‘We are looking to go 50-50': Ciaron Maher eyes bigger slice of Sydney riches
And he hopes the likes of Sacred Rocks and Hi Dubai, which race at Randwick on Saturday, can lead the early charge.
Maher's stable last week became the first to win more than $60 million in prizemoney in a season and is closing out a third consecutive Australian trainers' premiership, with 322.5 winners before Thursday's meetings. Chris Waller was second on 270.
The Victorian has built the amazing success largely on performances in his home state, but his reach in NSW is set to grow with the move of his Sydney stable from Warwick Farm to Leilani Lodge at Randwick. The larger stable, together with existing arms of his operation at Bong Bong Farm in the Southern Highland and Bobs Farm in the Hunter, are part of Maher's ambition to expand and increase his winning totals in NSW.
'There's about 20 extra stables, but we sort of alternate,' Maher said of the difference between his Warwick Farm stables and Leilani Lodge, which is still being renovated.
'We have up to 200 at Ballarat but that fluctuates, and all the other stables stay full. But we own that joint, so that's why we can do that. We haven't sort of changed for about two or three seasons now, so it's always just consolidate.
'We are looking to go 50-50. We are sort of 60-40 with Victoria at the moment, but 50-50 with Sydney has been the aim for a couple of years.'
Maher has 84.5 winners in NSW, with 48 in town, this season. Those numbers are dwarfed by Waller's. The Rosehill trainer, who is upgrading his Flemington operation with a move into Godolphin's Carbine Lodge, has 182 and 140 wins respectively in NSW and metro will secure a 15th consecutive Sydney trainers' premiership.
The expansion of Maher's operations, though, raises the question of whether he can one day challenge Waller's reign in Sydney.
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