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The dream was snatched away. ‘It was sad not to get the chance against our own age group and sex, gutting to have her go wrong so close to the race,’ Harry shrugs. But the promising filly might yet run in a British Classic, the St Leger.
Following father John and brother Ed into the training game in autumn 2006, he chose a tough time. In current economic circumstances mere survival is an achievement. But Harry is doing better than that.
His first runner, Situla, won at Wolverhampton. The useful, if quirky, Festoso (she has to be led blindfold to swim in Harry’s equine pool and insists on being accompanied everywhere by head lad Phil Wright) was the first two-year-old winner and she was third in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes to European champion Natagora. Connections were cheered by a recent Listed win for the four-year-old over 6f at Haydock and there should be Group races to follow.
Two three-year-old fillies — Crocus Rose and New Beginning — handled the tough Fisher’s Hill with enthusiasm and aplomb, and I liked the look, too, of the two-year-olds Liebelei (Royal Academy) and Statuesque (Red Ransom). Listillo recently made an impressive racecourse debut.
Yard owner Peter Walwyn, a Lambourn institution, is still in residence at Windsor House, and other successful trainers who have sent out horses from the Crowle Road stables have been Nicky Henderson and Ralph Beckett.
Harry Dunlop came with the right kind of experience stuffed in his saddlebag, having been an assistant to Nicky Henderson in Lambourn, to Henry Cecil in Newmarket and to his father John in Arundel. The essential lesson learned from his father was routine. He admired Henry Cecil’s ability to plot a long-term campaign for a horse. From them all he learned that the essential quality in racing is patience.
Since the majority of his two-year-olds are fillies bred to be three-year-olds that is vital. Classic Remark, for example, his first Listed winner, never ran at two. But, even if they are bred to take time, says Harry, ‘it’s quite hard to say: “No, you can’t run this at two”’.
He admits that in early days he possibly left a race or two on the gallops. ‘I galloped the tripes out of one or two of them before they saw a racecourse.’ Now he agrees that most of his will probably improve for their first run. ‘Winning first-time out can be the kiss of death anyway. You’ve then got to go on to higher company before they’ve got the experience to cope with it.’
With nine winners already this season to set beside the dozen or so over the previous two, Harry is heading in the right direction. But he will still be patient: ‘We’re not a big stable. Each horse is precious. Maybe if you’ve 150 you can afford to be more aggressive.’ And he does have one key advantage: ‘I can ask Dad things I wouldn’t dream of asking others.’
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