SA Oaks form ‘will stack up in Qld’
So impressed was champion trainer Ciaron Maher with his filly Affaire A Suivre in her Australasian Oaks victory, he says all she needs to do is replicate that performance to win the Group 1 Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Maher, who trains in partnership with David Eustace, said the 0.2-length winning margin did not do Affaire A Suivre justice, given the power of work she did throughout the race, where she was threewide for much of the 2000m trip a month ago.
While she will face stiffer opposition in the Queensland
Oaks to that of South Australia, with the likes of Fireburn ($3.50), Renaissance Woman ($4.50) and Sakura Girl ($8) hard in the market, Maher said he expects the form to stack up.
TAB fixed-odds assessors didn’t miss Affaire A Suivre’s run, installing her a $4.50 chance in the 2200m feature.
“She’s very much on track, she has come through the trial well and she is up here in Queensland now,” Maher said.
“She is doing a little piece of work on Tuesday, but it won’t be much because she is right to go, the fitness is there and she is a big, scopey filly who looks very healthy in the skin. I don’t think she has to improve really, she was big in Adelaide, she was wide, went early and sustained a strong gallop.
“If she can repeat that effort on Saturday, she will be right in this.
“To the eye and everything she has shown me at home, there’s no reason she can’t repeat that effort again.”
The training duo are looking to strike their first blow in the Queensland carnival after dominating Adelaide’s with three Group 1’s.
Maher will look to win his second Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap next weekend where he is set to have threeyear-olds Royal Merchant and Ruthless Dame running.
Now one of the biggest stables in the country, Maher made his name in Queensland with Srikandi, running third in the Stradbroke in 2014, before returning 12 months later to win it.