It’s hardly news that the Ciaron Maher – Dave Eustace horses are routinely going about their business winning races on the track.
You saw Royal Merchant, a 65-rater starting this campaign, making it 10 Group 1's for the stable this season in the Goodwood on Saturday, subsequent wins at Nowra, Ballarat and Kembla Grange yesterday (Tuesday) have taken their tally to a nation leading 281.
An no doubt the relentless march will continue. That's impressive.
But it’s the business that is Ciaron Maher Racing that is as impressive, forever driving growth with an insatiable desire for success but as importantly underpinning what once was simply training horses, now a corporate empire with a structure to match.
There are some 240 staff (and an army of third-party service providers) across a raft of locations and specific use facilities for the nudging 1000 horses on the Ciaron Maher Racing books.
And this from the former jumps jockey who grew up riding motor bikes (still does when he gives himself a time spoil) and started training horses on the family’s dairy property at Warrnambool when he knew as much about business acumen as he did about the hairdresser’s location.
“He is a once in a generational talent,” says CMR CEO Ben Sellenger, who marvels at Maher’s work ethic as much as his visions for the business.
“He has every right to have a closed mindset, he has been super successful, but he is the exact opposite, always supportive of change, keen to identify an incremental advantage and then do everything we can do to find that extra one percent.”
“Inside the rails that is Ciaron’s expertise, outside that is where we come in, but he is always accommodating and open to taking on board any recommendations or modifications for the stable to do better in any possible way, but it always filters through him,” Sellenger said.
“We are a result driven business, but Ciaron and Dave are incredible workers, know every horse and take enormous pride in their work, I’m not sure they know how to turn off or if they would if they could.”
Sellenger has been in the job about nine months, a lawyer by trade, the former boss of the One Asia Golf Tour, PGA Tour Australasia, and one time head of commercial growth at the AFL, amongst other personal corporate roles.
And just last week those who thought CMR couldn’t get any bigger, read that Sellenger signed a lease deal with Racing NSW on the state of the art $22.5m Bong Bong property established by Paul Fudge for Waratah Thoroughbreds which will allow another 80 horses into the CMR in-house system, complementing the Warwick Farm stables and all part of a designated growth plan.
“The ability to have your horses in our care for every step of their preparation was a critical factor in landing on this property,” Sellenger said in an email to clients at the time.
CMR may have a corporate office in leafy Albert Park in Melbourne, but Sellenger only knows he can lock Maher in for a Monday morning at Cranbourne during any week, he with training partner Eustace, and their team, bubbling across all the other facilities.
Cranbourne is about to double in size from the current 40 to 78 boxes, construction due at the end of July.
Ballarat, Darren Weir’s old complex that led to a renovation of Ballarat as a training centre, has room for 190 to 200 horses and drives CMR.
There is the Pakenham farm for spellers, Cavallino with about 30-40 pre-trainers. Fingal is a “secret source” capable of handling another 35 horses in a heavenly natural experience.
Warwick Farm has 100 CMR horses, now complemented by the Bong Bong property and if you think that is more than enough, Sellenger talks, not stresses, Queensland is the next frontier, whether that is “strategic carnival by carnival” or “partnering with an incumbent”, though that talk is 12-18 months away.
“Obviously the Victorian stable is very mature though the growth of Cranbourne gives us extra opportunity, but we have overall horses’ numbers where they need to be, it is now more about efficiency and using our data team to optimise the preparation of each horse, raise our strike rates and become more efficient at doing so,” Sellenger said.
“New South Wales is obviously where we can see the chance for scalable growth, on a different level, perhaps more embryonic but the more the prizemoney opportunities for the number of horses and owners in the system (about 5000), allows us to capitalise and deliver better returns.
Any clamour for that often-floated idea to “limit” a stable size to give others a chance - it used to be levelled at Weir - it regularly comes up with Chris Waller, is professionally dismissed by Sellenger for CMR.
“We have size and scale alongside a good structure to our process to ensure this runs smoothly and successfully,” he said.
“To be honest I think our scale provides us with an unfair advantage,” Selleneger says without boast and explains it as : “which means we can invest in other areas perhaps others trainers can’t justify, we are always looking to invest in new ways to train, which is why our data and sports science team is such a big part of our business and we are only scratching the surface there.
“Then we have our communications team, a critical part of our business, so our owners are serviced as well as we can possibly deliver.”
“So, our size certainly hasn’t hindered us, it has driven us to service it.”
But CMR is unapologetic about taking training operations into the modern technological era and is expanding investment in that space.
“We are working with University partnerships that could really give us a significant advantage over the next 12-18 months as we work through these studies that cover everything from recovery, to hydration, to bloodstock identification and genetics as we keep striving for more.”
“This is our Moneyball moment hopefully.”
And while many trainers speck on yearlings and carry that debt and interest at the sales to compete with the likes of CMR, they are again ahead of the game with a buying structure reducing risk.
“We have an amazing client base of around 5000 owners, and we have a process at any sale that we have engaged in advance as to what they may want and how much they are willing to invest.
“So, when the hammer falls, we have a system in place that we aren’t exposed to any real liability, most horses are sold at the completion of any day and then we have the luxury of having the support of major clients, breeders and syndicators.”
“Of course, with such a business we have a significant wages bill, so we are on top of cash flow and debtors, just the same as any stable, so much of our side of the business is focussed on running this like a corporate entity rather than any racing stable.”
But there seems is a real sense of community – perhaps football team environment - that thrives at CMR and is encouraged by the top end, especially Maher, of which they are extremely proud of.
Delegation and opportunity are the key and a role to the future.
“We like to train up the next generation. Staff is so important. But giving them the skills to take the next step is vital to our structure,” Sellenger said.
“We give them that support so that they can take the next step on their racing journey,” he said noting the recent high-profile shift of Lucy Yeomans into a partnership with Lloyd Kennewell.
And of course, racing’s latest training sensation Annabel Neasham comes through the CMR system.
“We do mimic a lot of real businesses to ensure our processes are modern and working. I love the industry, but having seen other high-performance sports, I can see the room to grow, and we are seeking those opportunities but partnerships with industry bodies and educational institutions can only help us all.
“The racing demographic is mature, we might look to have a youth policy, it’s not deliberate, we aren’t averse to experience, and will always incorporate innovative thinking from wherever it comes, but Ciaron Maher Racing will always be is a place of opportunity with an end goal of success.”
So endeth the message.
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