Racing: Grumpy Irish trainer in vintage form

Dermot Weld. Photo / Getty Images

It wouldn't be Dermot Weld if he wasn't grizzling about something.

The prickly but genius Irish horseman was at it again yesterday when he refused to show up at the Melbourne Cup international press conference at Werribee.

It was in protest about Racing Victoria stewards making the landmark decision to vet all Melbourne Cup nominees late last week.

As you drove on to the Werribee racecourse yesterday there was Dermot Weld tending to his Cup runner Profound Beauty while all the other international connections were in the grandstand preparing for the press conference.

As a press photographer showed up at the wire boundary of the quarantine station, Weld noticed and turned his back on the camera.

No one marches to the beat of his own drum more effectively than Dermot Weld.

The irony of it was that while the press, 400m away, was listening to 80 minutes of how the internationals were going to try to win their first Melbourne Cup, Weld was going about his business as the only Northern Hemisphere trainer to have achieved that feat, twice in fact, with Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle.

The newly built compound in which he stood is named Vintage Crop Lodge.

A record nine internationals - excluding the three New Zealanders - go around in the world's greatest staying horse race tomorrow.

The tip could well be the presence of Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed for only the second time in Melbourne Cup week.

The Sheikh's Godolphin stable has had Melbourne Cup runners for the past decade and a half, but the only previous occasion he has been at Flemington personally was in 1998, when Frankie Dettori finished seventh on Faithful Son.

It could be the big tip.

Another tip that was let slip yesterday by Racing Victoria was that Godolphin wanted Holberg in the field so badly they were prepared to withdraw their other runner, the highly qualified Campanologist, if it meant getting the last spot into the field.

There were sufficient withdrawals on Saturday night to allow both horses a start. Holberg will be ridden by Godolphin's No 1 jockey, Frankie Dettori, who has not arrived in Melbourne, but is wasting hard to get down to the 53.5kg.

Campanologist will be ridden by the stable's No 2 jockey, Kerrin McEvoy, who is just returned from severe back injuries.

McEvoy said at yesterday's conference he was happy to be on the horse.

"Of the three horses the stable has brought out here, I rate Campanologist as, physically, having done the best of them.

"He looks and feels terrific.

"He's got 56kg, which is not ideal, but he's earned it from winning two group one races in Germany this year.

"Holberg is a little horse, but he's got a good motor."

McEvoy rode Crime Scene into second behind Shocking in last year's Melbourne Cup for Godolphin.

Stylish Geelong Cup winner Americain has been heavily backed to make it two from two in Australia, but his respected French trainer Alain de Royer Dupre had one word of caution.

"It is not unusual for some horses that travel internationally to race well in their first start then drop away badly at their next start.

"They either go one way or the other, up or down.

"There are no obvious signs with this horse, he looks very well and I'm happy."

So You Think?

"He looks very good."

The 3200m for him?

"No problem."

Happy to take him on?

"Yes."

Japanese trainer Kenji Nonaka threw out his own tip.

He said Tokai Trick had improved greatly since the Caulfield Cup, his first race since May, and he expects the horse to be right in the finish.

Asked, through an interpreter, how Tokai Trick measures up against Delta Blues and Pop Rock, the Japanese who produced the Melbourne Cup quinella in 1996, he said: "Very well. On a par".

Luca Cumani said a wet track would suit Manighar best of his two runners and Bauer would not be inconvenienced if it was anything but dry.

Asked how the horses had trained on, Cumani said: "Very well, although Bauer is himself very unhappy with the local journalist who said he'd look better pulling a cartload of tourists up a hill on a Greek island."

Looking is one thing, doing is another.

Two years ago Bauer was beaten by Bart Cummings' Viewed in the closest Melbourne Cup winning photo finish in memory.

* The track for tomorrow's Cup is likely to be a dead 6.

That's the suggestion of Flemington track manager Mick Goodie, but built around Melbourne's world-famous unpredictable weather.

Flemington was yesterday a heavy 9 after a deluge that could have floated the Ark.

Goodie scoffed at a suggestion it could be a heavy 10 for the Cup.

"There is not a chance.

"The forecast is for a few showers tonight and a few more tomorrow.

"If that happens I would say we'll declare a slow 7 on Cup morning, upgrading to a dead 6 by the time we start racing.

"There is a suggestion of more serious showers on Cup day and if that happens once we start racing, well, that will be different."

The weather cleared early afternoon yesterday in Melbourne, but by nightfall heavy rain clouds were everywhere.

Derby Day in Melbourne is revered as one of the world's greatest racedays.

Saturday turned out to be one of the lowest days ever on a racetrack - if any of the 90,000-something escaped dry they had definitely backed a winner.

Great racing, shocking conditions.

Whatever it is tomorrow, it can only be better.