Dermot Weld has been around the track enough times to know never to get too high or too low about his stable's latest 'good thing'.
But even at this time of his career, the 74-year-old master of Rosewell House hardly bothers to contain his enthusiasm for his superstar filly, Homeless Songs.
The three-year-old Irish 1,000 Guineas winner will be back in harness at Leopardstown on Saturday following an extended break during the unusually dry summer.
Although keen to stress that the daughter of Frankel is coming in off a hefty lay-off, Weld feels his charge looks as good as she possibly could ahead of Saturday's Matron Stakes.
"I'm very pleased with her. She's had a long summer break," he told Ruby Walsh on RTÉ 2FM's Game On show. "It's nice to have her. This is the start, really, of her autumn campaign."
It's a campaign that, all going well, should take her all the way to the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland on the first week of Novemeber.
"We'll probably look to include the Group One in France on Arc day and maybe all the way to the Breeders' Cup in November," Weld said.
"I'm delighted with her progress. What a wonderful summer we've had, but as a result the ground has been incredibly firm. She hasn't had the opportunity to work on grass - actually, once she's been on grass, to be quite honest.
"So I have her as forward as I can..."
Dermot Weld reflects on the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas win of Homeless Songs, while remembering his much-missed late stable jockey Pat Smullen. pic.twitter.com/SFpRXYYFoI
— RTÉ Racing (@RTEracing) May 22, 2022
Weld first won the Matron 20 years ago with Dress To Thrill and followed it up in 2011 when Emulous made it home ahead of the rest. Homeless Songs is a short-price to make it a hat-trick for the Curragh trainer.
"I'm just happy with the way she's going. Look, they're all very good," Weld said, sounding a slight note of caution.
"Saffron Beach [for trainer Jane Chapple-Hyme] is a very good older filly. Tenebrism [Aidan O'Brien] is a very good filly. I think we could see a better filly there on Saturday, but I wouldn't swap my own filly for any of them. I do want to repeat that it is the start of the second part of her year."
Elsewhere, on a weekend he describes as a "showcase for our flat season", the veteran Classic winner has many irons in the fire, as you would expect.
The exciting juvenile Tahiyra broke her maiden in eye-catching style in Galway to earn her chance in the two-year-old Group One Moyglare Stakes on Sunday at the Curragh.
"It's pretty certain we'll run Tahiyra in the Moyglare. She's not a big filly, I know people like to say we're throwing her in the deep end in the Moyglare but I think she's entitled to take her place. She was very professional when she won in Galway. She's a very intelligent filly and she's a good filly.
"She's a good filly, as I said, just not a big filly. But we're very happy with her."
Back at Leopardstown on Saturday, another Weld juvenile filly, Kayhana, will see action in the seven-furlong Listed Ingabelle Stakes.
"Kayhana will run there. I'm very fond of her," the trainer said. "She's a Harzand filly, as you know we won derbies with him. She did well in Limerick in a race that worked out quite well and she'll represent us well."
Search For A Song will run in the Irish St Leger at the Curragh on Sunday but is giving away some youth to the odds-on, Aidan-O'Brien-trained colt, Kyprios. With that in mind, Weld will make a decision before the 48-hour declaration stage on Friday morning - but prefers to let the mare take her chance, if possible.
"She's in good form. We'll make a final decision Friday morning whether we'll run her or not, if you know what I mean," he said. "It's ambitious. Kyprios is a very high class horse. She's six, we'll review it Friday morning whether we'll run her - but she's likely to run..."
Although the Galway Festival wasn't quite as fertile for Weld's team this year, the trainer is enjoying his usual late-summer-entering-autumn run of fine form. At this stage of a decorated career, Weld has moved away from the conveyor belt of the horseracing numbers game.
"I'm very pleased. We've a smaller team of horses this year," he explained. "We hit the crossbar a couple of times this summer. We got a couple of bad draws, the way it works, in Galway - it just didn't balance for us. But we're very happy with them."
One horse who might be worth scratching down in your notepad, according to his trainer, is the three-year-old Duke De Sessa, a runner-up at the Curragh back in June.
"A horse I'd mention for the weekend is Duke De Sessa. He's more than likely to run in the Paddy Power [Leopardstown, Saturday] but he's still in the Irish Champion Stakes. He's working very well," Weld reckoned.
"I know he'll be a 50-1 outsider if we ran him [in Irish Champion] but he's more likely right now to go in the Paddy Power... it depends how much rain might come for Leopardstown but we gather the ground there might be good, good to yielding."
Speaking of the elements, is Weld contemplating a rain dance ahead of this lucrative weekend for his band of runners?
"Not too much more for Homeless Songs," he said. "It's just nice for her. A filly with her pace, you don't want really soft ground. But I don't think it will be and I think Saturday is going to be a really nice day, weather wise."
"I'd say it's pretty certain she will stay in training next season. She had the long break, she's a filly who needs underfoot conditions in her favour before you can run her - that's her problem. But I'd say she's pretty certain to stay in training next year. That's the reason I took my time with her - and rightly so - all through the summer.
"Next year, I haven't really looked that far in to it. You'd look at all the Group One mile races for her, you'd start taking on the colts next year and you'd have a crack at them all the way.
"When you see her, you'll be very pleased with her but she really has enjoyed her summer!"
Weld has won big races all over the world, including a famous, ground-breaking triumph at the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop in 1993, not to mention the Belmont Stakes with Go And Go three years earlier.
But it is the most prestigious of the five British Classics, the Epsom Derby which he won with Harzand in 2016, that springs to mind first when asked about his most memorable training win.
"In hindsight, Harzand winning the Epsom Derby was so, so special," Weld remembered. "So special for me, so special for [jockey] Pat Smullen. Both of us had won major Group and Grade Ones all over the world but both of us, if you asked us, would have said we wanted to win the Epsom Derby more than any race in the world."
Watch live coverage of Irish Champions Weekend from Leopardstown on Saturday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 2.30pm and from the Curragh on Sunday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 1.30pm.
