Dunlop bids to get it all right on the Knight 16-1
At his palatial stable in County tipperary, six-time Derby- winning trainer Aidan O’Brien has some of the best bred and fastest horses in the world.
Of those 200 thoroughbreds, seven will run in the £1.5million Investec Derby, including hot favourite Saxon Warrior.
John Gosden, who has second favourite Roaring Lion, is also in the 200 club over in Newmarket, as is William Haggas, who sends out his Chester Vase winner Young Rascal.
And yet the established order could be turned upside down today by a trainer who has never even saddled a horse in the Derby. Harry Dunlop is taking on the giants of the training game with Knight to Behold — one of just 45 horses at his Windsor House Stable in Lambourn.
‘I feel like an underdog, big time!’ said Dunlop, 42. ‘I am realistic about how tough it will be, but it is fantastic to take on the might of Aidan and John.’
Not that the Dunlop family lack big-race training pedigree. Harry’s father John won the Derby twice — with Shirley Heights in 1978 and Erhaab in 1994, when young Harry was his dad’s assistant. Harry’s older brother Ed has trained two winners of the Oaks.
Erhaab’s victory stands out for Harry. ‘I can remember how Willie Carson manoeuvred him out almost at a right angle to get around the whole field, because he was so far back,’ he said. ‘It was a very dramatic race.’ On top of that, Harry spent three years as assistant to his godfather, the legendary Sir Henry Cecil, who trained four Derby winners. ‘I will never forget Henry’s excitement when he got a colt he could train for the Derby,’ recalled Harry. ‘It was fascinating to watch him.
‘People ask, “What did you learn from him”, but a lot of what Henry did was in his mind. He was tough on colts — they did their work and got on with it — and tender on fillies. ‘He was a master at building a horse up for the great day. We can see it in all the Classic winners he had, all the winners at Royal Ascot and we saw it with Frankel (who won all 14 of his races). I am not trying to belittle any other trainer, but Henry Cecil was definitely the right man to train him.’ Harry has not been lucky enough to find another Frankel but his modest stable has produced consistently good horses.
Nonetheless, it was eight years before he landed his first Group One, when Robin Of Navan obliterated the field in the 2015 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.
Harry’s first Classic placing came just last month, when Fighting Irish was third in the German 2,000 Guineas. But an altogether more exciting opportunity knocks now with Knight to Behold, who is the star of Dunlop’s stable — a stunning Berkshire complex whose fascinating history includes a spell in the Second World War housing the 101st US Airborne Division ahead of the D-Day landings.
Knight to Behold was sired by 2009 Derby winner Sea the Stars and represents a pedigree that has previously been beyond Harry’s reach. ‘Sadly I don’t get many stallions like Sea the Stars,’ he said.
‘It is great to have Knight to Behold. He could be the one. His work got better and better as a two-year-old, but it was work for a longer distance, not speed.
‘What was exciting about his win in the Lingfield Derby trial was that up the hill he took almost 10 lengths out of them.
‘He had it on his own but then went again. I hope that is the sign of a good horse. Obviously the Derby is a different ball game, but you couldn’t be anything other than impressed.’