Links and Pacific Ruby, while Wiremu Pinn (Extratwo), Carleen Hefel (Flash Flood) and Beau Mertens (Strawberry Rock) were their other winning riders.