John Dunlop, 78, Passes Away

[Wandering Eyes]

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 New Forest and stood a few stallions at his Hart Hill Stud. This 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.  This, for me, was a very good experience because, as I say, I had to do everything which would not have been the case in a big yard. We journeyed Neville’s stallions all over the place, covering all sorts of extraordinary mares, carthorses, New Forest ponies and the occasional Thoroughbred.”

Armed with this thorough grounding, Dunlop secured a position as assistant-cum-secretary to Gordon Smyth, trainer to the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel in Sussex. When Smyth moved to Lewes two years later to become a public trainer, Dunlop was appointed to take his place, taking over the license at Castle Stables, Arundel, in 1966. There he remained for the entirety of his 47-year training career.

John Dunlop’s first big wins as a trainer came in the 1970 Irish 1000 Guineas with Mr. W. L. Reynolds’ Black Satin and the 1973 Eclipse S. with Sandy Struthers’s Scottish Rifle, both ridden by the stable’s long-time jockey Ron Hutchinson. The following year saw the victory which, even with all of his subsequent Classic triumphs, probably always remained the one dearest to his heart.

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 Majesty The Queen’s Representative at Ascot. The Gold Cup, therefore, was the race esteemed above all others at Arundel–and in June 1974, only seven months before his owner/breeder’s death, Ragstone, ridden by Ron Hutchinson, gave the Duke and Duchess the victory of which they had dreamed for so long.

An era ended with the death of the Duke of Norfolk. Although his racing-mad widow Lavinia continued to breed and race horses (including the 1986 St Leger winner Moon Madness) she did so in an environment which was changing rapidly and utterly. The old-school owner/breeders were becoming marginalised by the tidal wave of overseas investment. The size of strings was increasing exponentially. John Dunlop took the changing of the guard in his stride.

In the autumn of 1976, Sheikh Mohammed bought his first few yearlings, choosing John Dunlop as his trainer. 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.

Within a short period, John Dunlop had gone from being a salaried trainer for the Duke of Norfolk and his friends to commanding the biggest string in England, with as cosmopolitan an ownership base as one could ever see. The New Zealand import Balmerino joined the stable in the summer of 1977 and chased home Alleged in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The following year Shirley Heights, owned and bred by Lord Halifax, won the Derby and Irish Derby. In 1980 Quick As Lightning, owned by the stable’s long-standing American patron Ogden Mills Phipps, won the 1000 Guineas. Furthermore, John Dunlop’s reach was as extensive as his clientele: if there was a big race somewhere in the world, whether that be on continental Europe or in Australasia, John Dunlop would have had a runner in it before most other English trainers were even aware of its existence.

And so John Dunlop’s stable rolled from strength to strength, only starting to wind down in the final few years before his retirement in 2012, at which point his tally of winners stood at over 3,000. Sheikh Hamdan was his principal patron in the final decades and was richly rewarded for his staunch support, thanks to the likes of 1994 Derby winner Erhaab and 2000 Derby runner-up Sakhee, 1990 1000 Guineas, Oaks and Irish Derby heroine Salsabil, 1991 1000 Guineas heroine Shadayid, 1998 Dewhurst S. winner Mujahid and the champion milers Marju, Lahib and Bahri. One of the stable’s final stars displayed a longevity nearly on a par with his trainer’s: Neil Jones’s Millenary won the St Leger in 2000 and the Doncaster Cup in 2005, taking his place in a roll call of magnificent middle-distance or staying champions which also included Sir Robin McAlpine’s 1984 Oaks winner Circus Plume and Peter Winfield’s 1997 St Leger winner Silver Patriarch. The many top sprinters trained by John Dunlop included Habibti, Invincible Spirit, Chilibang, Elnadim, Runnett and Lavinia Fontana.

John Dunlop gave much of his time to the greater good within racing, including as a Trustee of the British Racing School and on the Board of the National Stud. As fine a trainer as he was, he was at least as fine a human being. Just as Neville Dent had been his mentor, so was he mentor to generations of youngsters keen to make their way in the greatest game of all. One could go anywhere in the world and find a trainer or studmaster who, when asked the question, “Where did you receive your grounding?”, will reply, “With John Dunlop”.

John Dunlop leaves his widow Sue and their children Edward and Harry, who have both followed in their father’s footsteps and are now Group 1-winning trainers. We offer the family our deepest condolences.

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