How fitting it was that evergreen Dwayne Dunn should go out with a win on the final day of metropolitan racing in Melbourne for 2019/2020. He overcame a wide gate to get Chassis home in a 3YO fillies event at Caulfield for expatriate West Aussie trainer John Price.
The ever consistent jockey performed at a high level throughout the season to finish in third place on the metropolitan premiership with 51 wins, and in thirteenth spot on the Victorian ladder with a healthy 75 successes.
Melbourne was the one Australian racing stronghold where older riders dominated the premiership honour roll. Winner Craig Williams is 43, runner up Damien Oliver 48, and Dwayne recently turned 47. “There’s been a definite change of attitude in recent years towards older jockeys,” said Dwayne.
“Twenty years ago owners and trainers dropped off once a jockey turned forty. I think the deeds of riders like Jim Cassidy, Jeff Lloyd and Glen Boss have had a lot to do with it. People are starting to realise they can’t pay for the experience these blokes have to offer.”
One of almost 2200 career winners for the outstanding jockey - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The veterans haven’t enjoyed the same prominence in other parts of Australia. Thirty four year old William Pike who all but ‘owns’ Perth racing is just 34, while Todd Pannell at 35 has his first Adelaide premiership all parcelled up.
Twenty eight year old James McDonald with well over a century of metro winners has the Sydney title “in the bag”, while apprentice Baylee Nothdurft will clearly win the Brisbane jockeys premiership. Sadly the brilliant young jockey will miss a few months of riding as he recovers from a fractured jaw sustained in a recent trackwork accident.
Time’s running out for Dwayne Dunn to add a Melbourne Jockeys premiership to his already stunning record. He’s still haunted by memories of the one he threw away by incurring a late season suspension in 2015/2016.
“I copped fourteen days at a crucial stage which enabled Craig Williams to beat me by three wins,” recalled Dwayne. “Not only did I cost myself the title, but it was the same season my son Dylan won the Melbourne apprentices premiership. We would have been the only father and son combination to win both titles in the same season.”
Dwayne doing his impression of the Lone Ranger as he returned to scale on Chassis at Caulfield on Saturday - courtesy Racing Photos.
That wasn’t Dwayne Dunn’s only brush with racing history. It’s well documented that his four consecutive wins in the Blue Diamond Stakes stand as a record, but had he won the race in 2009 on Maka Ena he would have become the first jockey in the world to win the same Group 1 race five times on the trot. He had to be content with third placing behind Reward For Effort and Real Saga.
Dwayne’s four wins were on Undoubtedly (his first Australian Gr 1 win), Nadeem, Sleek Chassis and Reaan. He still has trouble getting his head around the astonishing fact that none of his Blue Diamond Stakes winners were able to win another race. They all had very short careers admittedly, but in twenty two subsequent starts they failed to win a race between them.
South Australian born Dunn has no doubt his 2006 Caulfield Cup win on Tawqeet was a life changing moment in his life. The stallion had come from England where he’d won only three minor races from nine starts for the John Dunlop yard.
He had four lead up runs for new trainer David Hayes before finding his best form. Dwayne rode him patiently to win the AJC Metropolitan, and adopted similar tactics to score a strong win in the Caulfield Cup two weeks later.
“He improved week by week and absolutely thrived after the Caulfield Cup,” recalled the jockey. “I was quietly confident he was going to give me my first Melbourne Cup win. I was shattered when he developed a foot infection a few days before the Cup.
“David Hayes and his team worked around the clock in an endeavour to get Tawqeet to the barrier for the Cup. He trotted up OK for the vets on the Monday and the decision was made to start him in the big one. Under race pressure he couldn’t stretch out and was never a chance. Probably my biggest racing disappointment .”
Few of Dwayne’s twenty five Group 1 victories have given him more satisfaction than his Coolmore Stud Stakes win on Exceedance last spring.
“I was thrilled to deliver such an important win for Team Hawkes who’ve given me tremendous support in Melbourne in recent years,” he said. “The Coolmore Stud Stakes is a stallion making event, and this horse was always destined for an early retirement to stud. It was a wonderful result for me on two counts.”
Dwayne drives Exceedance along the rail to beat Bivouac in The Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington 2019 - courtesy Racing Photos.
High on Dwayne’s list of favourites is All Too Hard, another potential stallion who was always destined for early retirement. The half brother to Black Caviar raced only twelve times for seven wins, three placings and almost $2.3 million. Dunn rode him in all but one of those twelve starts - relinquishing the mount to Chris Munce when unable to make the colt’s weight in the 2012 W.S.Cox Plate. All Too Hard was gallant in beating all but the seasoned Ocean Park.
Prior to the Cox Plate, the clash between All Too Hard and the unbeaten Pierro in the Caulfield Guineas was giving the Melbourne Spring Carnival some early momentum. “I was caught up in the hype as much as anybody else,” recalls Dwayne. “It was a promoter’s dream on paper and it was an exciting race to be a part of.”
It’s now history that Pierro did a fair bit of work to settle down outside the leader Ashokan while All Too Hard went back to last of eight runners. The Exceed And Excel colt made his move three wide from the 800m and was carted five deep on the hometurn.
Pierro’s ninth straight win looked imminent when he dropped Ashokan and dashed clear on straightening. All Too Hard set sail after him and suddenly the predicted match race was on in earnest. With Dwayne at his vigorous best, All Too Hard got the upper hand in the dying stages to post a half length victory over his arch rival.
The Caulfield Guineas win was one of four Group 1’s for the Dunn/All Too Hard combination. The last three, the C.F.Orr, the Futurity and the All Aged Stakes were consecutive and brought down the curtain on the colt’s short but brilliant career.
Dwayne Dunn’s close association with the Hawkes stable led him to a fairly extensive association with Chautauqua - the horse who probably got more social media coverage than any other in his last twelve months of racing.
Dwayne rode Chautauqua in sixteen of his thirty two starts, winning six races on the enigmatic grey - a Gr 1 Lightning Stakes, the Gr 2 Gilgai Stakes on two occasions, the Gr 2 Mitty’s McEwen, the Gr 2 Rubiton Stakes and the Gr 3 Bobbie Lewis Quality. “I’ll just add one thing to the millions of words already written about this horse,” said Dwayne. “He had a sharp brain and was a very deep thinker. I wasn’t surprised when he worked out that refusing to jump was the easiest way to beat the system.”
The enigmatic Chautauqua scores a last stride win over Terravista and Japonisme in the Group 1 Lightning Stakes 2016 - courtesy Racing Photos.
The champion jockey is justifiably proud of son Dylan who has enjoyed great success in the saddle including his junior premiership win a few years ago. He left his mark at a Colac meeting two years ago when he achieved the extraordinary feat of winning six races from six rides.
Dylan is unable to ride under 58kgs which greatly reduces his opportunities in the city. “He spends most of his time on the provincial and country circuit where he rides regular winners,” said Dwayne. “He’s as keen as ever and loves the business passionately. It’s a great pity he’s not three or four kilos lighter.”
Dwayne Dunn has had a fantastic journey in racing from the day he left his childhood home on Kangaroo Island to become apprenticed to John Hall at Morphettville - a successful trainer who’d learned his trade as a stable foreman for Bart Cummings.
It’s hard to believe a jockey with close to 2200 wins and 25 Gr 1’s under his belt took sixty eight rides to chalk up his first winner. It was trainer Brian Searle who provided Dwayne’s maiden winner Whisper On at Gawler on October 1st 1989.
Thirty one years on there’s not the slightest indication of an alternative career for the master horseman. “I’ll probably hang about for another season or two,” he said tongue in cheek.
Don’t be surprised if it turns out to be three or four.
Dwayne was elated to win the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes for Team Hawkes 2019 - courtesy Racing Photos.
(Banner image - Dwayne Dunn notches his 51st metro winner for the season on Chassis at Caulfield - courtesy Racing Photos.)