3 minute read
Bashboy's Grand National success has again highlighted the training talents of Ciaron Maher who is out to follow up a breakout season in 2014/15.
2014/15 was Ciaron Maher's tenth season as a trainer and far and away his most productive, building on improving seasons that preceded it.
Maher trained 70 winners at 20%, up on 50 winners at 16% the season prior and a career strike rate of 14%.
Maher's star is on the rise, and a profit on turnover of +6.5% last season will certainly keep the punting public on side. A strike-rate of 41% with favourites returned punters a profit of 22.3% on turnover and that's no short term fluke; his strike-rate with favourites is 39% over his decade-long career and has returned a profit of 10.3%.
Check out Ciaron Maher's full statistical profile
Tears I Cry first made Maher headlines in 2007, and his 100-1 shock in the Emirates Stakes distorts Maher's profitability statistics in stakes races (+65.4% POT over 10 years thank you very much), but there's still plenty of evidence that when the Ciaron Maher stable turns up for the big days they aren't there for the day out.
The yard struck at 18% in stakes races last season, returning punters a profit of 14% on their turnover, against a 15% career strike-rate in stakes races.
Versatility is perhaps what impresses most when it comes to Ciaron Maher. We intuitively know this when we see Bashboy winning his third Grand National just a week after filly Petits Filous sped around the 1000m course at the Valley in sharp time, and that intuition is confirmed when we drill down into the facts.
Maher, who has three times trained the winner of Warrambool's 5500m Grand Annual, arguably Australia's most grueling stamina test, has a strike-rate of 23% with his horses over 1000m. Another positive profit on turnover, this time of 23.6%, hints at a marketplace that may undervalue the stable over shorter trips.
At this point it is worth noting that searching for patterns with the Ciaron Maher stable is a tricky exercise. Many yards strike best in certain scenarios and the stats tend to highlight that. Maher's stats are simply strong across the board.
The only obvious trend is the overall upward spiral of the stable in strike-rates, profitability, prizemoney and stakes success.
Interestingly five of the stables top six earners last season were fillies or mares. Michelle Payne rode the most winners and Jackie Beriman was the highest striker. They say that curls get the girls and it seems that Maher has a knack with the ladies.
