Ciaron Maher moves to Turf Club

BALLARAT Turf Club has announced a new tenant for the training facility formally known as Forrest Lodge.

The Ciaron Maher-David Eustice training partnership will make use of the site from Today, 7 February.

CEO of Ballarat Turf Club, Lachlan McKenzie said the soon to be completed renovated racing surface was just one of many drawcards that attracted the partnership.

“BTC offers great diversity in world-class training facilities. The uphill ProRide synthetic track, vast array of training tracks and grass gallops provide much needed variety to local trainers,” he said.

“These facilities are soon to be complimented by the all-weather PolyTrack synthetic race track which is well into the civil construction phase and will be a welcome addition to what are already world-class training facilities.”

The Maher-Eustice training partnership has a number of facilities in Victoria and inter-state. They include stables in Caulfield, beach training in Balnarring, a pre-training farm in Pakenham and recently opened stables in Warwick Farm in Sydney.

Ciaron Maher said the addition of the Ballarat site to the partnership’s suite of locations was welcomed.

“This is a huge opportunity of Ciaron Maher Racing to take over a premier training facility in Victoria,” he said.

“Our business is well structured to facilitate this addition, both practically and administratively, and our key priority is to ensure a swift takeover with minimal disruption to staff and horses.”

Mr McKenzie said the fast take up of what was known as Forrest Lodge by the Maher-Eustice training partnership was good for stakeholders, the Turf Club and the city.

“[T]he arrival of Ciaron Maher Racing within our local ranks at Ballarat provides some much-needed confidence to the local racing industry,” he said.

“While it has been a turbulent time for all, and particularly the Forrest Lodge staff, we are hopeful that this announcement will bring some piece of mind for stable staff, industry service providers and partners.”

The move by The Maher-Eustice training partnership comes on top of a recent announcement that Nigel Blackiston will bring on course facilities from Flemington to Ballarat later in the month.