Training legend Dermot Weld can take credit if heart stealer wins the big one

IF Irish mare Voleuse De Couers can give Mike Moroney his second Melbourne Cup, he will happily thank dual winner Dermot Weld.

Trainer Mike Moroney had no hesitation in saying Dermot Weld will deserve the plaudits if Voleuse De Couers can recoup the huge

THIRTEEN years after the most memorable day of his career he still gets introduced as "Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Mike Moroney".

The big New Zealander has no problem with that even though he has won 46 other Group 1 races before and after preparing Brew to claim the big one in 2000.

"It was a life-changer," he said yesterday. "You basically get opportunities with horses and you can walk down the street and every second person knows who you are, and it's still the case."

Moroney was at Werribee putting the finishing touches to Irish mare Voleuse De Couers' preparation, which he hopes will turn him into a dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer - like Dermot Weld, for instance.

And if that does happen, he will happily give Weld the credit for it - although not the prizemoney percentage.

The veteran Irishman, who some believe to be the world's finest trainer, changed the face of the Melbourne Cup when he won with Vintage Crop in 1983, pioneering an annual storming of the portals of Flemington by foreign raiders.

Weld, who also won with Media Puzzle in 2002, trained Voleuse De Couers until it won the Irish St Leger on September 15, with Moroney and his brother Paul then paying a massive $1.7 million on behalf of the Victorian stud Eliza Park International, which is now owned by Hong Kong businessman Chen Ting Kong.

Weld always thought the mare was a Melbourne Cup prospect but that this was a year too early.

"He held her in really high regard but if she is as good as we think she is she won't be carrying (only) 54kg next year, so we saw it as the right opportunity, the right horse to get here," Moroney said.

"She is one of the favoured runners, I would think, and I'm pretty sure most of the Europeans would agree she brings the right form for this.

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"It's her first trip away from home and she hasn't got the advantage of other horses who have been here a few times. I have been really surprised she has travelled so well."

Moroney had no hesitation in saying Weld would deserve the plaudits if the stealer of hearts - that's what her name means - can recoup the huge investment.

"Without any doubt," he said. "He's the one who has spent the most time with her, done the right things all the way through.

"I'm a great believe that when you get a horse and they go on with it, it's the trainer who had it before."

Be that as it may, Moroney's own versatile expertise, honed over more than 30 years, will be a crucial ingredient.

But whether it will change his life again is debatable. At 55, based at Flemington but with satellite operations in Sydney and New Zealand, he is as established as he is ever likely to be.

"I'm probably a bit more blase about the whole thing now," he said.

"I've won 47 Group 1s and it would be nice to think it could get to 50 or 60, but they're hard to win.

"I've always thought that rather than train in Asia where the money is a little better it's about enjoying your life, so I never went overseas.

"As long as you make a nice living, which I have, and it's been my passion, so rather than put yourself under that sort of pressure I've decided to stay here."

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