He’s won Caulfield Cups, a Cox Plate and a Melbourne Cup, and now Ciaron Maher has won his hometown Cup thanks to Smokin’ Romans (NZ) (Ghibellines) staving off the late charge from Torranzino (NZ) (Tarzino) to land the 2350-metre Warrnambool feature on Thursday.
The 2022 Turnbull Stakes winner lumped the topweight of 59kg to victory, leading throughout for star jockey Ben Melham.
“It’s fantastic,” Maher said.
“What a fantastic ride by Ben, he really understands this horse really well, he’s had some nice wins on him.”
A rising nine-year-old, Smokin’ Romans has now won 11 of his 47 race starts and earned more than $2.3 million in prizemoney.
“He’s been phenomenal,” Maher said.
“He’s getting on a bit now; we change it up a bit for him. I can’t thank the team enough, he goes everywhere, he’s been hanging out at Ballarat the last couple of days but he’s normally down at Cranbourne, so a big thanks to them.”
Melham was celebrating his second win in the Warrnambool Cup, 15 years after capturing the race on Hissing Sid. It was also the second leg of a double for him on Day 3 of the May Racing Carnival.
“I wanted to lead on him because of the big weight,” Melham revealed.
“It was just the weight that brought him back to the field going over the line. He had to go a nice-enough gallop just to make sure that nothing whipped around him mid-race.
“It was a good, tough win in the end, he’s obviously a Group 1 winner, he’s got a bit of class. He mixes his form a little bit, but he does tend to go well for me.”
