John Dunlop Passes
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SUNDAY, 8 JULY 2018 ALL HEART END OF AN ERA: Even without Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), Saturday=s G1 JOHN DUNLOP PASSES Coral-Eclipse at Sandown threw up a barnstormer as Qatar Racing=s Roaring Lion (Kitten=s Joy) edged out old rival Saxon Warrior (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) to prevail by a neck and survive a subsequent stewards= inquiry. Freshened up after a busy period which culminated in a third placing in the June 2 G1 Epsom Derby, the 7-4 favourite was held up early by Oisin Murphy as the winning sire=s 2016 hero Hawkbill cut out the running. Delivered alongside Saxon Warrior two out, the grey gained a slight advantage soon after and despite veering right into the runner-up late on seemed to have command at the time. AI thought he was always holding him,@ winning trainer John Gosden said. AHe=s run a great race and was wider than we wanted, but Oisin timed his run beautifully. I can=t believe how well they galloped out past the line and they=d only just arrived in the winner=s enclosure when they said >horses away=.@ Cont. p4 John Dunlop | Racing Post by John Berry A notable chapter in a golden age of British racing has come to a close with the passing of former champion trainer John Dunlop, OBE, a gentleman of absolute integrity and immense kindness whose career spanned both sides of the divide during which the game changed from the localised sport which it was in the post-war era to the international business which it is nowadays. He was 78. Born on July 10, 1939 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, John Dunlop, son of the local doctor, did his National Service in the Royal Ulster Rifles before deciding to try to forge a career in racing. To this end, he secured a position as pupil with Neville Dent, who trained a small string of unremarkable horses in the Roaring Lion gets the better of Saxon Warrior in the run to the line New Forest and stood a few stallions at his Hart Hill Stud. This Racing Post grounding proved invaluable, as Dunlop later recalled, "I looked after two, sometimes three or four, horses, and a premium stallion. I drove the horse box. I travelled the horses and did a bit of everything for two years. This was great fun and I loved it. IN TDN AMERICA TODAY This, for me, was a very good experience because, as I say, I had CATHOLIC BOY EDGES ANALYZE IT IN BELMONT DERBY to do everything which would not have been the case in a big More Than Ready’s Catholic Boy re-rallied to take the GI Belmont yard. We journeyed Neville's stallions all over the place, Derby Invitational S. over Analyze It (Point of Entry) at Belmont covering all sorts of extraordinary mares, carthorses, New Forest Park on Saturday. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN ponies and the occasional Thoroughbred." America. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 17 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 8 JULY 2018 Bernard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, was not only John Dunlop's employer but also the man who had enabled him to realise his dream of becoming a trainer. By this stage the Duke was nearing the end of his life. (He died in January 1975, aged 66). He had played many parts in public life, including as Chairman of the MCC, but the position which he cherished the most was as Her End of an Era: John Dunlop Passes Cont. from p1 Majesty The Queen's Representative at Ascot. The Gold Cup, therefore, was the race esteemed above all others at Arundel-- Armed with this thorough grounding, Dunlop secured a and in June 1974, only seven months before his position as assistant-cum-secretary to Gordon Smyth, trainer to owner/breeder's death, Ragstone, ridden by Ron Hutchinson, the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel in Sussex. When gave the Duke and Duchess the victory of which they had Smyth moved to Lewes two years later to become a public dreamed for so long. trainer, Dunlop was appointed to take his place, taking over the An era ended with the death of the Duke of Norfolk. Although license at Castle Stables, Arundel, in 1966. There he remained his racing-mad widow Lavinia continued to breed and race for the entirety of his 47-year training career. horses (including the 1986 St Leger winner Moon Madness) she John Dunlop's first big wins as a trainer came in the 1970 Irish did so in an environment which was changing rapidly and 1000 Guineas with Mr. W. L. Reynolds' Black Satin and the 1973 utterly. The old-school owner/breeders were becoming Eclipse S. with Sandy Struthers's Scottish Rifle, both ridden by marginalised by the tidal wave of overseas investment. The size the stable's long-time jockey Ron Hutchinson. The following year of strings was increasing exponentially. John Dunlop took the saw the victory which, even with all of his subsequent Classic changing of the guard in his stride. triumphs, probably always remained the one dearest to his In the autumn of 1976, Sheikh Mohammed bought his first few heart. yearlings, choosing John Dunlop as his trainer. Cont. p3 Before he was a leading sire, Invincible Spirit in action in the G1 Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup at Haydock for John Dunlop in September of 2002. Racing Post TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 17 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 8 JULY 2018 End of an Era: John Dunlop Passes Cont. His first winner came the following summer, Hatta taking a 2-year-olds' maiden race at Brighton before following up a month later in the Molecomb S. at Goodwood. As the Sheikh's involvement mushroomed, so did the strength of the stable at Arundel, particularly as Sheikh Mohammed's brother Sheikh Hamdan also joined the ranks of the stable's owners. Vice President, International Operations Gary King Twitter: @garykingTDN [email protected] + 1.732.320.0975 International Editor Kelsey Riley Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry Twitter: @collingsberry John Dunlop at Arundel | Racing Post [email protected] Associate International Editor Within a short period, John Dunlop had gone from being a Heather Anderson salaried trainer for the Duke of Norfolk and his friends to Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN commanding the biggest string in England, with as cosmopolitan an ownership base as one could ever see. The New Zealand Marketing Manager import Balmerino joined the stable in the summer of 1977 and Alayna Cullen chased home Alleged in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The Twitter: @AlaynaCullen following year Shirley Heights, owned and bred by Lord Halifax, [email protected] won the Derby and Irish Derby. In 1980 Quick As Lightning, Contributing Editor owned by the stable's long-standing American patron Ogden Alan Carasso Mills Phipps, won the 1000 Guineas. Furthermore, John Dunlop's Twitter: @EquinealTDN reach was as extensive as his clientele: if there was a big race somewhere in the world, whether that be on continental Europe Cafe Racing or in Australasia, John Dunlop would have had a runner in it Sean Cronin before most other English trainers were even aware of its Tom Frary existence. [email protected] And so John Dunlop's stable rolled from strength to strength, Irish Correspondent only starting to wind down in the final few years before his Daithi Harvey retirement in 2012, at which point his tally of winners stood at over 3,000. Sheikh Hamdan was his principal patron in the final Regular Columnists decades and was richly rewarded for his staunch support, thanks Andrew Caulfield to the likes of 1994 Derby winner Erhaab and 2000 Derby John Berry runner-up Sakhee, 1990 1000 Guineas, Oaks and Irish Derby Kevin Blake heroine Salsabil, 1991 1000 Guineas heroine Shadayid, 1998 Tom Peacock Dewhurst S. winner Mujahid and the champion milers Marju, Lahib and Bahri. Cont. p4 THE NEXT IMPOrtANT US-BASED INTERNATIONAL SIRE THE KITTEN’S ROAR ROARING LION WINS THE GROUP 1 CORAL-ECLIPSE S. BECOMING KITTEN’S JOY’S 13TH MILLIONAIRE This is the second time in the past three years that a son of Kitten’s Joy has captured the Coral-Eclipse. KITTEN’S JOY IS THE LEADING TURF SIRE IN AMERICA FOR THE 6TH YEAR IN A ROW. LGB, LLC 2018 / Photo: ©Cranhamphoto.com www.hillndalefarms.com TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 17 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 8 JULY 2018 Following up by six lengths under a penalty on Kempton=s Polytrack in early September, he upstaged Nelson (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the G2 Royal Lodge S. to maintain his perfect sequence back in Newmarket, this time on the Rowley Mile at the end of that month. Widely believed to have made his move too soon when second to Saxon Warrior in the G2 Royal Lodge S. at Doncaster the following month, he approached the Apr. 19 G3 Craven S. as Britain=s leading candidate for the G1 2000 Guineas but was blown away by Masar when third there before coming forward to be fifth in the main event May 5. At that point, the logic that he would have beaten Saxon Warrior under more waiting tactics in the Racing Post Trophy seemed far from the mark, but Roaring Lion was secretly waging a vengeance mission which began with an emphatic win in the G2 Dante S. on his first John Dunlop & Millenary | Racing Post try at this trip at York 12 days after the mile Classic. End of an Era: John Dunlop Passes Cont.