While the rumour mill turns, Ciaron Maher keeps his eye on the prize

Back-of-house changes at Ciaron Maher Racing, including the decision of Declan Maher to go it alone in Queensland, may have set tongues wagging, but the man in charge is focusing on the task ahead.

The first three months of 2025 have seen many changes at Ciaron Maher Racing, including the departure of several staff members including chief executive Ben Sellenger and the decision of the trainer’s brother to open his own stable.

But while externally there is a lot of noise about what is happening at CMR, for the man at the centre of it, he remains focused on matters on the track.

CMR has already surpassed its own prize money benchmark, with an Everest turbo-charged $51.7 million banked so far this season, and is to date marginally ahead of the prize money record set by Chris Waller in 2023/24 with just short of four months of the season remaining.

Personnel moves are continuing to make headlines at Maher’s dual-state operation, with his brother Declan announcing this week that he was leaving Ballarat before another Victorian winter grips to set up on the Gold Coast.

Declan has run his brother’s Ballarat stable from the time it was acquired from Darren Weir in 2019, but after overseeing up to 200 horses at a time, he’s decided it’s time to go out on his own. 

“He’s pretty keen to get up there for a bit of a change, so I think it’s great,” Ciaron told The Straight of Declan’s move, which is likely to happen after the Warrnambool carnival. 

Declan says he and his brother “had little conversations along the journey” about a possible interstate move.

“I’ve always trained just a couple, just mucked around with my own, but it’s just too hard when you’re looking after at times … up to 200 horses there at Ballarat,” Declan told Queensland’s RadioTAB. 

“And to be putting that time into my own (horses) and doing the things that I needed to do to start my own business, probably more professionally, I just wasn’t able to do both jobs to the absolute best of my ability.”

Declan’s departure follows a round of redundancies earlier this year at CMR and the sudden resignation of Sellenger on the last day of February.

Sellenger told this publication just 10 days before he left that CMR was “taking an 18 to 24-month view in terms of challenges that we see as facing the industry and trying to be ahead of the game”, 

“Like any sort of good corporate modelling, (we are trying) to get ready for what we see as coming in terms of drops in potential prize money and other increasing costs for the industry.”

CMR isn’t alone on that front with murmurs swirling around Riverside Stables during this week’s Inglis Easter sale that other large-scale stables were also tightening the belt on labour and other costs.

Asked about further possible changes at Australia’s premier stable with 213 winners so far this season, Ciaron didn’t buy into the speculation.

“There’s always rumour and innuendo, that’s what your job is,” he said.

Sam Cavanough was installed as interim chief executive when Sellenger left and Maher has wasted no time appointing a replacement for his brother to oversee Ballarat.

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The StraightTim Rowe

In doing so, Maher has stuck with his policy of rewarding young and ambitious people by promoting them to positions of authority and granting them greater responsibility and independence.  

Nikki White, a graduate of Marcus Oldham’s equine management diploma who is originally from the Gold Coast, will lead the Ballarat team after working her way up the CMR ladder.

“There’s Jack Turnbull, who is our assistant trainer, he gets up there twice a week and I get up there once a week as well,” Maher said. 

“And Nikki, she’s been an integral part of Ballarat for quite a while. She started as a track rider and it just keeps progressing from there, which is what you like to see.”

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The StraightTim Rowe

While White will be at Ballarat, the mainstream focus for Maher will be at Randwick.

“It’s day two of The Championships, it’s tough racing but we’ve got some nice horses heading that way,” Maher said.

He has 11 horses accepted for eight of the 10 races vying for his share of the $10.7 million in prize money on offer.

With such a strong hand, after narrowly being denied in the Sires’ with two-year-old colt State Visit and some other hard-luck stories last weekend, six of the stable’s Sydney representation will run in Saturday’s four Group 1s, the Australian Oaks, Sydney Cup, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Of The Turf.

Light Infantry Man (Queen Elizabeth) and Duke De Sessa (Sydney Cup) are a testament to Maher’s ability as a trainer.

The six-year-old geldings, both European imports, are Group 1 winners this season and have never raced better, Light Infantry Man a last-start winner of the Australian Cup and Duke De Sessa, the spring’s Caulfield Cup winner, was runner-up to Dubai Honour in the Tancred.