Maher aims to hit jackpot with The Next Episode

MELBOURNE – As head of Australia’s largest stable preparing for racing’s biggest week of the year, Ciaron Maher might not get the chance to get down to the newsagent and buy a Tattslotto (Australian lottery) ticket this week.

But that does not mean he is without an entry in a lottery and the ticket he has cost just a little more than your regulation 12-game Quickpick.

Maher is chasing the result of a lifetime with boom colt The Next Episode in the A$2 million (S$1.8 million) Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington.

The 1,200-metre event is not the biggest race for three-year-olds on the Derby Day card, but it is the most significant from a breeding perspective, and the son of Snitzel will be worth tens of millions of dollars should he win.

Maher paid A$2.8 million for The Next Episode at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and while he concedes it is stressful overseeing the career of such of valuable horse, it is precisely the sort of stress he hoped for when bidding for him.

“It’s pressure that you want to have,” he said.

“Every person that goes to a yearling sale, every person that breeds a colt, they’re your Tattslotto tickets. That’s what the industry is geared around.

“You want to have these horses and you want to be performing in this race.

“You want to win Tattslotto.”

Maher was given the job of finding a colt for prominent English owner Phil Cunningham on the Gold Coast in January 2025 and identified The Next Episode, who is out of the Denman mare Humma Humma.

He is the most expensive colt ever sold at Magic Millions and the second highest-priced yearling in that company’s existence, behind only the filly by Home Affairs out of Sunlight who sold for A$3.2m later at the same sale.

Cunningham, whose horses in the UK race under the Rebel Racing banner and are named after his favourite songs, took a large chunk of The Next Episode and it was Maher’s job to sell the rest.

Maher admits the colt proved a little harder to move than he initially would have liked, but said his desire to sell diminished once he started to increase The Next Episode’s workload.

“He started to show a little bit of ability and there was a piece there, so I thought I’d take the punt,” said Maher.

“I’d be happy if I got left with more now.”

The Next Episode stamped himself as the horse to beat in the Coolmore Stud Stakes with victory in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1,100m) at Flemington on Oct 3, which has been his only start as a three-year-old.

He finished down the track on debut, in the A$1 million Group 3 Golden Gift (1,100m) at Rosehill on Nov 8, 2025, but was put away and returned three of his other four starts at two, including the $1 million Magic Millions National Classic (1,000m) in May.

Once Maher worked out he was not going to be able to get The Next Episode to the Golden Slipper (1,200m) in March, everything was geared around the Coolmore Stud Stakes.

“That’s been his goal,” he said.

“I raced him into the winter and took him to Queensland with a view to going fresh into this race.

“He had a look down the (Flemington) straight (in the Danehill Stakes over 1,100m on Oct 3) and he ticked that box.

“He’s had a month between (runs), which I love, and a little tick-over trial here the other morning was lovely, just to give him another look down the straight.

“He should be pretty close to right at his best.”

The Next Episode heads Coolmore betting from another high-priced son of Snitzel – A$2.7m Inglis Easter Yearling Sale buy St Gotthard, a brother to 2024 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Switzerland – with fillies Satono Glow, Natural Fling and Pembrey next in line.

The Danehill Stakes winning partner Mark Zahra will take the ride on The Next Episode and is chasing a third win in the race, following earlier victories on Merchant Navy in 2017 and Tentyris in 2025. RACING AND SPORTS