Max Delight is pacing for a cause
The rising 10-year-old warhorse is showing great form while his connections are fighting battles of their own.
by Adam Hamilton
Back in early 2020, many wondered if Max Delight would race again.
The fact he has started more than 100 times since and is in the top handful of Aussie pacers as a rising 10-year-old is just part of the remarkable story about the horse some simply call “Old Max” or “Max the Marvel.”
Max Delight’s blistering win at Menangle last Saturday night was the 37th of his 146-start career, which also includes 47 minor placings and almost $1.5 million in prize money.
His adoring, masterful, and very hands-on trainer David Aiken leads the charge of those who simply shake their heads at what Max Delight has done and continues to do.
When he paced the 1:48.8 mile around the 1,400-meter Menangle track last Saturday (Aug. 16), it proved, at least mathematically, he is good as ever.
It equaled the fastest time in his career, which started with a 2-year-old win at Goulburn, in country NSW, way back on March 18, 2018.
“More so than just his times, it’s his versatility, will to win and so much more… I’m sure he’s never raced better,” Aiken said. “He’s been in a really good form and raced in the top races consistently for a long time, but when you consider the high benchmark set by the great horses we have at the moment, especially Leap To Fame, and it really is amazing old Max just keeps turning up and running so well.”
Already this season, at 9, he’s raced 18 times for six wins, seven placings and banked $211,000. Last season he won almost $340,000 with six wins and 11 placings.
For all his great efforts in big races, and there have been plenty, Max Delight hasn’t won a Group 1 race for almost four years. That was the iconic Victoria Cup at Melton on Oct. 9, 2021.
He may not get a better chance to win another one than the $150,000 Group 1 Len Smith Mile at Menangle on Sept 6. Down Under’s three best pacers — Leap To Fame, Swayzee and Don Hugo — will all miss the race.
“It’s the opportunity we’ve been waiting for,” Aiken said. “He’s run so many great races against all those horses, but gets his chance away from them for a change. And it comes when he’s right at the top of his game.
“It still won’t be easy because he’s part of that strong group of horses a length or two off those very best ones, but I’m sure he’ll be as hard to beat as any, especially if he can get a decent barrier draw.
“That’s the other amazing thing about him, so many of his best runs in those very top races, even including last month’s Brisbane Inter Dominion final, have been from terrible draws. He’s due.
“I know he’s a great stayer, but he’s sprinting so well at the moment, too. And he absolutely loves Menangle.”
Aiken thinks the other key is young gun driver Will Rixon.
“Hasn’t he just clicked with the old boy?” Aiken said. “For a long time, we had Chris Alford driving him and he’s one of the best we’ve ever seen, but for some reason he just wasn’t suiting the horse anymore.
“I drove him myself for a while and then we put Nathan Jack on him and he helped rejuvenate him and get his confidence back.
“We swapped drivers a bit when Nathan wasn’t available until we gave Will a go and he won his first two drives on him and he’s pretty much driven him every start since.
“He’s already a star, the kid. And he’s a terrific young person, too.”
Beyond the Len Smith Mile, Aiken is aiming towards the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton on Oct. 18 and possibly even the $1 million New Zealand Cup at Addington in Christchurch on Nov. 11.
Leap To Fame and Swayzee are targeting both races, too.
Max Delight made headlines before he raced when Tasmanian Mick Maxfield paid a then Australian record $245,000 for the colt at the 2017 Australian Gold Yearling Sales.
Maxfield’s son, Dean, who now runs the family’s drilling business in Tasmania, recalled watching that sale with mixed emotions.
“We all knew dad loved the horse from the catalog, but when he hit $200,000, then 210 and 220, I’ll admit I hoped it wasn’t dad still bidding,” Dean said. “A few hours later, dad came down the driveway telling us all he’d got the horse.
“There’s more bad stories than good ones with those top lots, but thankfully this old boy has turned out a different story.”
Max Delight won three of six starts at 2 for three different trainers, but returned to really show his star qualities for the first time at 3 after joining Aiken’s then Shepparton stable in regional Victoria.
In 16 runs at 3, Max Delight posted nine wins, two seconds and a third. He won the 3YO Breeders Crown final, but the “wow” moment came when he paced a world record 1:51.5 mile winning the 2019 Group 1 NSW Derby.
The now hugely successful U.S.-based Todd McCarthy was his regular driver back then and Aiken credits him with helping shape the pacer’s career.
“They were a great combo,” Aiken said. “Toddy’s drives on Max Delight not only helped the horse during his formative years, but gave us all an insight into the driver he was becoming.”
After returning at 4 to race four times, including a third in the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire, Max Delight went amiss and his racing career was in limbo.
He tore a tendon and all involved were more hopeful than confident he would get a chance to fulfil his potential on the track.
“That was in March, 2020 and he was back racing 11 months later,” Aiken said. “He won his first two starts back in 2021 and, of course, that was the year he won the Victoria Cup and beat King Of Swing and Amazing Dream to do it.
“After that injury, if someone said, he would have well over another 100 starts and do the things he’s done, you’d have laughed at them.”
Part of his second coming, much of it trained out by Menangle by Aiken, has been to contest four Inter Dominion Carnivals, which is considered the most grueling test in Down Under harness racing.
Max Delight ran fourth in the 2021 final at Menangle, failed to qualify for the 2022 Melbourne final during the one form “slump” of his career, skipped the 2023 series and ran third in the 2024 Sydney final.
In Brisbane last month, he ran terrific races for fourth and second in his two heats and then was the only horse to cover ground off the marker pegs and still be there in the finish when fifth behind Leap To Fame.
The emotional and most touching layers of the Max Delight story come through Aiken and Maxfield, who have both battled or continue to battle serious illness.
Aiken is coming out the other side of a prostate cancer diagnosis that could have gone either way; Maxfield’s battle is more private, but his son, Dean, described it as “a really serious battle.”
“I’m a veterinary nurse and I’ve said to people I think old Max [the horse] knows Aikey [Aiken] has been having his battle and lifted for him,” Maxfield’s wife, Ann, said.
Dean added: “To watch and hear how much it’s meant and how much it’s boosted the spirits of dad and Aikey is the most special part of it all.
“As a family, to see the joy this horse brings, from looking through fields to watching races, replays and getting the updates from Will [Rixon], it means so much for dad during this time with the passion he’s got for it all.
“If you didn’t know it, you’d think he’s 5, not a rising 10[-year-old]. We’ll all head over with dad, providing he’s well enough, to the Len Smith Mile and/or the Victoria Cup.”
Wouldn’t it ice the cake if old Max could win either of them.
