Bettering Bart: The lessons from a master that set Maher on a path to his own history

When Ciaron Maher, a track rider with ambitions to become a trainer, moved from Warrnambool to Flemington around 20 years ago, he had one aim: to absorb everything he could from the best in the game.

While he was fortunate to have many mentors to lean on, his time with Bart Cummings made the greatest impression.

By that point, Cummings’ record in Australia’s greatest race, the Melbourne Cup, was well established. He had already won the race 11 times, and would later add a 12th as Maher began his own training career in 2008.

Maher has done something in the Melbourne Cup that Cummings never could. Cummings had quinellaed the race an incredible five times but on Tuesday, Maher had the trifecta as Point Of Law defeated Zahrann and Juja Kibo.

For Australians of Maher’s era, the name Bart Cummings was iconic, and Maher, who has now won the race twice, is genuinely humbled to have done something not even the legendary trainer could do.    

“I was fortunate enough that I was able to work for him and a lot of other good trainers,” he said. “But I knew I wanted to train, so I worked for all the best trainers I could with a view to start training.

“Whilst I was a jockey and I was a reasonably good track rider, I could get around and work for whoever I wanted. And he was an absolute master.”

“What I learned from him was what he did with horses like Rogan Josh. You know, there’s a reason why he trained that many Cup winners. He just had a different mindset and such a thorough grounding. I learned a lot there.”

Maher looks back on that time as pivotal. He didn’t know it, but it was a moment where two significant forces in the Melbourne Cup, one from the past and one from the future, crossed over.

Sensing the opportunity, he said he absorbed all he could from the master.  

“I was just naturally curious, even from when I was an apprentice. I was always asking ‘why’ in the feed room, ‘why are they doing this for?’

“At the time, I thought, wow, this is amazing. And, yeah, it’s funny how things work out.”

Maher’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne said after the race that Cummings’ incredible record was an inspiration for Maher.

“It’s interesting to talk about (Maher’s) psyche and training style. He always talks back to Bart Cummings,” Bourne said.

“He still quotes him today, you’ve got to be brave to win these races. You’ve almost got to overwork them and risk overdoing it. And it’s not an easy thing to do.”  

Maher sees his success with Gold Trip in 2022 as quite different to his latest with Point Of Law. Gold Trip had been set for the race a year earlier, but had been ruled out. He then had to do it the hard way, higher in the weights.

Point Of Law was a different prospect, purchased only a couple of months ago, with little experience, but plenty of upside.     

“Gold Trip came out, and he wasn’t allowed to run, and he was an older horse, a stallion who had to come back and do it again,” he said.

“And this horse just had raw talent; Gold Trip was an old bull that you got to sort of work with. And hopefully they go your way. Whereas a younger colt, you can still mould them a little bit.”

There were some nervous moments. A reported $4 million purchase from King Charles, Point Of Law took off at trackwork at Werribee one morning and did four laps of the track.   

It was in the recovery from that incident that Maher, channelling Cummings’ approach, gained confidence that the horse had the character to handle the demands of a Geelong and Melbourne Cup despite, at that point, having only had four starts.   

“The first thing we had to worry about was just the travel. How’s he going to handle that? But he’d come out and I thought he looked good,” he said.

“He did an extra couple of laps at Werribee one day. It didn’t worry him at all. It was like he’d just done what I wanted him to do. Not two extra laps. And he went quite quick. And he just ate up the next day. And he actually thrived on it.”

What followed was a dominant Geelong Cup win and a three-and-three-quarter-length Melbourne Cup win which couldn’t have been more emphatic.  

While many Melbourne Cup winners hit their career peak in the race, Maher is excited by the prospect Point Of Law could be a horse that takes him around the world.

“He would be a horse that could race internationally, I think, at a good level, at the highest level,” he said.

“He’s still got to furnish a bit more. You see him in the mounting yard today, he had a good demeanour. And he executed very well.”

“So what’s the ceiling for him? I don’t know. But he can race in all the good races around the world, I think, because I think he’ll get better.”

But Maher also said he knows too well the danger of getting too far ahead of yourself in the racing game, or getting caught up with the past. Last year’s Melbourne Cup still looms as the one that got away.

“I sold a Melbourne Cup winner last year and I bought one this year. So racing’s just a great game,” he said in reference to Half Yours, who the stable failed to buy back after he was offered on Inglis Digital.

“You don’t dwell or look back too much.”