Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have a great record with their stayers, but it will be a masterful training effort if Hitotsu wins the Victoria Derby.
Hitotsu is the only three-year-old the training partners have in Saturday’s Victoria Derby at Flemington which is run at Group 1 level over 2500m.
Having started his career with Wendy Kelly, Hitotsu joined Maher and Eustace this campaign and was a first-up maiden winner at Donald over 1350m in September.
Start number two was a solid fifth to Anamoe in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 9 and start three for the pair will be on Saturday.
Eustace is not concerned by the significant jump in distance – 1600m to 2500m – saying the son of Maurice has done the work.
“He’s been in work a while as he took a while to come up,” Eustace said.
“We had him in work right through winter and he’s really starting to thrive now, so he’ll be fit enough.
“He’s trained on well since and we’re really happy with him and it was a really good run in the Guineas.
“He worked well last week, so we’re right to go.”
Eustace said it took the team some time to get a handle on Hitotsu, but a shift to Ballarat and some open space had helped calm the colt.
While inexperienced on the racetrack, Maher and Eustace wanted to iron out any flaws in what they believe to be a Group 1 winner in waiting.
It was for that reason they wanted to run Hitotsu in the Guineas.
“We wanted to run him in that race, and we thought he could run a race like that, so it wasn’t a total surprise,” Eustace said.
“And the Derby has been his target. He looks a stayer and we’re pretty confident he will see out the distance because he relaxes well.”
Several owners in Hitotsu are in the ownership of Forget You who has been displaced as favourite with TAB for the Derby by Gunstock at $3.20 ahead of Forgot You ($3.50) and then Hitotsu ($8).