Meagher shows mettle
CHRIS Meagher earned family bragging rights when he landed Savanna Amour a Group 3 winner on the very first day he had runners in his own name at Caulfield on Saturday.
Meagher has taken over the stables previously occupied by his Melbourne Cup- winning father John, who announced his retirement last week.
Before that, John trained in partnership with Chris and another son, Dan, who made the move to Singapore last season.
Chris went to Singapore in April this year to help Dan run his stable of 60 horses, but returned home to help his father two months ago, with retired jockey Danny Beasley filling his place in Singapore.
“The good thing about it is everywhere I turn Dad is going to be there and if I need some advice he’s right there,” Chris said. “He’s not far away from me – he’s based back down here in Melbourne.
“Not much has changed. Obviously I have a bit more input. He’s finding it probably a little bit difficult at the moment because it’s something he’s done for his whole life, he’s not in the spotlight as such now but he took great pride in ( Saturday’s) result.”
Savanna Amour will run next over 1400m at either Flemington or Caulfield, be- fore a decision is made on whether she runs in the Myer Classic ( 1600m) or stays at the shorter course races.
The mare has now won four races at Group level, the last three at odds of $ 16, $ 15 and $ 15 on Saturday.
“The owners certainly aren’t arguing,” Chris said.
Meagher has 24 horses in work, split evenly between Brisbane and Mornington. While based in Melbourne, he said he would commute to Queensland once a fortnight to oversee the running of the Eagle Farm stable.