The home front looks to be secure while trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace chase international glory after the powerful team prepared five winners at Sandown.
Maher and Eustace will head to England in the coming days to oversee the final stages of Lightning Stakes winner Coolangatta’s preparation for the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot on June 20.
They’ll board their flight at Tullamarine Airport knowing they have another Melbourne trainers’ premiership awaiting their return.
Maher and Eustace blitzed their rivals early, completing a treble in the first three races of Saturday’s long weekend fixture, before another double strike later in the day completed the quintet.
The Sandown tally was only part of a triumphant day for Maher and Eustace, who also won the Group 1 JJ Atkins in Brisbane as part of a winning double there while the camp was also successful at the Gold Coast Synthetic meeting.
Pacific Ruby delivers @cmaherracing a five-timer at Sandown! ???? @MattCartwrigh14pic.twitter.com/nZqbwMbDF5
— 7HorseRacing ???? (@7horseracing) June 10, 2023
“A really good day, I think it just reflects on what a great team we have, we have had winners from every stable, two different states and first time we have had a winner on the synthetic at the Gold Coast as well,” Eustace said.
Links, a filly by the late stallion Spieth, led home a stable quinella in the opening race of the meeting before Extratwo repeated that effort in the Quayclean Handicap (1300m).
Imported stayer Strawberry Rock gave Maher and Eustace a hat-trick with his determined win in the Evergreen Turf Handicap (2400m).
Reliable wet-tracker Flash Flood gave Maher and Eustace their fourth success at Sandown when apprentice Carleen Hefel got him over the line in the Tobin Brother Handicap (1600m).
Eustace said Flash Flood answered a question over him running out 1600m.
Carleen Hefel charges home on Flash Flood at Sandown. Picture: Scott Barbour-Racing Photos via Getty Images
He said owner Colin McKenna still found time to remind the trainer he wanted to run the five-year-old over 1600m at Warrnambool despite being on holiday in Ireland.
“I just got a ticking off from Colin McKenna in Ireland,” Eustace said.
“He said, ‘I told you we should have run him over a mile at Warrnambool’.
“He’s been racing well all prep.
“He got bustled a little bit at the 600(m) and I thought he was going to have to be pretty brave. And he was.”
Apprentice Matthew Cartwright completed a double of his own when Pacific Ruby posted her fifth straight win with a narrow success in the Thoroughbred Club Handicap (1300m).
Maher and Eustace’s five wins at Sandown took them to 87 in Melbourne this season, 35 clear of the second-placed Peter Moody stable.
The Victorian racing season ends on July 31.