Weld win rewrites racing history

Dermot Weld stepped onto new ground yesterday when he broke Senator JJ Parkinson's 53-year-old record for the number of winners trained in Ireland.

The Curragh-based trainer was at Cork races yesterday to watch three of his horses race but the historic winner number 2,578 came at Naas, where the two-year-old Georgia Peach was a 4 to 1 winner of the Victory Note EBF Maiden.

Georgia Peach, which is owned jointly by Michael Smurfit and the former president of Coca Cola, Don Keough, won by half a length under Weld's second jockey Pat Shanahan.

Weld (52) watched the race on television at Cork with his son Chris, and said afterwards: "It's nice that this has happened comparatively quickly, and especially with a two-year-old. They, after all, are the future."

Speculation had grown throughout last week that Weld would break the record during the Galway festival, but his total of nine winners resulted in him tying with Parkinson's record.

"Georgia Peach was actually one of the mistakes I made at Galway. In hindsight I should have run him in the mile maiden on the Saturday and run Backcraft in the nursery," said Weld, who started training in July of 1972.

"Georgia Peach is a lovely type who is very tough and we'll look at a Listed race for him over a mile next. In many ways I'm delighted it was Pat Shanahan who rode him, as he has been such an able deputy on so many days, including on Zagreb in the Derby. Hopefully young Pat Smullen (first jockey) will have many days to come," Weld added.

The six-times champion trainer emphasised again that he will be reducing the number of horses he will train in future and refused to speculate on how long his career will continue.

"I play that year by year," he said. "There's a lot of work and stress involved in this job and I value my health. I work seven days a week and start at 6.40 a.m. every morning. It's continual stress and now that I've done this I will reduce things."

But the trainer, who is famous for his audacious overseas raids with the likes of the Melbourne Cup winner, Vintage Crop, and the Belmont Stakes victor, Go And Go, did reveal that he has had several offers over the years to leave Ireland and train abroad.

"At various different stages, the leading owners of the time in England, the USA and Australia made me serious offers to leave Ireland and become their private trainer. I turned them down then and I'm certainly not going to change now," he said.

But Weld, who has also revealed his desire to return to UCD and do a masters in veterinary science, strongly emphasised his pride at the success of his overseas raids.

"I've heard the Irish national anthem played on four continents and that has given me a great pride in being Irish. It's a wonderful feeling," he said.

Weld ran three horses at Cork yesterday, with La Stellina finishing runner-up in the first race and Lammas filling the same position in the sixth race. He ran two at Naas, where Abaco was third in the sixth race. Georgia Peach in the second race, however, was the horse that rewrote the history books.