RACING: From Melbourne to Dubai to Newmarket, the question has probably been asked repeatedly for the last 24 hours, just how does he do it?
Not content with changing the face of Australia's most famous race for ever nine years ago, Dermot Weld showed the rest of the world how to do it again when Media Puzzle romped to victory in the Melbourne Cup early yesterday morning.
"I said I wouldn't come back unless I had the horse to win it," Weld said at the post-race conference. Behind him was a picture of the 1993 winner, Vintage Crop.
In between, the cream of European staying horses had tried and failed to win the Melbourne Cup. The rate of attrition was so bad the Aussies had begun to raise their heads over the parapet again and assume the sneer position.
Media Puzzle's success has sent them scurrying so far back down the defensive trench that some local trainers are even talking about restricting the number of "Poms" being let in to the race in future. Maybe they should just confine the ban to the Irish trainer.
Beekeeper's third was the latest placing for Godolphin in the world's most famous two-mile handicap, but victory remains horribly elusive despite Sheikh Mohammed's wealth.
Nowhere will the question be asked more than in Dubai. But there is no point asking Weld himself.
"That's for me to know and you to find out," he once responded when asked about the "secret" of travelling horses successfully.
Weld is much too urbane to load such words with anything else except charm, but the competitive steel which backs it up has been felt at the top level on four continents.
The 54-year-old broke the record for the number of winners trained in Ireland when Georgia Peach was No 2,578 a couple of years ago. But Weld's real impact has been abroad.
He remains the only non-US-based trainer to win a leg of the Triple Crown. Go And Go's Belmont Stakes win in 1990 followed on the heels of Group One victories in Hong Kong and throughout Europe.
But it is the Melbourne Cup that he will be most closely associated. Vintage Crop travelled to another hemisphere only after years of preparation and thought went into the seminal attempt.
Typically, Media Puzzle's journey wasn't some idle impulse either. Vinnie Roe might have been the more publicised horse in the months leading up to Melbourne, but Media Puzzle was a contender in his own right before him.
"After he ran fourth in the English St Leger a couple of years ago, I said I would win the Melbourne Cup with him," Weld said.
He is not a man to hide his light under a bushel and such a remark is typical. Even more typical is that he can remember to whom he said it. As someone who qualified as a vet from UCD at just 21, an analytical mind is always at work.
Weld is not without sentiment, however. After Media Puzzle put two comfortable lengths between himself and the local horse, Mr Prudent, with Vinnie Roe in fourth, he admitted to it being a special moment.
"I kind of watch races not expecting to win, but when I saw my horses first and second at the top of the stretch in the Melbourne Cup, I was a very proud man.
"These are special moments in life. I was just so thrilled to see my two horses fighting it out. They've come 12,000 miles to do this.
"Vinnie Roe has run a wonderful race for a four-year-old. He hasn't let us down on a track that is too firm for him. He'll be back - but it's Media Puzzle's day."
Media Puzzle, like Vintage Crop, carries the colours of Michael Smurfit, but the local focus was understandably on the winning jockey, Damian Oliver.
Victoria's top rider will today attend the funeral of his brother Jason, who was killed in a race fall in Perth last week. It brought a touch of reality to an event where 120,000 people so spectacularly indulge in the frivolous.
"I'd give this back right now to have Jason back," said an emotional Oliver.
"The perspectives can be lost sometimes and it's hard to hold back the emotions. It's been a difficult time for all the family."
Beekeeper did next best of the international raiding party after Hatha Anna, Pugin and Daliapour, who all raced towards the front early, faded in the stretch.
"With a little bit more experience he might have got closer," said the Godolphin spokesman,Simon Crisford. "We might also come out earlier next time. Media Puzzle had a run in the Geelong Cup before today."
Vinnie Roe had been backed substantially just before the race, so much so he challenged his lightly-weighted stable-mate for favouritism. Pat Smullen had him in Position A on the turn but the weight began to tell.
Instead, it was left to Media Puzzle to set the Irish tricolours flying.
"A great day for Ireland," said Weld, who has repeated the same sentiment around the world many times in his 30-year training career.
MELBOURNE CUP RESULT
MEDIA PUZZLE (D Oliver)1
Mr Prudent (C Brown) 2
Beekeeper (K McEvoy) 3
23 ran. 2l, long neck (Dermot Weld). Tote (includes A$1 stake); Win A$6.00; Places: A$2.40, A$11.30, A$3.40. Dual Forecast: A$248.90.
Born: July 29th, 1948.
Married: to Mary, two sons Mark and Christopher.
Education: UCD.
Riding career: Rode his first winner at 15 and won Irish amateur riders' championship three times. Also rode winners in England, France, US and South Africa.
Training background: Assistant to father Charlie and Australian trainer Tommy Smith.
First trainer's licence: 1972.
Stable: Rosewell House, Curragh.
Set all-time record for winners trained in Ireland (2,578) with Georgia Peach in the Victory Note European Breeders Fund Maiden at Naas, August 7th, 2000.
British Classic winners: Oaks: Blue Wind 1981.
Irish Classic winners: 1000 Guineas: Prince's Polly 1982, Trusted Partner 1988.
2000 Guineas: Flash Of Steel 1986.
Derby: Zagreb 1996.
Oaks: Blue Wind 1981, Dance Design 1996.
St Leger: Vintage Crop 1993 & 1994, Vinnie Roe 2001 & 2002.
Melbourne Cup winners: Vintage Crop 1993 & Media Puzzle 2002.
Belmont Stakes winner: Go And Go 1990.
Other big winners: Agnetha (King George 200th Anniversary Stakes 2002), Archive Footage (Ladbroke Hurdle 1999), Brief Truce (St James's Palace Stakes 1992), Committed (Prix de l'Abbaye 1984 & 1985), Definite Article (National Stakes 1994), Dress To Thrill (Desmond Stakes, Matron Stakes, Sun Chariot Stakes 2002) In A Tiff (Italian Derby 1992), Irresistible Jewel (Ribblesdale Stakes, Blandford Stakes 2002), Mus-If (National Stakes 1998), Perris Valley (Irish Grand National 1988), Pine Dance (American Derby 2000), Refuse To Bend (National Stakes 2002), Saving Mercy (Lincoln 1984), Sookera (Cheveley Park Stakes 1977), Sutton Place (Coronation Stakes 1978), Steel Heart (Middle Park Stakes 1974), Vintage Crop (Cesarewitch 1992).
