The Dawn of an era that started in Ballybeggan
ABALMY June evening in Tralee is unlikely to ever rank highly in the pantheon of Cheltenham folklore. It should, however, as shortly after 8.30pm on June 23rd 1982 the first steps in an epic National Hunt career began in style. Dawn Run had just won her first race in Tralee and little did the crowd know before their eyes that evening was the greatest mare ever to grace the hollowed turf of Cheltenham ( sorry, Annie Power).
Dawn Run is still the only horse to win the Champion Hurdle- Gold Cup double - the former in 1984, the latter in 1986 under a memorable ride by Jonjo O’Neill when all looked lost for the mare only for her to rally again after the final fence.
Dawn Run was triumphant at odds of 5/1 in the last race on the card that evening - ‘ The Castlemaine Flat Race’ - for a pot worth £692 to the winner. There’s every reason to believe - as is still the case at meetings today - the vast majority of the crowd were already in the car park and homeward bound when Dawn Run was led back to the winner’s enclosure. But for those that stayed they now rank among the privileged few to have witnessed the launch of something unique, even if they didn’t know at the time (and probably still don’t!). Dawn Run had a knack for headline making and her jockey that evening in Tralee was 62 year old Charmain Hill, who owned the mare.
Dawn Run returned again a few weeks later for the Festival meeting in August and won ‘ The Sean Graham Havasnack Plate’ over 2 miles at odds of 10/1 and a prize fund of £1,725. However, Charmain Hill, now christened ‘ The Galloping Granny’, wasn’t the jockey as her licence was revoked by the Turf Club, allegedly due to a fall she suffered at Thurles. Tony Mullins steered Dawn Run to victory that day and he was to have a bittersweet relationship with the mare when controversially replaced by Jonjo O’Neill in her two epic wins at Cheltenham in ’84 and ‘86.
Physically, Dawn Run was an imposing mare and she made a clean sweep of Irish, English and French Champion Hurdles in 1984. Her trainer Paddy Mullins once said, “That mare is my life” and few could argue with such a sentiment.
Dawn Run won 21 of her 35 career starts, most memorably the aforementioned Gold Cup in 1986. Also that same year she beat 2m Champion Chase winner, Buck House, in a novelty two horse race before a packed Punchestown with Tony Mullins back on board. Many felt it was ludicrous galloping two high-class horses against each other - a contest unimaginable by today’s standards.
In total, Dawn Run collected £269,083 in prize money but was tragically killed in June, 1986 in a hurdle race at Auteuil in France. Today, a statue of Dawn Run still overlooks the famous Cheltenham winner’s enclosure as a reminder to patrons of her epic reign; a reign that started on a June evening in Tralee 35 summers ago this year.