The Dawning of the day: 30 years on from Dawn Run and the greatest Cheltenham Gold Cup of all time
EARS ending with the digit ‘6’ seem to be lucky ones for Irish-trained Gold Cup contenders.
In 1946, the Tom Dreaper-trained Prince Regent won the race.
1966 saw the immortal Arkle, also trained by Dreaper, claim his third and last Gold Cup success.
Imperial Call prevailed for Fergie Sutherland in 1996 before War Of Attrition reigned supreme for Mouse Morris in 2006.
The Irish challenge in 2016 looks a formidable one with the Gordon Elliott-trained Don Cossack, and the Willie Mullins trio of Djakadam, Vautour, and Don Poli all looking serious contenders in Friday’s feature race.
However, this year’s Gold Cup will have to go some before even coming close to matching the unrelenting drama and raw emotion of the 1986 renewal.
Dawn Run, trained by Willie’s father Paddy, arrived at Cheltenham that week seeking to become the first — and to date, only — horse in history to complete the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double.
She was, however, a relative novice over fences, having run in just four chases. The last of those ended in disaster, Dawn Run parting company with jockey Tony Mullins at Cheltenham in January.
The mishap would prove costly for Tony Mullins as Charmian Hill, Dawn Run’s owner, made the decision to replace him with Jonjo O’Neill for the Gold Cup.
Seeing his son jocked off must have hurt Paddy Mullins deeply but, as O’Neill points out, initially losing the ride on a horse he had steered to victory in the 1984 Champion Hurdle wasn’t pleasant for him either.
“It was awkward because I had won the Champion Hurdle on her and then I got a fall at Liverpool, split my head open and couldn’t get my helmet on so they wouldn’t let me ride,” O’Neill recalls.
“That was awkward, losing the ride on her. Then Tony was back on her. Tony won on her over fences and then she got injured and she was out for the season. She was Tony’s ride again then and rightly so.
“Unfortunately for him, they came to Cheltenham and he got unseated and Mrs Hill or Paddy rang me and asked if I’d ride her next time out.”
The reunion would lead to his greatest day in the saddle shortly before his retirement.
So, does it feel like 30 years have passed since that unforgettable day?
“It probably does in the morning when you get up,” O’Neill jokes before adding more seriously: “No, it was like yesterday.
“It was unbelievable, the hats in the air, trying to get back in the winners enclosure — amazing. It was a day in a lifetime you’d never forget.
“It wouldn’t happen now because it’s that organised. You will never see them sights again. There’s more control now. But it was brilliant.”
The field for the 1986 Gold Cup was a stellar one, featuring the previous year’s winner, Forgive ‘N Forget, Welsh National winner Run And Skip and treble King George hero Wayward Lad. Despite the strength of the opposition, her own inexperience and a less than ideal prep run, Dawn Run went off the 15/8 favourite.
“It was a bit like the whole of Ireland knew she was going to win,” O’Neill recalls. “But it was bloody hard work that she won. It was a good job for me that she won or I’d probably have been lynched.”
Characteristically, Paddy Mullins said little to his jockey before legging him up.
“Paddy was never a man for giving a lot of instructions,” O’Neill says. “When Paddy legged you up, he’d say: ‘she’s right today’. When Paddy said that, I thought: ‘We’re in business’. That’s all he’d say, he wouldn’t tell you how to ride her or nothing.
“He said: ‘She’s right today’. That’s all you needed to hear. He was a great trainer, knew her inside out.”
he start, O’Neill says, was the key.
“She was a right old moody thing and there was three or four frontrunners in the race and it was important to get her out in front. It wasn’t a long way to the first fence and we were motoring. She got that right and then you’re laughing. You’re half-way round then. That was the most important bit, getting the start right and getting out there in front.”
The problem for O’Neill and Dawn Run was Steve Smith-Eccles had the same idea on Run And Skip.
The pairings would trade blows throughout the first circuit. On the second circuit, the strain began to show on the mare.
“She made a mistake at the water and Run And Skip took her on and went in front and she didn’t like that so you had to motivate her to get her back up again.”
Approaching the second last, a blanket would have covered Dawn Run, Forgive ‘N Forget, Run And Skip, and Wayward Lad. The scene was set for arguably the most dramatic finale to a Gold Cup ever.
“Going to the second last, I thought: ‘I need to jump this and if she jumps this, we’ll win’. We did jump it, and jump it well and they passed me as if we were standing still. I couldn’t believe it,” O’Neill says.
“I hadn’t been able to give her a breather because she missed the water jump. I thought: ‘I might as well give her a breather now’ so I sat up on her and she took a breather and going to the last I knew we were going to win because she had taken her breather and filled up her lungs and we were trapping going to the last.
“I’d ridden Wayward Lad in 1983 and he didn’t get home, he finished third. I thought when he hit the front: ‘He won’t get up the hill’. I had that in my head and you keep going, keep galvanising them and that was it. She answered all the calls.”
Her winning time of six minutes 35.3 seconds was, at the time, the fastest in Gold Cup history.
O’Neill was no stranger to success but asked if Dawn Run’s victory was his greatest day in the saddle, his reply is emphatic.
“God yeah. It was a fantastic day, a day in a life and in a lot of people’s lives, really. They had their last few bob on her. It was great.”
What made her so special?
“She was a right moody old thing. She was a massive big mare, great stride on her, loved the goodish ground and she had unbelievable talent. She reminded me very much of [dual Champion Hurdle winner] Night Nurse.
“He was a massive big horse and a big stride as well. Very similar type of horses, great gallopers and travelled very easily through a race.
“He was a bit more willing than she was at times but they were very similar horses. When they landed after a fence they were like Concorde taking off, they’d shoot you back in the saddle. The power and ability in them was something special. It was a fantastic thrill, I was very lucky to be able to experience it.”
Conventional wisdom these days indicates a Gold Cup winner doesn’t run again the same season. The logic is simple: The Gold Cup is the ultimate test of endurance, a fact proven by the fact so few win it more than once.
Dawn Run, however, would not be allowed rest on her laurels. A trip to Aintree ended at the very first fence before, reunited with Tony Mullins, she came out on top in a match with Buck House at Punchestown.
Then her owner, against the wishes of Paddy Mullins, insisted on sending Dawn Run to France to attempt to win the French Champion Hurdle for a second time.
It would prove a fateful decision. Ridden by French jockey Michel Chirol, she broke her neck after taking a crashing fall at the fifth last. It was a tragic end to a remarkable story.
Dawn Run was only an eight-year-old when she perished. The fascinating, if unanswerable, question is how much more might she have achieved?
“Being a filly, she might have chucked the towel in,” O’Neill cautions. “You wouldn’t know but she didn’t feel like a filly. She was moody alright, but she was some machine of a horse, she was a great goer. When she was up in front you wouldn’t know how much she had left in the tank because she’d be doing it so easy.
“But the Gold Cup, I’d say, did see her to her wit’s end. I rode her at Liverpool afterwards and she was wired to the moon. She went down to the start and I couldn’t hold her or steer her or nothing.
“She was hyper after the Gold Cup. She went down to the first and she never took off — she parachuted me into the air. She was hyper from all the noise after Cheltenham.”
O’Neill’s story post that magical March afternoon is, thankfully, a happier one.
He successfully faced down cancer and has established himself as one of the best trainers in the business.
In 2010, he was part of another iconic racing moment, providing AP McCoy with the greatest day of his career when Don’t Push It won the Grand National.
Two years later, O’Neill became just the fourth person (after Danny Morgan, Fred Winter, and Pat Taaffe — Jim Culloty has since joined the select list) to ride and train a Gold Cup winner when Synchronised powered up the hill under an inspired McCoy drive.
Asking O’Neill if Dawn Run or Synchronised provided him with greater satisfaction is irresistible.
“There was great satisfaction riding her because that’s down to you,” O’Neill replies. “When you train one, that’s down to a big team, all the lads at home and everybody — it’s a completely different feeling.
“When you’re riding it’s down to yourself, you make a cock-up, it’s your own fault but training them is different. It’s a team effort; you’re only the name on the board.”
Recent Cheltenham Festivals have been dominated by Willie Mullins but, while his tally of 41 wins at Prestbury Park is far in excess of Paddy’s more modest haul of six, the Gold Cup has remained agonisingly out of reach.
Horses trained by Willie have finished second five times, including in each of the last three renewals. What perfect symmetry it would be if, 30 years on, one of Vautour, Djakadam, or Don Poli could provide another iconic Gold Cup moment.
With the year that’s in it, you wouldn’t bet against the son finally emulating the father.
