Twelve months after producing the quinella in the $3 million Big Dance, champion horseman Ciaron Maher has gone one better, training the first three horses across the line in Sydney’s Melbourne Cup Day feature.
In a replica of last year, class runner Gringotts ($3 fav) made it back-to-back victories, again denying stablemate Vivy Air ($16) by 1-1/4 lengths with leader Lugh ($31) holding third, another three-quarters of a length away.
Gringotts was originally being set for the King Charles III Stakes (1600m) but was ruled out of that race after missing a vital lead-up run in the 7 Stakes (1600m) due to poor blood results.
Maher refocused his efforts towards a Big Dance title defence and Gringotts delivered.
“We knew he was qualified for the Big Dance so that was always a race that was at the back of our minds,” assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said.
“But the King Charles was his main target. He had a couple of setbacks, a couple of bad bloods. Physically, the horse was always fine, but we didn’t want to risk him, and we got rewarded today.
“It’s a nice back-up option and that’s why we were never, ever worried. Even though we would have liked to get him to the King Charles, this is a lovely race to win.”
Lumping topweight of 62kg, Gringotts was given a beautiful trail behind the speed for Nash Rawiller, who said he went into Tuesday’s feature full of confidence after partnering Gringotts to second in the Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at his previous start.
“You can tell he’s a serious horse. When I let him rip, he was quite exciting,” Rawiller said.
“I always felt like the winner and just the little idiosyncrasies I learned from the other day we were able to put into place today, and the horse was really explosive.”
Vivy Air and Lugh are among nominations for the $2 million Five Diamonds (1800m) at Rosehill on Saturday and Gerard-Dubord says both are chances to back up.
The cream also rose to the top in the $750,000 Little Dance (1600m) with topweight Osipenko taking out the race for Chris Waller, denying Hollywood Hero by a half-neck.
Stable representative Zane Jones said the win was a handy consolation after the horse missed out on a Big Dance start, confirming Osipenko was likely to progress to The Gong (1600m) at Kembla Grange later this month.
“He raced in it a few years ago and was very competitive so that looks the logical progression,” Jones said.