Eustace lands Hong Kong licence after meteoric rise
Ciaron Maher Racing confident it’ll be status quo despite loss of stable’s co-trainer
Ciaron Maher’s right-hand man David Eustace will move to Hong Kong ahead of next season as the Jockey Club continues the renewal of its training ranks, ending months of speculation that he would leave the Australian racing behemoth for Asia.
Englishman Eustace, who has trained 30 Group 1 winners since entering a partnership alongside Maher in August 2018, has been an integral figure in the phenomenal growth of Ciaron Maher Racing to be Australia’s largest stable in the space of six years.
The son of retired British trainer James Eustace and brother to current Newmarket-based trainer Harry, Eustace, 32, also has ties to Hong Kong with his uncle David Oughton training in the premier Asian racing jurisdiction for almost two decades from 1987 through until 2006.
“It was just a dream then, but I was very keen to visit [Hong Kong] and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel with Dad’s best horse and sprinter War Artist, who ran in the international races and I travelled him over when I was 18 in 2009,” Eustace said.
“I got to do it again with Roger Varian when I brought his horses to Australia and Farraaj, who ran in the Hong Kong Cup in 2014. Farraaj was actually ridden by Andrea Atzeni, who is a good friend of mine and a very good jockey and I look forward to hopefully catching up with him in Hong Kong.
“In 2014, I stayed on for an extra two weeks and did a couple of weeks at the track with Caspar Fownes and David Hall at the track and got a bit of a feel for the place.”
Eustace broadened his international experience by working for Peter Moody and Peter and Paul Snowden before linking with Maher. He will leave Ciaron Maher Racing at the end of next month and he intends on using the Conghua centre on mainland China.
“I hope to bring a varied style of training with experiences from the UK, experiences from Australia and with an emphasis on using sports science and data to enhance a horse’s training, longevity and careers in Hong Kong,” Eustace said.
“Communication, whether it be with the Jockey Club itself or with owners, is very important and I intend for it to be absolutely first-class – that’s what I hope to bring to the table along with youth and vibrancy.
“I also understand I am heading one of the most competitive racing jurisdictions in the world and that’s exciting.”
Maher is confident that his own Victoria and NSW multi-venue stable has the personnel to cope with the departure of his valuable co-trainer Eustace.
Maher described Eustace’s impending move to Hong Kong as “bittersweet”.
“Bitter because it will be difficult to replace someone with David’s skills and work ethic – and just a great human being. Sweet as it’s a fitting reward for David and at the same time gives us a great opportunity to continue to evolve and develop from within,” Maher wrote to clients early yesterday.
“In elite sport, there is always fluidity at the top. The best and most successful operations recognise this and plan accordingly.
“We have a basic rule of thumb: everyone in a senior position must be replaceable – and that includes me. Even losing someone of David’s skills gives our highly talented group of assistants the opportunity to step up and have an even greater input, and with that will come new thinking and fresh initiatives.”
Maher said the stable had been planning for Eustace’s possible departure for at least 12 months and he pointed to the development of assistant trainers, the Sydney-based Johann Gerard-Dubord and Cranbourne-based Jack Turnbull, as well as Maher’s brother Declan who operates CMR’s Ballarat stable.
“Of course we will miss David, but I am looking forward to the fresh input and initiatives that come with change, and am absolutely confident that we will continue to get better,” he said.
Maher and Eustace have won four consecutive Victorian trainers’ premierships and took out the national title for the first time last season.
Speculation about Eustace training in Hong Kong, which had been murmuring for at least a year and grew legs when it is believed he stopped over in the country after Coolangatta’s (Written Tycoon) Royal Ascot mission in June, reached fever pitch earlier this week, leading to yesterday’s announcement by the Jockey Club and CMR.
Seen as a “northern hemisphere” replacement for Brit Richard Gibson, the trainer of Group 1-winning sprinter Wellington (All Too Hard) before he left Hong Kong in June, Eustace joins recent expatriate Hong Kong trainers, New Zealander Jamie Richards (2022-23) and Australian Mark Newnham (2023-24), to gain a coveted Hong Kong trainer’s licence in recent seasons.
Current Hong Kong premiership leader Pierre Ng joined the training ranks last season while Cody Mo was granted a licence at the start of the 2023-24 season.
“David Eustace brings a unique skill set as well as extensive experience for a trainer of his age,” the Jockey Club’s executive director of racing Andrew Harding said.
“He has worked with and learned from some of horseracing’s finest trainers around the world and with his understanding of sports science coupled with established training methods, I look forward to watching David’s career flourish in Hong Kong.
“Importantly, while he has achieved such conspicuous success during his time in Australia, his knowledge and experience of racing in the UK is also of great value to Hong Kong racing, which has always blended talents from around the world, and will help with the sourcing of horses from Europe to complement our world-class level of racing.”
The Jockey Club also confirmed yesterday that it had increased the compulsory retirement age for trainers from 65 to 66 and revised the criteria for trainers who are eligible to train until the age of 70.
Under the changes, Manfred Man, who prepares Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lucky Sweynesse (Sweynesse), is eligible for an extension of his trainer’s licence for the 2024/25 season and he will be considered for retention through until 2028/29 if he agrees to open a Conghua stable to complement his Sha Tin base.
Eustace trained his first Group 1 winner with Maher in April 2019 when Kenedna (Not A Single Doubt) won that year’s Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick. Since then, they have won a further 29 races at the highest level including the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) with Sir Dragonet (Camelot) in 2020, a Manikato (Gr 1, 1200m) and William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) and a AJ Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) and Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) with Coolangatta, who also won the 2022 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m).
Arguably the pair’s greatest triumph was the 2022 Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) with imported stayer Gold Trip (Outstrip) while Hitotsu’s (Maurice) Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m), Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) victories were a testament to Eustace and Maher’s investment in and use of data and sports science.
The now Arrowfield Stud-based stallion Hitotsu won the Victoria Derby third up from a spell and the following year’s Australian Guineas and Australian Derby first and second up from a spell.