Young Winslow trainer Ciaron Maher is eyeing the Grand National Hurdle on Sunday week after a four-year plan paid handsome dividends yesterday at Warrnambool.
Maher's first-season jumper Regal Heir produced a flawless performance to upstage a star-studded field in the $100,000 Kevin Lafferty Hurdle (4150m).
The win, Regal Heir's second from five jumps starts, underlined Maher's confidence in the seven-year-old gelding and rewarded patient owners, including his father John, with a $62,563 winner's cheque.
Maher bought the horse as a broken-in three-year-old and earmarked him for a jumping career.
But Maher, 29, revealed he hadn't expected Regal Heir to achieve what he had in his first major jumps campaign.
"It's more a relief," he said of the win.
"I always knew he had good staying ability and his owners have stuck it through. It's only his third win of his career."
Each of Regal Heir's three wins have come on rain-affected tracks at Warrnambool.
He said the prospect of a soft track at Sandown on August 15 for the Grand National should also suit.
Maher said Regal Heir wasn't his first-choice for the Lafferty Hurdle.
"Mt Townsend was my plan for this time of year," he said.
"He ran well in the national last year but he's a bit sore in one of his legs. It's great one of the younger ones in the stable has stepped up."
The win had special significance for Maher's father, John, who revealed at the presentations he had known legendary Warrnambool trainer Kevin Lafferty, who the race was named after.
"I admired him, little did I know I would be doing this," Maher senior said.
The win cemented Maher as a leading jumps trainer, having captured most of the country's biggest jumps races in a six-year career.
With wins in this year's Grand Annual Steeplechase, last year's Brierly Steeplechase, both at Warrnambool, the Great Eastern and Von Doussa steeplechases at Oakbank, last year's MacDonald and St Steven steeplechases, Maher said there was one feature race not on his resume - a Grand National.
"If he pulls up alright," he said of Regal Heir's chances of running on August 15.
Regal Heir, ridden by Nathan Dunn, settled midfield yesterday, tracking dual jumper of the year, Some Are Bent.
But when the Robert Smerdon-trained champion was eased out of the race with 650 metres to go in the heavy ground, Dunn made their own running.
He loomed up alongside race leader Desert Master and took the lead after clearing the last hurdle.
Dunn and Regal Heir ($11) had to withstand a searching run by the Robbie Laing-trained Corries ($15) in the run to the line, scoring by one-and-a-quarter lengths, with Desert Master ($13) a further five lengths away third.
Another jumper of the year, Mazzacano, failed to handle the heavy track and was eased out of the race with about 1200 metres to go.
Dunn was delighted with the result, having been given the ride after Steven Pateman opted for the ride on the unplaced Sparking.
"I had never sat on him before," the 32-year-old said.
He said he was aware of the charge by Corries but knew Maher's "training polish" would have ensured his mount had enough to hold on.
"I love Warrnambool, my second ride in a Grand Annual I won and this year I was rider of the May carnival."
"A third of my wins would come here."
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