Winslow trainer Ciaron Maher with Melbourne Cup hopeful Moudre.
CIARON Maher has his fingers crossed his talented stayer Moudre will gain a start in next weekend’s $2.5 million Caulfield Cup.
Moudre is ranked number 24 in the order of entry for the feature group 1 race, but with only 18 runners and four emergencies making the final field, Maher faces a few sleepless nights before final acceptors next Wednesday.
“I think we’re on the borderline of getting into the final 18 runners in the Caulfield Cup,” he said.
“I’ve taken the positive approach that we will make the field and I’ve booked Kerrin McEvoy to ride the horse if we get a run.
“There’s usually a fair bit of attrition between now and the Caulfield Cup, so we’ll take our chances and see how we go.
“The make-up of the final field in the Caulfield Cup is out of our hands. We’re in the lap of the gods.”
The former jumps jockey said McEvoy, who won the 2000 Melbourne Cup on Brew, had shown plenty of interest in Moudre during his career.
“Kerrin had put his hand up to ride Moudre in 2010 when he ran second in the Geelong Cup and won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes,” the Winslow trainer said.
“Kerrin’s always liked the horse. I had to book Kerrin the other night just in case we got the run because the top jockeys are normally gone if you wait too long.”
Moudre put in the worst run of his career last Saturday when he ran last in the $500,000 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington, but Maher said the seven-year-old had recovered well from the run.
“The only thing we can put the bad run down to is a stiff off-front shoulder, but that’s all right now,” he said.
“We’ve done a fair bit of swimming down at the Mordialloc beach with him this week and he seems on top of his game.
“Our main goal is still the Melbourne Cup. If we don’t get a run in the Caulfield Cup, we’ll go down the path of running him in the Geelong Cup on October 24. We’ve got to give him one more solid run before the Melbourne Cup.”
Moudre has won more than $550,000 in stakemoney from his 22 starts.