Ciaron Maher has celebrated his first Melbourne Cup triumph with family and friends while vowing to give Gold Trip a chance to claim back-to-back wins in Australia's greatest race.
Maher trained two of the top-three placegetters in this year's edition and says there's no reason why Gold Trip can't come back and do it again.
Gold Trip confirmed the stable's arrival as a juggernaut of Australian racing on Tuesday as Maher shared the moment with co-trainer David Eustace and his brother Declan, also an integral part of a two-state operation that continues to expand.
For the Mahers' proud mother Eileen it seemed only a matter of time before her sons landed a Melbourne Cup and she will be the least surprised if this is their only one.
"I can (believe it) in a way that they only ever wanted to win," she told Racing.com.
"Ciaron said to me about two months ago, 'I didn't get into this business, Mum, to come second. I only got in this business to come first'.
"From then on, I knew that it would happen."
Gold Trip's impact on the Australian scene has taken 12 months longer than the Maher stable and successful syndicator Australian Bloodstock had planned.
Fourth home in the prestigious Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2020, the French import was ruled out of last year's Cox Plate on Racing Victoria veterinary advice.
Gold Trip was given a slow build-up to the spring that laid a foundation for a testing campaign that included a narrow Caulfield Cup defeat and a Cox Plate appearance where nothing went right before his stunning win at Flemington.
His victory with 57.5kg, the heaviest impost carried by a Cup winner since Makybe Diva lumped 58kg in her history-making triumph in 2005, also snapped a run of spring close calls for jockey Mark Zahra.
Zahra rode Gold Trip when they were cut down late in the Caulfield Cup and he was on I'm Thunderstruck who flashed home to finish second in the Cox Plate.
