Forty eight years of loyal owners

Over the forty eight years Robert Dunn has been training, he’s been very fortunate to have had a solid group of loyal clients, all of whom have been with him for a long time.

His oldest clients are Ian and Ernie Neumann for whom Dunn trained Casana to win at Richmond Park in June 1987, while the Sparks – Graham, Una and Warwick have also had horses with Dunn for a long stretch. Their first winner was Another Meddle, also winning at Richmond Park in January 1993.

“The Sparks with the Neumanns which I call the Ashburton connection, have been with me since I first started training. We always got barley from the Sparks; Warwick, his mother Una and his late father Graham. The connection came through the late Peter Andrews who used to be President of the NZ Met and also on the Racing Board,” Dunn said.

Of the Sparks 62 winners, Robert has trained 59 including Lionels Meddle (10), Bryce’s Meddle (10), Hayden’s Meddle (8), Make A Meddle (7), Majhac Meddle (7) and Mr Meddle (6).

The Neumann family has also had a long successful relationship with Robert.

Early success for the brothers came with trotter Tyron Scottie who was trained by Patrick O’Reilly junior. He won twenty one races including two National Trots.

Dunn started training for them consistently in 2007 and since then, of their 283 winners, Robert has trained 124 on his own account and a further 77 with his training partner Jenna.

“It comes from back in the Marist rugby days when I used to be good mates with the late Bernie Stewart. We used to go up to the old Members stand at Addington. The Neumanns were there and I got to know Alan and Ian.”

Their first black type winner trained by Robert was All Royal Gal in the G3 Northern Trotting Breeders Stakes at Alexandra Park in March 2016 and their first Group One winner was Highgrove in the 2022 Northern Trotting Derby.

Robert and Jenna have trained one other G1 winner for the Neumanns -Tyron Eros, in the 2023 Ace Of Clubs at Addington.

Their biggest winners for the family have been Dance Till Dawn (12), Mach Banner (12), Highgrove (11), Who’s Delight (10), Bravehearthighlander (7) and Valloria (7).

Dunn has also experienced success for more than fifteen years, with Grant Eynon. His first winner for Grant was Lord Diego at Motukarara in April 2010.

“I got to know him through Jamie MacKinnon. One of Jamie’s mates and Grant were good friends. They got together with Lord Deigo and moved onto Elios. And Scotty Clark came in so it was a North Island connection really.”

Robert has trained 54 of Eynon’s 112 winners including Bruntwood Brigade (10), Elios (10), Classie Brigade (9 of 21), Lord Diego (9), Bach (8) Kotare Cullen (6) and Always A Porsche (4).

Robert has perhaps had the most success for owners Ross and Angela Gordon.

Dunn’s first winner for the family was Seafield Jade at you guessed it, Richmond Park in February 1992. Then there was a twelve year gap before Ross and Angela truly came on board and a string of winners began to roll out.

“I was very good friend with Ross’s Mum and Dad, Don and Carol Gordon. When I was looking at yearlings at the Sales we struck up a nice relationship. Once Ross got to where he could financially afford horses he came on board and we’ve been together ever since.”

Robert has trained all 177 of Ross’s winners with John driving 126 of them.

Henry Hubert (15), Got The Chocolates (14), Heisenberg (13), Niraadi (11), Robbie Burns (10), Samuel James (10), Billy Badger (8), Charlie Brown (7), Triple G (6), Say My Name (6) and Metermaster (5) have been the most successful horses for the Gordons.

The Gordons had their first Group One success when Robert and Jenna trained Got The Chocolates to win the 2024 Welcome Stakes.

Since then, their star pacer has gone on to win three other Group One races; The Three Year Old Flying Stakes, Roy Purdon Memorial and the New Zealand Messenger.

The Dunn/Gordon partnership has had remarkable success with the stock of Art Major, with Got The Chocolates, Billy Badger, Heisenberg, Charlie Brown and Say My Name.

“I do like the Art Majors. I know a lot of trainers struggle with them.”

The four families between them have collectively provided Robert and/or Robert and Jenna with 417 winners.

“They’re all a pleasure to train for and we’re incredibly lucky. They’re all so easy to get on with and we just run the cutter for them. If something goes wrong or a drive doesn’t work out, you don’t hear a bopeep. So we’re very lucky that way.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink