Melbourne Cup caper a craic up for Heartbreak City’s Irish owners

DID you hear the one about the Irishman who walked into a New York bar and walked out with a Melbourne Cup winner?

• 10-minute guide to picking a Cup winner
• Beadman’s fan at heart of Godolphin
• Maher aiming to be cream of the crop
• Mullins hopes fortune favours the Brave

DID you hear the one about the Irishman who walked into a New York bar and walked out with a Melbourne Cup winner?

It could happen.

The owners of Heartbreak City are a bunch of good-time lads, expatriate Irishmen who moved to the Big Apple looking for a better life.

Aidan Shiels now owns bars in New York but says he could not afford a bar of soap when he left Ireland in 1983.

“Unemployment was rampant in Ireland in the 1980s, so it was either stay unemployed or go to another country,” Shiels says.

“New York has always been good to the Irish, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Heartbreak City trainer Tony Martin with owners Charlie Gavigan, Niall O’Reilly and Aidan Shiels. Picture:Wayne Ludbey

“Thousands and thousands of people left Ireland and went to New York so it was like transferring a little bit of Ireland to the Big Apple.

“I met the other owners of Heartbreak City (Niall O’Reilly and Charlie Gavigan) in the bars when we were drinking and having some craic.

“We have only been in this horse six months.

“The man who owned him was a good friend of ours, who died last year of cancer, so we got into the ownership.”

Shiels has long been friends with Heartbreak City trainer Tony Martin, the astute Irishman renowned for successful big betting plunges.

There were chaotic post-race celebrations this year after Heartbreak City landed European racing’s most valuable handicap prize – the Ebor Handicap.

The owners threw each other around the winner’s ­enclosure and Shiels ended up with his nose bleeding and missing most of his possessions.

“When he won in York, I lost my passport, I lost my phone, I lost my ring, I lost my watch and I lost everything,” Shiels says.

“But I didn’t lose the bookies’ money.

“We won a right few quid in York which paid for the horse to come out for the Melbourne Cup.

“We thought why not have a shot at it?

“I will have a drink before the Melbourne Cup, a drink during the Melbourne Cup and a lot of drinks after the Melbourne Cup.”

Heartbreak City, to be ridden by “Magic Man” Joao ­Moreira and rated a $16 chance with UBET, has a collection of new Aussie owners with Darren Dance’s Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock purchasing a share.

Dance and his syndication company have been competitive in previous Melbourne Cups with Dandino and Jakkalberry, both purchased and brought to Australia for the ­famous race.

The bookies have trimmed Heartbreak City to $16 for the Cup after much better was offered.

So have Shiels and his band of merry Irishmen backed him?

“What do you think? What a silly question,” Shiels says.

“I got $66-1.”

Originally published as Melbourne Cup caper a craic up for Heartbreak City’s Irish owners