Trainer Michael Moroney reveals the full extent of his health battle, the three bullets he dodged, and how he feels invigorated
Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Mike Moroney believes someone must be watching over him as he details the serious health “bullets” he survived this year.
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Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Mike Moroney won’t have a runner in the big race on Tuesday, but he already feels like a winner after overcoming the biggest challenge of his life.
Moroney, the man who trained Brew to success in the race that stops a nation in 2000, couldn’t be more grateful to be back at Ballymore Stables, overseeing the operations and feeling fit and well again, after dodging several serious health “bullets” throughout this year.
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Those bullets included being placed in a coma for 14 days, battling severe pneumonia and a collapsed lung, fighting cancer on two different fronts, dealing with serious bowel obstructions and surviving a fall that was just centimetres away from a far worse outcome.
“As I said to someone, with all the bullets I’ve dodged this year, someone still wants me here,” Moroney told News Corp.
“I don’t know for what reason or for what purpose, whether it is to help tutor young people in the racing industry or not, but there has to be a reason for it.”
Moroney has been back at the stables’ Flemington base for almost six weeks now after spending more than half of the previous six months in hospital.
He’s also eyeing off a racetrack return for the first time since April, keen to experience a day or two of the Flemington carnival.
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It’s a far cry from the moment he first started feeling ill in early April on a flight to his native New Zealand, which started a chain of events that saw him hospitalised on his return.
He couldn’t be more grateful for the support from the medical team at the Epworth Hospital, from his partner Karen, his family back in New Zealand, his now co-trainer Glen Thompson and racing manager Anthony Feroce as well as his loyal staff and owners who stuck by him.
“It’s been a really trying time,” the 66-year-old said.
“I know that Karen, (his daughter) Aliesha and the family were told (at one stage) that I might not make it through, so to have gotten this far and to be in really good health, it’s terrific.
“It’s one way to lose weight, but it’s just not the way that I wanted it to be.
“But I can tell you I feel rejuvenated about training and about the whole racing industry.
“I’ve had a look at it from the outside (while recovering); I’m excited about what’s to come.”
At one stage Moroney lost 45kg, but says he has put a little back on, insisting he feels “terrific” again after receiving so much support from his family, friends and the racing world.
“The support has been amazing,” Moroney said.
“My partner Karen, I couldn’t have done it without her. It is a case of true love when you see what they have to go through. She really put in.
“To sit back and watch Glen and Anthony take over the reins was terrific, and do such a good job. They never put a foot wrong,
“My family, all my staff and my owners were all so supportive through some trying times.”
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BULLET ONE DODGED
Moroney “felt crook” in his chest as he winged his way across the Tasman on a plane to his granddaughter’s fifth birthday in early April.
“I felt bad on the plane and I said to my daughter when I got there, ‘I just don’t feel right’,” he recalled.
“I just knew something was wrong.”
As soon as he flew back to Melbourne, Moroney went in to see his doctor, who immediately pinpointed pneumonia but arranged for him to see a specialist.
The specialist advised Moroney to spend the weekend in hospital on a drip.
The only problem was that he was already booked to be in Sydney that weekend.
But sensing he had to make the right call for his health, he told his partner Karen to cancel his flight and he went in for the drip.
It proved to be one of the smartest decisions of his life.
“It was the best thing I ever did,” Moroney said.
“I had a turn (in hospital). My lung collapsed and underneath my lung, which they had missed, were seven and a half kilos of impacted food which had been sitting there. That’s why I was so crook. It was holding my lung up.”
If he had bypassed the drip, and gone to Sydney, who knows what might have happened.
BULLET TWO DODGED
Moroney was subjected to more tests and body scans, and in the process of looking for the cause of his problems, they found some more issues.
“They also found cancer on my lung and then when they did a full body scan they found it on my liver too,” he said.
“They ended up making a decision, and it was the right decision, to put me in a coma for 14 days. When I woke up, I had to learn to talk again and learn to walk again.”
Moroney also had serious issues with his bowels. Ultimately, he and his family had to make a decision to operate on his bowels.
“When they opened me up, it was so close to bursting that it could have killed me,” he said.
His time in ICU ended up being 24 days, and his spirits were lifted enormously when the staff gave him a standing ovation when he left.
“They were so special,” he said of the Epworth staff.
“They saved my life.”
BULLET THREE DODGED
Just when Moroney was starting to make progress two months ago, having been released from hospital with a stable return on the horizon, another unexpected bullet presented itself.
The cord of a machine around his neck got caught up as he was at the bottom of the stairs which caused him to fall.
“It pulled me over and I hit my head that hard,” he said.
“I just couldn’t get up. I had to get Anthony and Glen to come around.
“They helped Karen put me in a car and drive me to hospital.
“I got scanned (at hospital) and they said if I had hit my head a quarter of an inch further over, I would have killed myself.
“That would have been two months ago. I’ve now been back at the stables (and the training track) for about six weeks now.
“I went to the hospital on the fourth April and I would have spent three months in hospital (this year). I’ve dodged three bullets, but now I am feeling great again.”
STOUT KIWI GENES
Through all of his trials and tribulations, one of the things the doctors kept saying to Moroney was that they couldn’t get over his strength and resilience.
“They kept harping on about it, saying: ‘you have an amazing strength about you … you don’t realise how many people have been through it and have really struggled’.”
He’s feeling great again, having regular tests and excited by his future on and off the track.
Longevity runs in the Moroney blood, and remarkably in some of the horses he has either trained or who have played a part in his family’s extraordinary story.
His father died a few years ago, aged 95, and his mum is still going strong at 88, sending him a text every time her son wins a race – which has kept her busy over the years since Moroney was a trailblazing Kiwi trainer setting up successfully in Melbourne 25 years ago.
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Brew, the horse that delivered Moroney’s Melbourne Cup 24 years ago this month, will turn 30 next month and he still lives out at Living Legends at Greenvale, near Tullamarine Airport.
Moroney’s grandparents owned a mare called Lady’s Bridge, who was the dam of the 1960 Melbourne Cup winner Hi Jinx.
Both Lady’s Bridge and Hi Jinx lived until they were 33.
Brew’s victory propelled Moroney into the spotlight in Australia, just a year after setting up a full-time base at Flemington.
Chris Waller said in 2000 when he set up his business in Australia from New Zealand with a maxed out credit card and big plans that he wanted to emulate Moroney’s success.
On the day of Brew’s Cup win, Moroney and his brother Paul had to head out through the car park to do an interview for New Zealand television – with the Cup in a box – when they came across two young guys celebrating the fact they had backed the winner.
Moroney recalled this week: “I said to the two young guys ‘Have you had a good day?’ They said, ‘Have we ever … The last Foster’s Melbourne Cup and a horse called Brew jumps from barrier 24 with No. 24, and there are 24 stubbies in a slab. How could you not back it?’
“We laughed. They had no idea who we were or that we were actually carrying the Cup.”
Most of Moroney’s family were over from New Zealand for the 2000 Cup – “we’re a good Catholic family who breed like rabbits” – and they all celebrated the night away at Jack’s Satay Bar in Moonee Ponds.
The following Saturday night he attended a party at the home of one of Brew’s part-owners Andrew Ramsden. It was there that he met Rupert Legh, who became one of the biggest owners and also one of his close friends.
Legh’s Emissary ran second in the 2022 Melbourne Cup behind Gold Trip.
CHASING MORE SUCCESS
Moroney has loved an extraordinary life in racing, rubbing shoulders with a host of interesting characters.
He met former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary in Little Rock, Arkansas, long before Clinton took office.
He had lunch with Queen Elizabeth II at the races one day in New Zealand, as the leading trainer.
But as much as he has experienced in the past, he is eagerly anticipating what is coming next for him, and for Ballymore.
“It’s been great to sit back and watch Glen and Anthony, who I am very proud of,” he said. “They have been under the tutelage of me all the way through but to see them take the reins over and do a great job. They didn’t put a foot wrong.
“We’ve got so much to look forward to.”
His recent health battle has only made him hunger for more success, including another Melbourne Cup win in the future.
He intends to take on board the advice of his former boss and mentor, the late Dave O’Sullivan, who told him earlier this year that he had to ensure he doesn’t retire too early.
“I’ve learnt so much this year,” he said.
“We had the lead coach in New Zealand (George Simpkin) when I was playing rugby as a young gun. He always said: ‘You watch the guys who get badly injured watching from the sidelines from the outside in, they always come back as better players’.
“You look at the history of a lot of sports people who have done that, they always come back better. When you are sitting on the sidelines, you just see things differently.
“I’ve looked at racing with a different perspective … you sit back and watch TV when you don’t normally have time. I’ve watched the racing documentaries.”
Originally published as Trainer Michael Moroney reveals the full extent of his health battle, the three bullets he dodged, and how he feels invigorated
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