MIKE MORONEY INDUCTED INTO THE NZ RACING HALL OF FAME

A special night for Michael Moroney who was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame for his spectacular training career, which is still going strong!

With over 233 stakes wins to his name, he commenced a career in training in partnership with fellow Hall of Famer Dave O'Sullivan before heading into a solo career, highlighted by the 2000 Melbourne Cup with Brew amongst his 55 career Group 1 successes.

For Mike the honour is a family acknowledgement rather than a personal one.

“It means a lot, it’s a family thing, we lost Dad 10 months ago and he was a big part of it but luckily I was told on the quiet that this was going to happen and I was able to let Dad know and he knew before he went,” Mike told Caitlyn O'Sullivan. “He knew it was happening and I know he was proud of the whole family.

Mike singled out Brew’s Melbourne Cup success as a highlight.

“Obviously the Melbourne Cup, it was a life changing event,” Mike said. “I didn’t know until I’d won how much impact it would have. I was well known in New Zealand but I wasn’t an elite trainer in Victoria and then it changed, no matter where I went in the world.

“It’s quite mind-boggling what it means, to see what it means to so many people is quite staggering.”

For Mike, having started his racing career un Dave O’Sullivan at Wexford Stables, Sunday night was made more special by being inducted alongside Paul O’Sullivan.

“It’s great, when we were young Paul and I wrote a book on how to train race horses, I’d like to find a copy but no-one would publish it,” Mike laughed, adding “It was based off a book that Dave gave us that had been passed on to him by his old boss.

“To think we both read it, wrote a book, we’ve been close mates all the way through even though we went our different ways, to come back here tonight and celebrate each other being in the Hall Of Fame is pretty special.”

Mike still has the drive to succeed and has ambitions of adding further feature race wins.

“The Cox Plate is the one that had eluded me, I haven’t had that many runners in it but if things had gone Xcellent’s way in his year he could have been a chance of winning but we’ve been pretty lucky and won most of the big ones.”