‘It’s The Big Days That We Do It For’: Cunningham Bidding For More Guineas Glory

[Wandering Eyes]

From Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel to James Ingram, the personal playlist of Phil Cunningham, carried in the names of many of his horses over the years, has provided the perfect accompaniment to some memorable days on the turf. 

In fact, back in 2007, legendary singer/songwriter Steve Harley, who died last year, was spotted among the merry throng after Cunningham's Cockney Rebel (Ire) sprang a 25/1 surprise in the 2,000 Guineas. He would go on to complete a Classic double at the Curragh three weeks later. 

On Saturday, Cunningham returns to the Rowley Mile with another long shot for the first Classic of the British season in Yah Mo Be There (GB). The son of Mohaather (GB) is no forlorn hope, however, certainly not in the eyes of his owner. Cunningham's passion for racing burns as brightly as the day he had a first taste of life at the sport's top table 20 years ago when Rebel Rebel (Ire) (Revoque {Ire}) belied his 100/1 starting price to finish second in the 2,000 Guineas to Footstepsinthesand (GB) (Giant's Causeway). A young colt by the name of Dubawi (Ire) was a couple of lengths behind him in fifth. Then, in 2011, Cunningham's first homebred Slim Shadey (GB) – sent off at 200/1 – ran fourth in Frankel's Guineas, all of which makes the 66/1 about Yah Mo Be There look like the each-way bet of the weekend. 

“We're trying to keep everything in check but I just feel like the stars are aligning,” says Cunningham of his next shot at Classic glory. “The faster the ground the better, the horse is fit and well and quite a few around us are pulling out. He's a big price and he's got to improve a lot on what he's done so far, but we've been here before.”

He continues, “Yah Mo Be There is under the radar. It suits us to be the underdog. It sounds ridiculous but when we went to Ireland [with Cockney Rebel] as 6/4 favourite it wasn't enjoyable. I was 37 and there have been a lot of horses in between but, crazy as it seems now, I look back and I was probably too young and too inexperienced in the game to enjoy it as much as I possibly could have done. I was a little bit like a lottery winner. 

“He was the first horse I owned on my own. Rebel Rebel, who was second in the Guineas in 2005, was owned by myself and my dad and four friends, and we sold him, went to the sale and bought Cockney Rebel.”

 

Cockney Rebel after the 2,000 Guineas; Steve Harley is being interviewed in the background for Channel 4 Racing | Racingfotos

 

Yah Mo Be There had a tune-up run to be fifth in the G3 Greenham Stakes a fortnight ago, having taken Newbury's Listed Rose Bowl Stakes last August. Like Cockney Rebel, he was picked up by Cunningham as a yearling at Doncaster and, as a £95,000 purchase from Manor House Farm Stud, he was one of the early standouts from his sire's first crop. The colt is also bidding to give his co-breeder Stuart McPhee Classic success in consecutive seasons after Metropolitan (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) won last year's Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

Cunningham says, “He needed the run in the Greenham and the trials are there for a reason. If you look at all of his races he quickens, he's got that ability at the end of his races to take off, and the classic example of that was at Newbury last year. We went into the Coventry more confident than we were with Rajasinghe but he got bashed into at the start and it was all over.

“Jamie [Spencer] rode him last Friday and on the faster ground it was the best piece of work that he's done. So he's coming into the race fit and well and we've just got to pray that he stays safe, but I think he is going to outrun his odds. I think the diminishing field size will suit as well, and by my maths, from what I am reading, I think we are looking at a maximum field of 12. But the favourite [Field Of Gold] looks a really lovely horse.”

Cockney Rebel retired to the National Stud after his Classic season, and it is there that Cunningham stands his 2017 Coventry Stakes winner Rajasinghe (Ire). In the intervening years he has bought Swynford Paddocks Stud and two historic Newmarket stables – first Albert House then Sefton Lodge. It is at the latter that he installed Richard Spencer to train the horses who run under his Rebel Racing banner. His father, also named Phil, and son Aidan are also fully involved in the project and the family hopes to have five runners at the Rowley Mile on Saturday, including Twilight Calls (GB) (Twilight Son {GB}), who was bought from Cheveley Park Stud last autumn, in the G3 Palace House Stakes, and three Rajasinghe homebreds. 

Against a backdrop of tough times for smaller breeders, in February Cunningham took the unusual and enterprising step to announce publicly that the services of Rajasinghe would be free to the owners of mares rated 70 or above, or mares who have produced runners rated at least 70. He has been pleased with the response. 

 

Cockney Rebel and his devoted stallion man, the late Paddy Meehan | Tattersalls

 

“He's been supported so well,” Cunningham says of Rajasinghe, who is now in the middle of his seventh stud season. “If you look at it from a financial perspective, he was standing at £3,000, and obviously there were deals being done downwards so the income he would have generated was negligible. When I went to meet the lads at the stud in the early part of the year he was down at about 10 mares. His strike-rate is phenomenal, and he's still the track record-holder at Ascot. We kicked around a few ideas and thought why not stand him for free to give him one last chance at stud. Now he's at over 50 mares, so it has worked and he's got another chance. Obviously we'll have to wait a few years to see, but he deserved a chance.”

He adds, “The people who have used him are mostly people without a significant number of mares and I've had people coming up to me at the races and letting me know that they've used him and thanking me for the deal. It's nice to know that people have appreciated it.”

As well as being a breeder himself, Cunningham is an enthusiastic buyer at the yearling sales, and has recently extended his investment to the Australian market. Two years ago, he enlisted the help of a notable judge in Highflyer Bloodstock's Anthony Bromley. 

“We changed things around a little bit, we were at a crossroads, and Anthony Bromley came in,” he says. “We increased our budget significantly and changed the focus on what we were looking to buy, and Yah Mo has come out of that first crop. We put a little plan together with Richard and this is where we are – it's working.

“My dad and my son are both involved in this with me and it's great to have something that the three of us can enjoy together. Hopefully we can get back to turning up and having some big days out. Whilst we love the racing it's the big days that we do it for.”

 

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