Jockey great and now trainer Richard Hughes congratulates Dylan Cunha after the latter won first up with a former horse of his (via Sky Sports Racing TV).
Former Summerveld Grade 1-winning trainer Dylan Cunha has not had an easy time of it in the UK but after a win on Wednesday at Lingfield he revealed in the post-race interview that he had been given a recent boost when a syndicate called Quest Thoroughbreds & Stable Silks Inv bought seven horses for his Newmarket-based yard.
Cunha’s goal last year was to get ten yearlings, which he achieved, and he now hopes to boost his number of horses in training, with the seven from Quest having helped considerably.
Gold Medal, a British-bred four-year-old gelding by Olympic Glory, was having his first run for the Cunha yard and started at odds of 6/1 in the Class 5 0-70 Handicap over six furlongs on the all-weather surface.
Harry Burns got him into a handy position and as they entered the straight it was clear he had plenty in hand.
He burst through between horses to win full of running by 0,75 lengths.
Dylan started his training stint in the UK midway through last year and by the end of the year had had 28 runs for one win, two seconds, three third and three fourths.
This season he had only had 3 runs before today for a second, a third and a fourth.
Gold Medal is a hard-knocking 70 rated horse who was previously trained by Richard Hughes.
It was heart-warming to see the former champion jockey Hughes congratulating Dylan immediately after the race.
In the interview Dylan revealed Hughes had advised him that Gold Medal runs well fresh.
He had thus put him in fresh over a trip short of his best.
Today was Gold Medal’s seasonal reappearance, having been last seen in November last year, so it was a good training feat by Cunha.
He said in the interview, “I said to the lads he looks like a sprinter in the ring today, which he doesn’t at home.”
He ran like a sprinter too, showing good natural pace and a fine turn of foot.
Dylan added in the interview that despite the lack of numbers up to now he had still thoroughly enjoyed his time at Newmarket, partly because of his seven days a week open door policy. He said now with all seven of the Quest horses being fully syndicated there were always owners at the yard and he said he had found it “entertaining”.
