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Ciaron Maher who trains in partnership with co-trainer David Eustace, said that Loving Gaby was set to resume for the 2020 Spring Carnival in the Gr. 1 A$1m Moir Stakes (1000m).
Eustace and Maher have training complexes in Victoria and at Warwick Farm in Sydney and Loving Gaby is in Victoria at the moment which has thrown a small spanner in the works.
Maher is hoping a good performance by Loving Gaby in the Moir would attract the attention of A$15m The Everest slot holders.
“She is a very high-quality mare. She is stronger this year,” he said, “She has been phenomenal, the way she raced in the open company last year. We expect her to even better upon her return as a 3YO.”
“The Everest and the Golden Eagle are two targets really for her.”
“The ideal scenario is that she runs in the Moir and then up into the Everest that is what we want to do.”
In just ten short years, Maher has gone from being a Jockey to a leading jockey to one of the top trainers in Australasia. He has worked under everyone including CS Hayes, Bart Cummings, Aidan O'Brien and many other racing greats.
“Loving Gaby has always been a favourite among all of the Phoenix Thoroughbreds team. Not only is she incredibly talented, winning two Group Ones as a three-year-old, but she also has a terrific personality and attitude. She was also named after a close friend of our Head of Legal and we wanted to make sure we honoured her memory with a talented filly. She is probably my favourite of the horses we own in Australia,” says Amer Abdulaziz, CEO of Phoenix Thoroughbreds which own this amazing I Am Invincible progeny.
“She is very strong. She weighs about 600 kgs and has a great attitude. She is very straightforward to train and is very obvious in her work,” said Maher.
A A$500,000 Easter Yearling Sale purchase she has now amassed A$2,281,250, having won four starts out of her thirteen.
“We made her presence at the Easter sale. We knew she was a good horse from the start.”
But their plans depend on whether the border between the two states is re-opened for horses to travel by the end of September.
“We are hopeful to try and get an Everest slot and assume the rules will be relaxed by then,” said Maher with optimism.
“Obviously there are races for her down here (in Melbourne), but we would love to be able to race her up in Sydney,” his co-trainer Eustace had said in an interview with Racing Pulse.
Loving Gaby is the winner of two Group Ones, both at The Valley, in the A$1m Manikato Stakes (1200m) during the 2019 Melbourne Spring Carnival and in the A$500,000 William Reid Stakes (1200m) during the 2020 Melbourne Autumn Carnival.
Only three slots for The Everest have been secured with the Chris Waller-trained Nature Strip to run for TAB, Les Bridge’s Classique Legend to represent Bon Ho and Gordon Brown’s Gytrash recently confirmed for Inglis.
Racing New South Wales stewards banned horses from entering New South Wales from Victoria in early July following the second wave of coronavirus breaking out in Melbourne.
International and out of state connections alike are hoping the decision is relaxed with Spring Carnival looming close.