Ciaron Maher has been a formidable presence throughout this Spring Carnival, making Thursday’s Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final a significant target for trainers like Dom Sutton.
This prestigious $500,000 race represents the culmination of a series that features heats held at country tracks. Eligibility is restricted to horses trained by Victorian trainers who have accumulated no more than 15 wins for the season, effectively excluding Maher and many of Australia’s leading stables.
Sutton expressed his satisfaction that his strategy to aim Sulek at this event proved successful.
“I was saying in the pre-race interview that it is nice not to run into the likes of Ciaron Maher,” Sutton remarked with a chuckle, alluding to his rival who had trained the trifecta in the recent Melbourne Cup.
“It’s a really good initiative and we got the result.”
Sulek, a four-year-old son of Super Seth, started as the $5.50 favourite and responded keenly to jockey Billy Egan’s guidance, overtaking Wetumpka ($9.50) to achieve a three-quarters-of-a-length victory. Rosa Aotearoa ($7.50) finished third, a length further back.
Sulek’s triumph in the Final followed his win in the Geelong heat, which took place on Geelong Cup Day.
English trainer Sutton, who purchased the horse for $420,000 at the New Zealand Ready To Race Sale in 2024, has many of his compatriots among the ownership group. He was thrilled to see familiar colours return to the winner’s enclosure on such an important occasion.
“It was always a plan from the get-go to try and get him here,” he stated.
“We’ve got a big group of owners here from all around the world, from the UK and New Zealand.”
“They’ve flown in and he runs in Stuart Andrew’s colours. They’ve actually won the Grand National back in the UK, these colours, so they’re very lucky and I’m just over the moon to have got the result.”
This Country Final victory marked Sulek’s third win from 11 starts, and the $275,000 winner’s cheque boosted his career earnings to $415,325.
For those looking to back the next contender, exploring Australian betting sites might reveal promising odds for upcoming feature races.