OFF THE RECORD #22

Above: Dylan Cunha (left) and fans in Ireland.

Is that, Sir Dylan?   SA trainer’s tale of unexpected acclaim

Here’s a ‘South African walks into a bar’ story you haven’t heard. It’s real, not a joke, and not a drunk man’s tale passed on by rugby devotees who attended the World Cup last year. To make it clear to the dismissive - it’s not a braggart’s fantasy either.

South African-born racehorse trainer Dylan Cunha said he was stunned when he walked into the Sir Roland bar in Cashel, Tipperary, two weeks ago. He was instantly recognised by a group of racing fans, treated like a celebrity and force-fed Guiness and savoury snacks.

Cunha, who has made a suitable impression in racing circles from his stables in Newmarket, UK, said he has been humbled but nothing short of embarrassed by the public attention his recent spell of winners has brought to his stable. “I am being stopped at racetracks by people asking me to sign their race programmes. This is not something I am accustomed to. It never happened in South Africa. The trainers in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town – even the top ones - have to suffer more insults than praise."

“I kid you not,” Cunha added. “I’ve had old, seasoned racegoers walk up to me when I go racing. They don’t ask for tips. All they want is a handshake and an autograph. Or they’ll inquire about the well-being of a horse in my care. I am mostly red-faced and don’t know where to hide. Goodness knows what I’ll do if I win one of Britain’s major races!”

Cunha won the 2007 Grade 1 2007 Summer Cup at Turffontein with Strategic News, but handed in his licence less than two years after that. “I expected the phone to ring off the hook, but it never rang once. I didn’t get a single horse from any owner after that big win which was disheartening. In the UK, after our winner at York last year and following our success in the Brockleby Stakes at Doncaster last month, I receive any number of e-mails and calls every day. The racing media is refreshing too. They take a lively interest, phone me often to discuss my runners and entries.”

Cunha said that the fabric of the racing community was completely different to what we have in South Africa. He explained: “The base of traditional horse lovers and horseracing fans is still big and broad. The racing fans here have a deep sense of appreciation for the thoroughbred. The horse comes before the gambling aspect of racing. This is why they make heroes of their horses and they have great respect for trainers, jockeys and handlers."

“I have owners in the yard who live in Redcar, more than four hours away from Newmarket. They’ve already taken a few weeks’ leave for July when we have the festival of racing here. They, and many others, drive around the country all the time to attend the meetings of their choice. Last week we had a Premier meeting with good prize money at Lingfield. The races were average, for horses up to a rating of 70, but the grandstand was packed and the facilities were sold out. They were turning people away at the car park.”

When Cunha was interviewed in August 2022, after his arrival at Newmarket, he had three cheap, self-owned horses stabled in the old, bottom barn at the Jarvis family’s Phantom House. He rents the entire property from the retired William Jarvis now. He has seven strong patrons, 55 horses in training and 240 syndicate members involved with various runners. He has partnered with a stable jockey in up-and-coming Rhys Clutterbuck and his neighbours are big-name trainers William Haggas, Ed Dunlop and Tom Clover.

Above: Dylan Cunha with Rhys Clutterbuck

For Cunha, the last 18 months have been terrific, unexpected and something, he said, he wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams.

He told: “I bought three horses to start. There was Silver Sword (£11,000), Expressionless (£3,000) and Mr Fayez (£2,000). Silver Sword has won three times, earning more than £100,000. Expressionless has won twice for a return of £13,000 and Mr Fayez has also bagged two wins for more than three times his purchase price."

Above: Silver Sword wins at York

“I think my breakthrough came with Silver Sword, who won the Sky Bet Handicap at Pontefract in June 2023 and followed up in the Heritage Handicap during the Ebor Festival at York in August. There were suddenly a lot of eyes on my stable and part of it was due to the good coverage provided by ITV which is a major TV channel open to all."

“Just after Ebor the horses came flowing into the stable from new owners and for the first time I was asked to buy horses on behalf of patrons at the big Tattersalls Sale last October. Among the smaller owners I’ve had some good fortune. A father-and-son team knocked on my door. They’d owned horses for eight years without a single success. They took 10% shares of two runners and have had seven wins with us in the last few months. Now, they are investing bigger in the yard. Everything is working out incredibly well and I am grateful.”

Cunha has saddled nine winners in the first three months of the current flat season (1 January – 31 December) and occupies 37^th position in the UK Trainers Premiership, which puts him in the top 10% of the UK’s roughly 370 registered trainers. He said he has enjoyed help and kindness from his accomplished colleagues at Newmarket and said: “William Haggas congratulated me on our Brocklesby Stakes win with ZMiniature. He said that Clive Brittain was the last Newmarket trainer to win this race for two-year-olds, maybe 30 years ago. While it doesn’t carry a big stake, it is traditionally seen as quite a significant two-year-old pointer. Sir Mark Prescott also extended his good wishes. It is an honour to be training alongside legends like these.”

Cunha has been most consistent in his two-and-a-bit seasons in the UK, compared with his stop-start success in South Africa. He has an overall winning strike rate of 14% winners to runners, as high as 18% this season. He said: “I was a young man in the early 2000s and you must remember that I trained a bunch of truly bad horses at Summerveld in a time when Markus Jooste was becoming the dominating force as an owner. Those who didn’t have Jooste’s support were always on the back foot.”

He believes his greater maturity has a lot to do with his success today. “Moving here was not easy. My whole family relocated and we started from scratch. Two years ago, I was a team of one. I fed and groomed my horses and mucked the stables myself. In my days as a youngster working for strict taskmasters Barry Hills and Richard Armstrong, I gained experience that has helped me all these years later. If I didn’t have that early grounding, I would’ve given up here in my first few months."

“The horsemanship has always been there, but I think I am more serious about training now. I apply much more discipline and it has made the stable stronger. There are nominations and declarations here every day of the week. I’ve had to employ an admin assistant and a race planner. Logistics is an ever-present problem. Recently I had runners at Bath, Lingfield and Wolverhampton on a single day. One has to keep your wits about you with the travelling of horses around England.”

The one other headache, Cunha said, was finding qualified handlers and work riders. “After Brexit most of the European workers left the country, so we’re short on good horsemen- and women, it’s not easy to get good grooms.” He said that South African grooms were on a par with the best in England."

But aside from the customary difficulties and annoyances that are a part of any trainer’s life, Cunha’s hit the right nerve in England and he’s going one way: forward.

Above: Phantom House

“The lifestyle is good. I think Newmarket people sometime believe they’re on another planet. It’s as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist. Everything is horse-driven and there is a unity in this community that is rare elsewhere. If a horse trained at Newmarket gets beaten the town feels it, people get upset. We are loving it here. I recently decided to make Mondays an easy-going day with no phones or social media. I do the early stuff at the track and take the rest of the day off. It’s been a game-changer for me, for focus.”

Cunha has the obvious big trainers’ ambition – to win Group 1 races in the UK, but he’s not going to chase this in numbers. “My goal is to train a string of consistently up to 60 horses, which makes things manageable and gives you time to enjoy life. I’d rather clear out the stable of 10 average horses for 10 good ones. I’d like to maintain a winning strike rate of between 15 and 20%, and I know the big winners will come.”

He’s had some support from South African connections, including Steve Bailey, Johnny Gerber and Gill and Marius Mostert, and hopes that South Africa’s internationally powerful owners, including Ridgemont and Drakenstein, will support the yard in future. “The way I see it, my stable is a running advert for South Africa and training horses for prominent SA racing families will benefit all of us.”