RACING: Dermot Weld is home - but not for long. Next week one of Ireland's most remarkable sporting figures will further embelish the air miles and head to Tokyo on the latest of his international treks. Brian O'Connor reports
Only once before has the Curragh trainer had a runner in Japan but even on the other side of the world, there will be no need to warn the locals about Irresistible Jewel's chance in tomorow week's Japan Cup.
After all when it comes to international racing, the monicker DK Weld carries more clout than just about anything else.
Media Puzzle's contemptuous dismissal of the best of Australia in last week's Melbourne Cup was just the latest evidence of Weld's unmatched ability to travel horses around the world and win.
Go And Go's Belmont Stakes in 1990 and Vintage Crop's 1993 Melbourne Cup are the most famous pieces of evidence but every year other clues that the likes of Sheikh Mohammed would kill for regularly pile up.
Two season's ago Pine Dance, little more than a handicapper here, scooped a couple of Grade Twos in America and ended up running in the Breeder's Cup Classic. The decent but hardly brilliant Jazz Beat only just missed out on a Grade One in the US in August. There are countless other examples of Weld's plundering abilities worldwide and one can only wonder at what he might achieve with better raw material.
But one thing is certain, the planning with every traveller is intense. Already, after a short post-Melbourne Cup holiday Down Under, he is thinking ahead to the winter and next year.
"International racing is what I do and enjoy best but it does make it a very long year for everyone. We have got to accept now that this is a 12-month-a-year job," he says. Weld was barely back at the Curragh before outlining typically ambitious plans for his stable stars.
"Dress To Thrill is a possible for the Matriarch Stakes in Hollywood Park at the end of the month (November 28th) and Agnetha is a possible for the big sprint in Hong Kong (December 15th).
"Media Puzzle is on his holidays now but I'm looking to bring him back in the Sheema Classic in Dubai next March. He will start back in work in the first week of January.
"The Gold Cup will be Vinnie Roe's first objective next season but the Arc is a very distinct possibility for him after that. Look at Marienbard winning the Arc this season: he could only finish seventh in last year's Melbourne Cup. It just shows how hard it is to win in Australia. But the whole thing shows how it is non-stop the whole year round now," Weld says.
Some typically cold analysis has gone into Irresistible Jewel's oriental jaunt as she tries to become the first Irish-trained horse to win Asia's most valuable race since Stanerra in 1983.
A comprehensive defeat by the French star Bright Sky in the Prix de l'Opera last month makes the Irish filly's task look impossible but the further away the action, the more the Weld factor will come into play.
"Bright Sky beat us fair and square and on that form we have no chance. But the game now is being played on the far side of the world, there will be an extra furlong and the ground is likely to be fast which will be in our favour," he says.
The British entries Golan and Storming Home are proven Group One winners in their own right but Weld is convinced that Bright Sky's Longchamp form makes her the main European danger. After all, in a rapidly changing international arena, the old certainties are changing.
"There is room for both the tried and trusted classic races at home and for international racing. One supports the other. It divides up now. The second half of the year is more international while the first half is about the classic programme. But one forms the basis for the other so they are inter-linked," he says.
No one has plundered the link more than Weld who has no intention yet of following up on the retirement hints he dropped some time ago.
"I have a few more objectives for myself still so I think I'm good for another year or two yet," he says.
That should further add to an enormous air mile total.
