Jameka takes Maher on the ride of his life

AS the field assembled behind the gates for yesterday’s Caulfield Cup, Ciaron Maher ( pictured) stood in the middle of the mounting, arms folded, arching back on his haunches.

The trainer of the Caulfield Cup favourite stood like a bloke waiting for a bus.

He stood much the same way for the entire race, a race in which he had the favourite but one that had to defy real or imagined obstacles.

By winning, Jameka became the first mare to win the VRC Oaks (2500m) in one season and the Caulfield Cup (2400m) the next.

Caulfield-trained horses are not supposed to win their own Cup – training track too tight, better for sprinters. The stats said so, just one winner in about 30 years.

Maher shrugged that off, just as he shrugged off prerace concerns Jameka was better at 2000m and other perceived can’t-do’s.

Jameka raced competitively at two, then at three in a couple of Oaks races at three, when she also took on the boys in the Rosehill Guineas and ATC Derby.

Fillies are usually plotted around the colts, but Maher, the casual confident ex dirtbiker, likes to tough roads.

He bought Jameka as a yearling because of the way she moved. He didn’t care about her bloodlines, just her vibe. He said he’d have paid more than the $130,000 that snapped her up, not because he had the money, but because he didn’t.

“I didn’t go past my budget because I didn’t have a budget,’’ he said with a smirk. “It was all on credit.’’

The one-time jumps jockey won a Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool in his late twenties. He won the Emirates Stakes at Fleming- ton also before he turned 30 with a $101 shot bred on some farm down near the Bool.

Jameka zinged from the gates and appeared likely to lead as she roared past her trainer, who seemed so laidback he may have switched his gaze to something else, like a passing aeroplane.

The race shuffled about up front and Jameka over-raced at stages but Maher would later say he was never concerned at any stage of this $3 million international contest because “she’s just a competitive horse.’’