Melbourne training partners Ciaron Maher and David Eustace can see only one way to expand their stable and that is with boxes in Sydney – and it should come with some advantages.
First is the prizemoney and second is being able have mares race on Regumate, which has drawn last year's Thousand Guineas winner Aloisia to Saturday’s Villiers Stakes at Randwick.
She’s right, mate: Aloisia wins the Thousand Guineas last year.Credit:AAP
Maher was left flummoxed by Aloisia’s spring performances in Melbourne where Regumate, a drug that regulates a mare’s cycles and keeps them from coming into season, is banned because it contains traces of the banned substances trenbolone and trendione.
Regumate is allowed under a local rule in NSW that gives a threshold for trenbolone and trendione.
“I thought her first two runs were perfect and, looking at her before the Empire Rose Stakes on Derby day, I didn’t think she could get any better. She was magnificent,” Maher said. “But she raced so flat. She was in the right position at the top of the straight but there was nothing there.
“She had been on Regumate all her career and that was only thing that had changed with her.
I think she will run a great Randwick mile and hopefully we can get another winner in Sydney.
“She ran all right in the Matriarch Stakes a week later but she still wasn’t herself. We think she was in season.
“We put her straight back on Regumate and she can run on it up there, so this will be a good test on Saturday. I still think she is a quality individual.”
If can Aloisia return to her best she is a group 1 performer with a couple of top-flight placings going the clockwise direction to go with her Thousand Guineas win.
She was runner-up in the JJ Atkins as a two-year-old before running third in the Vinery Stakes during the autumn.
Maher has tried to stretch her out to longer trips but believes she may be at her best at a mile, and the offer of an exemption from the ballot for the Doncaster during the Championship made the Villiers a good option.
“She is in top condition, I can’t fault her,” Maher said. “She has picked up since being back on it and her work has been great.
“I think she will run a great Randwick mile and hopefully we can get another winner in Sydney.
“We have had nine temporary boxes at Rosehill for a couple of months and it has been working really well. To win a big race will show how serious we are at having a Sydney base.
“It’s very attractive with the extra prizemoney and for mares with the ability to race them on Regumate.
“We would like to have a permanent stable there next year.”
Punters are being offered $18 to find out if Aloisia can rediscover her group 1 form in the Villiers, with Sky Boy, which will look for a fifth win in a row, the $3 favourite.
Maher was hoping the rain would come for his other runner, Wall Of Fire, in the Christmas Cup.
“His best run for us was a fourth in the St Leger up there on a bottomless track, so we would like a lot of rain,” Maher said.
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