The dominance of Ciaron Maher this Spring Carnival made Thursday’s Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final a crucial race for trainers such as Dom Sutton.

This $500,000 event marks the culmination of a series involving heats held at country tracks. The conditions restrict entry to horses trained by Victorian trainers who have recorded a maximum of 15 winners for the season, meaning Maher and many other prominent Australian stables were ineligible.

Sutton expressed his great satisfaction that his intention to target this race with Sulek was realised.

“I was saying in the pre-race interview that it is nice not to run into the likes of Ciaron Maher,” Sutton commented with a laugh, referring to Maher’s success in the Melbourne Cup.

“It’s a really good initiative and we got the result.”

Sulek, a four-year-old son of Super Seth, started as the $5.50 favourite and responded positively to jockey Billy Egan’s directions to defeat Wetumpka ($9.50) by three-quarters of a length. Rosa Aotearoa ($7.50) claimed third place, a length behind the second horse.

Sulek’s win in the Final followed his earlier victory in the Geelong heat, which was held on Geelong Cup Day.

Englishman Sutton, who purchased the horse for $420,000 at the 2024 New Zealand Ready To Race Sale, has a significant number of his countrymen involved in the ownership. He was delighted to see these successful colours back in the winner’s circle on a significant day.

“It was always a plan from the get-go to try and get him here,” he stated.

“We’ve got a big group of owners here from all around the world, from the UK and New Zealand.”

“They’ve flown in and he runs in Stuart Andrew’s colours. They’ve actually won the Grand National back in the UK, these colours, so they’re very lucky and I’m just over the moon to have got the result.”

This Country Final win represented Sulek’s third victory from 11 starts, and the $275,000 winner’s prize money pushed his career earnings to $415,325.

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