ed dunlop else!” he says, wryly. “Very sadly, my elder brother was killed just before I took my A levels, which had its impact so I left school without a lot of qualifications to my name.” He took a year out, working in a veterinary practice, then a stud farm in the US for a season. Following a stint at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, he went to work for Nicky Henderson for three years, originally at Windsor House (where Ed’s brother Harry now trains) and then during the NH trainer’s move to Seven Barrows. During that time Dunlop shared a house with Eddie Hales, now a successful trainer and seller of horses in Ireland, Jamie Osborne, then leading NH jockey, as well as with the late John Durkan. It was fun, but ultimately not temptation enough to stay in the NH arena. “I was 19 years old and 6ft 5in, the only horse I could ride was a very large NH horse, which was part of the decision,” he explains. Dunlop’s next plan was to go on a tour around the world, working for different
trainers, when he was approached by Alex Scott and an assistant’s job materialised. He accepted, staying there for a further three years. He’d intended to spend one more year with Scott before going back to work for his father, before circumstances took a horrific twist: Scott was murdered by a staff member with a grievance, and Dunlop was asked to take over. Just 24 years old and suddenly tasked with training for Sheikh Maktoum al-Maktoum, it was a daunting situation, surely? “Fortunately I had a lot of support and handholding at the beginning, from people such as Michael Goodbody, who was in charge of Sheikh Maktoum’s affairs, and Joe Mercer, who was the racing manager — obviously I knew both from working with Alex.” It was a huge mantle to take on for any trainer, let alone one so young. “But there was no pressure from Sheikh Maktoum,” recalls Dunlop. “The first time I met him after it had all happened, he said: ‘Do what you want to with the yard’.
“So we emptied it out, closed down for three months and made some improvements, then put the horses back in – and things went from there. We also changed the name of the yard, as such an awful thing had happened.” Asked about the highlights from those early days, still training that first winner Lynton Lad in 1994 stands out, though the selfeffacing trainer adds that: “I inherited him from Alex, so it didn’t really count! “But my first decent winner was winning the Bunbury Cup, a handicap, in my second year; and the following year we won the French Guineas for Sheikh Hamdan, which was an amazing day.” Further Group 1 successes followed, including the Haydock Park Sprint Cup with Iktamal in 1996, and with Night Style in the Grand Criterium in 1999. Then came the first of his multiple Group 1-winning fillies Lailani, who won the Nassau Stakes, the Flower Bowl and the Irish Oaks in 2001. Her wins, and those subsequent of Ouija Board and Snow Fairy have led to the
The global travellers: Snow Fairy with Rebecca Dunlop (left) and Lynsey Hanna at Dunlop’s La Grange stables
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