The historic triumph that won Willie Mullins a thick wedge of Aussie dollars - and ignited a dream he's still pursuing

Thirty years ago, from his vantage point close to the 400-metre pole at Flemington, Willie Mullins was an eyewitness to one of the most seismic moments in modern racing history. He was also only seconds away from landing a major punt.

Mullins had enjoyed the biggest success of his racing career to that point when steering Atha Cliath to victory over the Grand National fences in 1983. Ten years later, Ireland's former champion amateur was not only riding but training, yet his trip to Australia involved neither. Mullins was a spectator, one of 74,700 people who on November's first Tuesday saw another Irishman send shockwaves around the racing world.

In winning the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop, Dermot Weld achieved what many considered impossible. No horse trained in the northern hemisphere had ever lifted Australia's greatest race. The barriers to such a mission were so huge that the Cup was not even on the radar of European trainers. Weld, however, was a pioneer. His foresight and genius revolutionised a sporting behemoth. He opened the floodgates and turned a sacred Australian institution into an international magnet, one that three decades later could once again be plundered by a horse running for Ireland.