IT is no wonder why Dermot Weld is one of the world’s leading racing figureheads as even on a normal race day in Australia his name will be murmured among the punters as people speculate whether or not Pale Mimosa will make the trip over to take on the world’s greatest stayers in the Melbourne Cup.

Of course, Mr Weld is synonymous with the race not only for the fact he has won the race on two occasions in 1993 with Vintage Crop and 2002 with Media Puzzle but the knock on effect that those victories had on Australian racing and breeding is astronomical.

Before 1993 it was unheard of for a horse to travel to the opposite hemisphere to take their chance in such an enduring contest.

It was Dermot Weld and owner Dr Michael Smurfit who took the leap with Vintage Crop in 1993 and proved this could be done as Vintage Crop became the first overseas winner of the race and taking the race in to the global feature that Australians had hoped for.

Since then the race has attracted representatives from across Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Ireland on many occasions.

The result of these wins saw a keen interest in European breeding and horses emerge and today you do not look to far outside any top Australian yard to find European and Irish bred horses.

The records speak for themselves with the last four winners of the race being European-bred horses including Fiorente, the 2013 winner and Green Moon, the 2012 winner both being Irish bred.

So far, much of the anticipation of this year’s race has focused around the Gai Waterhouse-trained and Irish-bred The Offer (Montjeu x Valdara) who has already tasted Group 1 success on this side of the world.

The Offer was famously sold to Gai at the Newmarket horses in training sale, after a first-off bid of 200,000gns shocked both the auctioneer and the crowd. This is a tactic in the sales ring that was used by Gai’s father, the great T.J Smith.

The European horses adapting so well to the Australian races has opened a new market and now many Australian bloodstock agents keep a firm interest in European racing trying to find the next budding star to try buy over to the southern hemisphere.

Generally the horses take time to adapt to the much stronger pace of the racing here which is why they view it as an amazing achievement for any European trainer to have a horse produce a top run on the big day in Flemington.

Even though Gordon Lord Byron’s success here was over a much shorter distance, it was no less of an achievement from the Tom Hogan stable as the pace set in the short distance races is phenomenal here.

As the Spring Carnival gets under way now we are bound to find another European-bred star on this side of the world.

It could very well come from Tulloch Lodge once again as Gai has some very nice European-bred horses besides The Offer at the moment, which have all impressed to date including Excess Knowledge (Monsun - Quenched), Tres Blue (Anabaa Blue - Tres Ravi), Michelangelo (Galileo - Intrigued) and the recently acquired Cafe Society (Motivator - Mishina) and Porchinet (Vespone - Porza) among a few.

Each of these horses adapt differently to the racing here. Two good examples which Gai mentioned to me before was how Fiorente’s first run in Australia was in the 2012 Melbourne Cup, where he finished second, that year also saw the first seven home being Irish-bred.

He improved markedly and won the race in 2013 which meant he was only the fourth ever entire horse to be placed in the race and return the following year to win.

He immediately took to the style of racing, while The Offer took some time to adapt in comparison as his first runs were well below the standard he has achieved to date now which includes a romping victory in the 2013 Sydney Cup.

Carlton House had adapted nicely also but unfortunately was retired to stud in the past few weeks which was a pity as “Carlos” was a yard favourite.

The racing is about to hit full swing now, as is the breeding season. Every week sees the re-appearance of more superstars of Australian racing, although the heavy ground due to torrential rain has managed to steer a few clear for the time been but that is set to change very soon.