| COMPETITIONS |
YEAR: 2008
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Dexter (18 years) was first licenced in the 2005/06 as a Trials Driver and in 2006/07 as a fully licenced driver with a Junior Licence.
His early involvement was with father Robert Dunn also having a period in Victoria with leading trainer Andy Gath and he is currently working for Cran Dalgety.
The Maurice Holmes Trophy relates to all Junior Driver races conducted by the NZMTC Club at Addington and Dexter has won this award convincingly with 24 points from fellow Junior Shane Walkinshaw with 18 points.
However his greatest achievement has been winning the NZ Drivers Premiership as a Junior Driver in his first full season, a feat never achieved previously. He drove two Group 1 winners during that time namely Time To Fly and Rona Lorraine.
Final Points Standings were as follows :-
Dexter Dunn 24 points
Shane Walkinshaw 18 points
Nathan Williamson 15 points
In addition to the Trophy which he hols for the year, Dexter has received, courtesy of New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, a return trip to Australia with spending money plus $500 worth of clothing.
Credit: Tony Lye
YEAR: 2008
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| Rosie & Robert Dunn, Rose Dakin and Scott & Barbara Plant |
Robert Dunn was right and he was wrong. He believed the night would come when Time To Fly would beat the best mares in the country; he also believed it would not be this year.
He could see One Dream, It's Ella and Foreal ahead of her, and perhaps even some others, and being five, he thought she would be ready for it at six. Within a week it had all changed. One Dream and It's Ella were absent, Foreal was so-so, and with young whiz Dexter Dunn able to pull tricks out of the air, Time To Fly was in the reckoning for the $100,000 Group 1 PGG Wrightson NZ Breeder's Stakes at Addington. Not that many thought so. Even after her gallant and close second to Port Courage the previous week, she was unwanted by the public, who must have been thinking along the same lines as her trainer.
But last Friday night, Time To Fly was hard and ready, and all Dexter had to do was put her on the pace and keep her strong at the end of it. The race was not easy for Smoke N Mirrors or Foreal, who both went for the lead early on, and Smoke N Mirrors had to work hard on two occasions to keep it. Foreal was in and out before settling in midfield, but she had done a bit of work by then. Time To Fly came forward with a lap to go, where Dexter settled her and hoped she had some grunt left when it got tough. At the 600 metres, he pulled the winkers, and Time To Fly kept working generously from there.
It was Dexter's 49th win for the season and his first Group 1. Earlier in the night, he had come up with a gem of a drive behind Wild Storm, who started from the outside of the front line in a stand, led after 300 metres, trailed the favourite Absolute Magic, and with the light, delicate coaxing that trademarks Dexter's style, the horse was encouraged to stay in the fight and eventually prevail by a nose. That is what Time To Fly did, but she had more of a margin on Smoke N Mirrors, and her stablemate Luckisaladytonight, who was last at the 800 metres and ran home strongly.
Time To Fly was bred by Graeme Iggo, by Sands A Flyin from Limuru, an unraced Oblivion II mare from the family of Petro Star. Iggo also bred Limuru, and sold her after breeding Time To Fly to Bill Hickey and Gwenyth Smith, who have bred colts from her by Armbro Operative, Presidential Ball and Badlands Hanover and this season she was due to Washington VC.
Robert bought Time To Fly for Scott Plant and 78-year-old Rose Dakin after she won a 2-year-old trial at Ashburton for Polly Cleave. Plant is also in harness racing in a big way, with five mares at stud including Molly Darling, Abbeybell and Sav Blanc For Mee. He also has a yearling filly by Grinfromeartoear with Dunn, and Dakin is one of 10 racing Bahama Breeze, a 2-year-old filly by Christian Cullen in the stable.
While Time To Fly looks the lady on the track, she is not so lovely at home, where Robert is the only one who drives her. "She can get a bit snotty. She came with funny traits, and she's kept them. I work her in block blinds all the time, because she could just turn round and work the other way, and I always work her in front. I just keep her away from the others in case she does something silly." he said.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 7Feb08
YEAR: 2006
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| Mainland Banner winning the Breeders Stakes |
He knew she was short of a hard run before winning the Caduceus Club of Canterbury Premier Mares' event over 1950m the previous week, but he was sure it would top her off nicely for the $100,000 PGG Wrightson Breeders' Stakes.
Without making a meal of it, Mainland Banner duly won, beating Imagine That by a length and a quarter and Nick Off Holme by nearly two. After being settled on the outer by Ricky May, Mainland Baner went forward at the 1250m, sat parked soon after and came away for a comfortable win by a margin that may have flattered her rivals.
"Ricky said she did not feel as sharp as she did at Cup time," said Dunn. "But she only did what she had to, and I felt she was coming away again over the last twenty metres. "She blew hard again. We've had a roundtable since, and we feel we have to increase her work a bit."
Dunn expects her to take it in her stride because she is so relaxed in training. "This is her greatest weapon, and as she matures she is getting stronger. This is the first time she has backed up with a race two weeks in a row. The other time was last May when she was very tired after the Oaks."
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWEEKLY 9Feb06
YEAR: 2006
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| All class....Mainland Banner |
Last week's $35,000 Group 2 Premier Mares'Championship was Mainland Banner's first appearance since her dramatic Cup win, and she was up against some very classy and race-hardened girls.
So when she was used out of the gate to find the front, got taken on vehemently during the running by firstly Nursemaid and then Nick Off Holme, she was literally a sitting duck for those in behind her that had had a soft trip. But this is Mainland Banner we're talking about. One reminder with the whip, a dozen double-handed shakes of the reins, and Mainland Banner proved once again that she is the best there is.
"She was always going to need the run, so I suppose that the way the race panned out she was vulnerable," said trainer Robert Dunn afterwards. "Ricky (May) wasn't going to use her early, he was going to nurse her round the first bend and then move forward. But when That's Life Lavra put a rough stride in at the start, he had no choice. So it is nice to know that she has got gate speed as well. She was tested tonight, and she knew it too because she blew afterwards. She has been as bright as a button ever since though," he said.
Mainland Banner steps out again this week in the PGG Wrightson Standardbred Breeders' Stakes, and although she was beaten the only other time she raced twice within seven days, Dunn thinks it is a totally different story this year.
"When Molly Darling got her in the Nevele R Fillies' Final it was the end of her 3-year-old season - she had gone from qualifying to a superstar in the space of about four months," he said. "She had travelled south a couple of times, and the Oaks win a week prior had taken the edge off her. But right now she is on the way up, and she will improve with that run for sure."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 1Feb06
YEAR: 2005
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Mainland Banner was promoted to first in the Stewards' room following the disqualification of Dudinka's Cullen for racing inside the markers for approximately 90 metres. He knocked down six of them on his way to running past Mainland Banner, Baileys Dream and Presido and winning the race by a length. This was his first start since trainer Tim Butt had bought him for leviathan Perth owner, Neven Botica.
Mainland Banner gave Dudinka's Cullen a 20m start, and had no favours in the early part of the race although she began well without being quickly away. She had a smother in the middle stages and after some pushing and shoving on the final bend, unleashing a strong finish from there.
This has left driver Ricky May in the interesting position of having two possible drives in the NZ Cup, with London Legend, who resumes in the Nobilo this week, as the other. "I'm really happy with her. I knew she would step okay from the start and she did, but got sqeezed a bit. We have got a meeting planned this week to see where we go from here," he said.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 12Oct05
YEAR: 2005
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| Mainland Banner & Ricky May head for the judge |
When Foreal drew two and Mainland Banner landed 15, the odds seemed very much in the former's favour. But with the horse drawing inside Foreal being an emergency for the event, her automatic scratching moved Foreal into one and changed the whole complexion of the race. Driver Anthony Butt no longer had options, needing to secure the lead no matter what to avoid him and Foreal getting buried back on the fence. And he had three goes at it too...firstly at the start when Robyn Blue matched them for early speed, once again soon afterwards after that rival had crossed them, and a third time down the back straight when he pulled out of the trail behind Nick Off Holme. The latter had zipped around with purpose just before the bell and been allowed to go to the front, but the damage to Foreal had been done by then; a lead time of 1:13, Mainland Banner sitting back in the pack having not spent a penny, surely it was only a matter of time before she pounced.
Back where he and Mainland Banner were sitting, Ricky May knew that part of the plan was working - but some parts of it weren't, either. He'd thought two or three times about moving but nothing pulled out to give Mainland Banner cover on the way round, so in the end he hooked out starting the last lap and got stuck behind a runner that was sitting three-wide and going no-where. Playing the waiting game as long as he could, May finally decided it was time to go wider passing the 600m mark, and with a slap of the reins Mainland Banner inched forward. Rounding the turn she was fair travelling, and in the twinkling of an eye she simply changed down a gear and zoomed away. Molly Darling burst out of the pack to get within a length and a quarter, but nothing was going to deny Mainland Banner her moment and she stopped the clock in a breathtaking 1:58.8 mile rate.
She might float like a butterfly, but she certainly stings like a bee. Afterwards, May could do little more than shake his head. "She just did that herself," he said. "She had absolutely no favours out there tonight; I knew by the time we settled down we were going to be twenty lengths off them, and we were. But she's such a stunning filly - she's just so good that anyone could drive her." May then went on to say things that no-one thought they'd hear any driver admit... "She feels better than her father, and I know that's a big call. But she feels better-gaited than Christian Cullen, because he used to go a bit rough at times. She wears a sixty-three inch hopple, no shorteners and no knee boots... she's just the most nicely-gaited horse you could ever drive. And that run won't knock her either. If anything she'll come back better next week."
'Next week' is this Friday night's $100,000 Nevele R Fillies' Final, and after such a performance Mainland Banner will be all the rage to extend her unbeaten streak to eight.
There in the background, as he was throughout the night last week, will be former owner Ian Sowden. Sowden is the Ashburton horseman who purchased Mainland Banner off Dennis and Dianne Moore at the Premier Yearling Sale before on-selling her to Ian Dobson 21 months later. And even though he no longer owns the vehicle, he's never stopped enjoying the ride. "She's still a part of me," he said. "I've never missed being on-course when she races, and I spent all night down at the box with her tonight. I remember when she won at Invercargill, they had to come and find me to get her to pass urine. They'd been trying for over an hour, but after I got there she did it within a couple of minutes. No, I'm just getting a hell of a kick out of seeing her race."
Sowden says despite the fact that he sold Mainland Banner last November, he "could write a book" about the filly. The opening chapter would undoubtedly be about how he'd never intended to buy her in the first place, showing up at the Sales with his eye on something else. "That was a Spirit of Zeus colt, but I didn't like it when I saw it. I'd brought the horse float with me, so I thought I may as well take something home in it. And then this Christian Cullen filly came into the ring. She was nice and wide in front and had big ears, and they'd been hammering away at $5,000 for ages before I put my finger up and got her for $7,000.
Sowden showed remarkable patience with Mainland Banner early on, taking her back to the workouts again and again for more and more practise. "Right from the first day I put her in the cart she was clever, and relaxed. It was quite incredible," he said. "She's one of those horses that just kept improving every day - you never had to go back and do anything all over again."
It's all been quite a ride since trainer Robert Dunn took over as well...an unofficial record at the trials; seven starts without even looking like getting beaten; $111,824 in the bank so far. "She's very exciting," he said. Dunn says that last week's clash between Mainland Banner and Foreal obviously caught the public's imagination very early on. "I don't think I've ever trained a horse leading up to a race where there's been so much hype from such a long way out. I mean, during Master Musician's era there were like eight millionaires. And the only other time I've experienced that one-on-one hype was when he took on (and beat) Jack Morris in the Victoria Cup."
Dunn says he wasn't "cock-a-hoop" confident leading into last Friday's event, having immense respect for Foreal among others, but despite where she drew he also knew what his filly was capable of. "All those times when you see horses run fifty-five halves, they're only at top speed for about fifty metres of that; this filly can carry that speed for a lot, lot longer. I think she could be a freak," he said.
Credit: John Robinson writing in the NZHR Weekly
YEAR: 1995
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Last Saturday night, on a stretch of road between Ashburton and Hinds, harness racing lost a youth of great character; a horseman of immense potential. Driving alone, 19-year-old Darren De Filippi was involved in a three-car accident that cost him his life.
The last of his 264 career drives was on Stambro, who died in a separate accident on the same road, on the same day.
To say Darren De Filippi was a role model, a bright light amongst the apprentices in th industry, was a fact. He was bred to be nothing else. His father Colin has long been at the top of his profession and his mother Julie is the daughter of the highly-respected trainer and mentor, Bill Denton.
Right from the start, Darren made his career plans obvious. As a 13-year-old, in the holidays and weekends he would bike off to the stables of Robert Dunn where the education started by his parents would continue. He told Robert he had better horses than his father. He got away with that. When he was old enough, he asked Robert for a job. "He just sat in the cart like a natural. He had a lovely set of hands. And he had an easy rapport with owners, trainers and all those he had dealings with," he said. Employed ever since then by Robert, Darren won his first race behind Judicial at Addington in September, 1994, and finished with nine wins. This season, from 70 drives, he had driven six winners.
His qualities were again recognised off the track at the annual cadet night prize-giving at Addington on Monday night, where he won three awards - the J S Dalgety prize, the second prize for third-year cadet, and the cadet representative prize. In his first year as a cadet, he won the prestigous Regional Training Officers prize. "He had human qualities well beyond his years," said Cadet Director, Jack Mulcay. Everwhere you turned, everyone had the same opinion."
Along with his renowned politeness - his seniors were always addressed as "Mister" - Darren had the ambition to reach the top as a driver. "He asked me at morning tea on Wednesday if I would let him drive down south because he wanted to have a real crack at the South Island junior drivers title. I said he could, and we would sit down and work out the best way to go about it," said Robert.
Bill Denton said Darren loved all sport, but lived for his horses. "He was a super kid," he said. That was a quality about Darren that made him the fine, young man that he was. He touched the lives of many with his open, engaging and cheerful manner; his ability to enjoy the success of others as much as his own. His grandfather, who so enjoyed his company, and could see the future he had, is thankful for the times they had together..."but it's something I wanted more of."
You speak for us all, Bill.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 29Nov95
YEAR: 1991
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| Master Musician and Robert Dunn win the Derby |
Master Musician had to be the outstanding horse he is to resist the earnest efforts of Impressionist, Sogo and Tartan Clansman in the John Brandon 30 NZ Derby. And Stabilizer might have joined them, too, had David Butcher chosen to leave Mac Magpie's back in the early stages of the race rather than later, when the others were splitting up the prizes.
Impressionist was forced to work a little hard until he got to the lead at the 2000 metres. At that stage, Master Musician, who was able to follow Cadillac Jack forward, was fourth, trailing sweetly on the outer, and Tartan Clansman was behind him. Stabilizer, who was second at the 2300m, was four deep and 7th at the 2000m. Just as he did on the middle night, Robert Dunn put Master Musician into open country near the 750m. He joined the attack before the corner and fought his way clear. His pursuers weren't easy to shake off. Tartan Clansman tried hard to stick with him, Impressionist didn't submit without a fight, and Sogo emerged to battle past the pair right at the end and ran Master Musician to a short length.
It took Master Musician 3:13.5 to complete the mobile 2600m, and only Winning Blue Chip, who won the Derby last year in 3:12.2, has gone faster among those of his age. A son of New York Motoring, bought for $37,000 at the International Sale, Master Musician is raced by Ken McDonald and Eugene Storck, who are scrap metal dealers, and Dunn. Outside of his $500,000 won on bonuses, Master Musician has now earned $772,414, the result of 14 wins and a third from 16 starts.
As he did on the second night, Mr McDonald paid tribute to veterinarian Dr Peter Gillespie who has monitored the health of his young champion so carefully these past few weeks. Said Dunn: "He has a tie-up problem and he seems to pick up a virus so easily. The checks Peter has been able to give him have been vital."
Dunn, aged 36, said the win had been a great thrill, and rivalled that of National Glory in the Sires' Stakes Final. "We've really had so many over the last two or three years, it's hard to choose," he said.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HR Weekly
YEAR: 1978
1978 NZ OAKS
Lady's Rule will go down in the record books as being the winner of the 1978 NZ Oaks, but those records will not tell the true story of the courageous performance turned in by the third placegetter Gina Marie.
Without trying to take anything away from Lady's Rule, who gave of her best and gained due reward, she may have only been second to her North Island Oaks conqueror had not Gina Marie gone down on her nose at the start. A hot favourite to complete the Oaks double, Gina Marie moved off well enough, but after a couple of strides took fright when she heard a rival driver yelling. She stumbled, went down and looked certain to hit the deck. A stride past the post she was second, and it was a performance which stamped Gina Marie as a class above the other fillies this season.
Lady's Rule's victory, favoured though it was by Gina Marie's misfortune, was still deserved as she has proved an honest and consistent performer for trainer-driver Robert Dunn and owner Mr Bert Penney, a Kaiapoi freezing worker. Acting on instructions from Mr Penney, Dunn purchased Lady's Rule as a yearling at the National Sales for $1200. It was a wise investment, as a filly has now won $11,450.
Credit: Editor of the NZ Trotting Calendar