David Eustace to join Hong Kong training ranks

PA Sport Reporters
December 21, 2023 12:19 pm

Handler will make the move from Australia in the new year.

Melbourne Cup-winning trainer David Eustace is to leave Australia for a new role in Hong Kong.

UK-born Eustace has been a joint-trainer with Ciaron Maher since 2018 and the pair have built up one of the most successful operations in Australia.

They have been champion trainers in Victoria for the past four seasons and are the current holders of the national trainers’ championship.

The pair have jointly trained over 1,600 winners which have included 30 Group Ones, with Gold Trip’s Melbourne Cup win last year arguably the highlight.

Eustace said: “My mother Gay is David Oughton’s sister and as a nine or 10-year-old, I was aware of David training over in Hong Kong and thought that it would be an amazing experience to train there eventually and it has genuinely been something in the forefront of my mind since then, really.

“It’s a great honour to be invited to train in Hong Kong. There are limited spots and there’s fierce competition, which certainly excites me. I think it’s a rare opportunity for someone probably of my age (32) to be able to go there and hopefully have a long and successful career – that’s certainly the aim.”

Eustace built up a strong body of work in Australia and feels now is the time to make the break on his own. His father, James, was a long-standing trainer in Newmarket while brother Harry is already a Royal Ascot winner.

“I spent a year with Peter Moody and then another year with Peter and Paul Snowden the year Capitalist won the Golden Slipper and that was fantastic. After that, Ciaron got in touch and I started working with him in 2015,” said Eustace.

“I hope to bring a varied style of training with experiences from the UK, experiences from Australia and with an emphasis on using sports science and data to enhance a horse’s training, longevity and careers in Hong Kong,”