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After leading a tour group of clients to last year’s LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR), Australia’s biggest trainer Ciaron Maher will return to the 2024 Sha Tin showpiece on 8 December – but this time around he’ll be mixing business with pleasure.
While there will again be a large contingent of Maher's clients as members of his touring party at Sha Tin and also at the LONGINES International Jockeys' Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley on Wednesday, 4 December, the big difference this year is that the prolific winning-trainer will have his first runner in Hong Kong when five-year-old gelding Recommendation tackles a crack field in the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m).
Recommendation is yet to win at the highest level, but has four Group 3 victories, including three in succession at Caulfield this year. Two of his Group wins have been at 1100m and two at 1200m.
His overall record boasts nine wins, three seconds and four thirds from 22 starts. A third at his most recent start in the Listed Century Stakes (1000m) at Flemington on 7 November lifted his prizemoney to AU$1.02 million (approx. HK$5.18 million).
Maher has more than 400 horses in work at his Victoria and New South Wales stables and is getting bigger. He recorded one of the stable's biggest pay days when Duke De Sessa won the AU$5.2 million (approx. HK$26.23 million) Caulfield Cup (2400m) and Bella Nipotina won the AU$20 million (approx. HK$100.91 million) The Everest (1200m) on the same day on 19 October.
After getting a taste of the big feature races last year, Maher was keen to return to Hong Kong with his clients and is enthusiastic about the opportunity of having a runner in one of the four Group 1 races at Sha Tin.
"Got a heap of clients coming up and all the owners are pretty well up and about," Maher said. "The horse seems in good form, but the local (Ka Ying Rising) might be hard to beat.
"He (Recommendation) is a gelding that has had a really good spring and has gone to another level and the owners were keen to travel with him."
Maher said he is expecting to get some advice from his former co-trainer David Eustace, who has made a successful start as a trainer in his own right in Hong Kong after being granted a training licence at The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
"I will be catching up with Dave for sure and he has started very well," he said. "And we'll be having a chat for sure."
Maher said he wasn't surprised when Eustace grabbed the opportunity of training in his own right when offered a training licence in Hong Kong.
"He was a great asset to our business and it's good to see him starting quite well," he said.
Maher and Eustace combined to win more than 1,560 races and 30 Group 1 victories, including Gold Trip's 2022 G1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) win.
At this stage, Maher said there hadn't been a definite booking for a rider for Recommendation but it could be Mark Zahra, who will also ride 2023 Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight, a leading contender in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m).
Maher said he would definitely like to return to Hong Kong to contest more future feature races if he rates his first foray as a success.
"Plenty of people have travelled over there before and it will be good to take Recommendation up and I'm looking forward to the challenge," he said.
Maher will arrive in Hong Kong on Sunday (1 December) to supervise Recommendation's work leading up to the race.