Wild ride to Cup tilt for Persan

THE day that a nation said goodbye to Winx, another group of owners sensed they might be saying a far more painful farewell.

As Persan crashed to the turf in the first race on Queen Elizabeth Stakes day at Randwick last year, the owners immediately feared the horse would never race again, let alone end up in a Melbourne Cup. But from that extraordinary day, Persan has taken his owners on a magic carpet ride.

After venturing to Victoria for new trainers Ciaron Maher and Dave Eustace this year, Persan’s road to the Melbourne Cup kicked off with third placing in a Wangaratta maiden in April.

On the 10th start of his campaign, he scored a golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup by winning The Bart Cummings at Flemington.

James Bester, who bought Persan as a weanling in 2017 and has remained in the ownership during an extraordinary journey, recalls the fall.

“It was absolutely horrifying,” Bester said. “He and his stablemate War Baron came together, and the next thing he clipped the heels of the eventual winner in front of him and down he came, flat on his back.

“Right away I thought he had broken his leg.”

Persan showed early signs of his toughness when the thentwo-year-old somehow emerged unscathed and raced just seven days later.

Persan is now safely in the Melbourne Cup field, but the first Tuesday in November was a long way from the minds of connections when the galloper turned up at Wangaratta trying to win his first race in April.

But Maher and Eustace always thought there was more to Persan than met the eye.

Six months later they were confident if he could get a spot in The Bart Cummings in October then he would put his best hoof forward.

That dream turned into reality in a dominant win. “It’s been some ride,” Maher said.