{"id":470690,"date":"2025-10-03T08:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470690\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T08:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:57:13","slug":"how-a-cup-of-tea-with-king-charles-could-help-land-ciaron-maher-his-next-melbourne-cup-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470690\/","title":{"rendered":"How a cup of tea with King Charles could help land Ciaron Maher his next Melbourne Cup winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

He won his last start at Caulfield over 2000 metres by two lengths and if he can win The Bart Cummings handicap over 2500m at Flemington on Saturday \u2013 and good judges say he can \u2013 the King\u2019s horse is guaranteed a start in the race that stops a nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s the right type of horse for a Cup if we can sneak him in,\u201d Maher said \u201cI think he\u2019ll definitely get the two miles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s horse, Gilded Water, is racing at Flemington on Saturday.Credit: Racing Photos<\/p>\n

As a result, Maher said he had told King Charles and Queen Camilla that \u201cthe plan has always been the Cup\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI touch base with them before each run and afterwards, and tell them how the horse pulls up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn [Warren] said they were working out last time he ran what time it would be and whether they would stay up or whether they would watch it the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very much enjoying the ride so far. I received a letter \u2013 I have received a few actually \u2013 just how thrilled they were after his win at Caulfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maher, who won the 2022 Melbourne Cup with Gold Trip, said his stable\u2019s link to King Charles traced back to Warren, a horse breeder in his own right.<\/p>\n

He said the stable bought 2022 Magic Millions winner Coolangatta from Warren, as well as buying last year\u2019s Sydney Cup winner Circle Of Fire from the Royal Family. Circle Of Fire is a half-brother to Gilded Water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just thought he [Gilded Water] would be a good fit for us, I would say, on the back of Circle Of Fire,\u201d Maher explained.<\/p>\n

For a boy who grew up on a farm on the sea spray-swept rolling green hills of Warrnambool before becoming a jumps jockey, the whole experience has been \u201csurreal\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked about his knowledge of royal protocols, he said he had done a \u201cfair bit of googling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Royal Ascot racing carnival.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fairly daunting, even though they are very approachable, and very easy to talk to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maher has now met King Charles three times in the past 18 months, including being invited to the royal box during this year\u2019s Ascot carnival with his partner Alice to have \u201ca quick chat to both their majesties\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, is the plan now to win the King a Melbourne Cup and earn himself a knighthood?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to just do my job,\u201d Maher said. \u201cBut I\u2019m loving the correspondence, and not everyone gets an opportunity to do what we\u2019re doing. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He won his last start at Caulfield over 2000 metres by two lengths and if he can win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-470690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115309409137790021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}