ROBBIE DUNNE is used to the long haul.
The 30-year-old Irishman is part of the backbone of the jockeys’ room, tirelessly plugging away in the hope of finding winners.
The big ones, those that make all the cold mornings, slow horses and crashing falls worthwhile, are the rare gems which keep riders like Dunne chipping away at the sport’s unforgiving coalface. Horses like Rigadin de Beauchene who today will be attempting to win the Betfred Classic Chase at Warwick for the second time in three years.
Dunne’s career was something of a slow burner. Having not even sat on a horse until he was 14 – almost middle aged by the standards of Irish jockeys – his first 176 rides were all losers until his luck turned on a horse called Maswaly in a maiden hurdle at Downpatrick in 2005.
“It was relief more than anything else,” Dunne recalled. “The horse in front of me, Panaconi who Tom Ryan was riding, fell at the last. He was the favourite and would probably have won so it was a fortunate enough winner.”
Ten years later Dunne was punching the air for his biggest winner to date when Wayward Prince won the Scottish Grand National at Ayr last April. Riding into the winner’s enclosure Dunne was savouring a moment that might be commonplace to some but felt so special to him. “That’s the moment you work all year round for, driving around the country and making all the sacrifices that you do for days like that.”
The other such days have been provided by Rigadin de Beauchene, trained by Venetia Williams who has credited Dunne with much of the early schooling work on a horse who had talent but also a certain clumsiness in his youth. The day when he tried to demolish the fourth-last fence at Newbury and left Dunne defying Newton’s Law of Gravity has become a minor YouTube classic but the jockey also sees the silver lining.
“He might have won that day and it might have been a blessing in disguise that he didn’t,” Dunne said. “He’d have gone up in the weights for the Classic and he only won by half a length.”
A year later the pair won the Grand National Trial at Haydock Park but by then the handicapper had begun to win the argument. Unlike celebrity, increased ratings simply mean more weight to carry and Rigadin de Beauchene now had too much to handle until he won again at Haydock last month.
He lines up for the Classic 11lbs higher in the ratings than two years ago but Dunne is hopeful of a big run in a race over three miles, five furlongs on heavy ground that will test the stoutest of mettle.
“He’ll have to be at his best but Venetia has him back in tremendous order,” Dunne said. “He’s a relentless galloper and he’d jump a stone wall for you.”
At least Dunne knows that, like him, Rigadin de Beauchene is in it for the long haul.
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