Ciaron Maher is starting to get a deadly reputation when he comes to Sydney, and Yulong January and Visao will be out to continue it at Randwick on Saturday.
Mahar took the Breeders’ Plate with Dubious last week and went close to making it a double when Right Or Wrong was brave running second in the last event of the day.
Trainer Ciaron Maher.
He is looking to get some boxes in Sydney but for the moment he is happy with a half-dozen visitors' boxes at Rosehill.
“It is a good option to take the right horse up there and we have been dual accepting and targeting the best race,” Maher said. “We went up there with Dubious last week thinking it was the right race for him to show him off as a very good colt and he got the job done.
“Right Or Wrong drew bad in Melbourne so we went up there and he almost got the job done and it worked out the same with Yulong January this week when he drew wide in Melbourne."
Yulong January has a couple of wins at Swan Hill and will use the 1400-metre opener as a springboard towards better races in Melbourne later in the spring.
“I think he is ready for the 1400m and the race is probably a better fit for him than the one in Melbourne, " Maher said.
“He was a cheap horse at only $20,000 but he doesn’t know that and from what he has shown so far, he wouldn’t be out of place in a race like the Carbine Club on Derby day.
“He is still learning about his racing and a trip away and going the other direction is certainly going to help him.
“It sounds like it is going to be a wet track up there, so being a very fit horse he should handle that."
Maher decided he would prefer to have a crack at a group 1 over 2000m with his High Chaparral colt Visao, which has already qualified for the Victoria Derby with a win over 1800m at Flemington in July.
“It is a case again of finding the right race and the options were 1800m [in Melbourne] or 2000m and the chance of a group 1 win or placing up there,” Maher said. “He has only had the one run back and is certainly going to improve from the run.
“He is going to stay and we are looking at the Derby with him, so I expect him to be running on.
“He has drawn out, which doesn't help him, but he is going to get through the ground and be very strong."
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