Newmarket may be known for its dominant stables that currently house headline names such as Baaeed (GB), Stradivarius (Ire) and Alpinista (GB), but the town is also home to a large number of smaller yards, and the newest trainer to join the town's ranks is Dylan Cunha.
The South African is new to Britain but he is not new to training. In his home country he won the G1 Steinhoff International Summer Cup with Strategic News (Aus) (Strategic {Aus}) in 2007. To include him within our Local Heroes series is then perhaps then somewhat erroneous as, at one stage, Cunha was heading for the big time in South African racing before largely turning his back on the sport to become an airline pilot. With his stable of five horses recently assembled in the bottom yard at William Jarvis's Phantom House, he now hopes to make his mark on the town where he once completed a stint working for Robert Armstrong.
“I was 18, coming from a hot city in Durban, and Robert Armstrong was coming to the end of his careers so a lot of the lads were in their seventies,” he recalls of his first Newmarket experience. “I was the only kid there with one other kid, Dominic Fox, who became an apprentice. So that was a culture shock to me but it was the best learning experience ever. I got to learn the proper, old school way, which is what I love. From there I went on to Barry Hills, and it was a good year, 1999, when Distant Music won the Dewhurst and Rainbow High (GB) won the Chester Cup.”
After two seasons with Hills, Cunha, a former amateur rider, returned to South Africa to work for champion trainer Justin Snaith for four years before setting up on his own.
“I was too young,” he admits. “Justin's dad told me when I went that I was too young. But I was young and cocky so I did it. And he was right, because I didn't really enjoy it, even though we did well. We won the biggest race in Johannesburg, third biggest race in South Africa, lots of other listed races, mostly with cheap buys. Strategic News didn't get a bid in Australia when I bought him. The breeder came to me, because he knew I liked him and he said, 'I'll tell you what. Take him home, and you can pay for him when you've got a client for him'.”
Eventually Cunha followed another dream of becoming a pilot, working for Mango Airlines, living on the beach in Durban with his family, and pretty much enjoying life until the pandemic struck.
“I did a flight on 24 March 2020 to Cape Town and back, landed, went home. Everything was fine,” he recalls. “That afternoon, I got an email saying 'That's it'. And that was it.”
With two sisters and a brother already in the country and a brother-in-law working for Simon Crisford, Cunha decided to return to Britain with his wife and children, and was drawn back to the one thing that had always been a part of his life, even when relegated to the background.
“I grew up with horses. You grow up, and you reflect. I had 10 years of flying aeroplanes, reflecting, sitting, thinking,” he says. “I stayed watching racing. I owned a share with my dad. We bought one horse every year and we had a really good one, which we sold and it funded a lot of this actually.
“If I'd stayed training, maybe I would never have had that time to reflect. I think you've got to do that. You've got to be self critical.”
There's less time for reflection now that Cunha has horses under his care again. His team may be small at present but he is hands-on and does a lot of the work himself.
“I was Robert Armstrong's muck out boy, so I don't need to pay anyone to do that,” he says with a laugh.
And he is clearly enjoying being around horses full-time again as he runs through his hopes for his team, which is led by the 88-rated Moliwood (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), who was recently bought by the Sarkar family at the Tattersalls July Sale and sent to him to train. His promising fourth-place in the Shergar Cup Stayers has encouraged Cunha to give Moliwood an entry in the Cesarewitch. The trainer also understandably has a soft spot for Mighty Mind (GB) (Poet's Voice {GB}), who became his first winner in Britain at Chelmsford on August 9.
It's a privilege & honour to share this achievement with one of my role models, the legend @MdkRacing We are the youngest 2 Gr1 Summer Cup winners & the only 2 South Africans to have trained a UK winner
@RacingPost @sportingpost @SAHorseracing @club_irc @TurfTalk1 @ClockGallop pic.twitter.com/Xwystbj32M
— Dylan Cunha Racing LTD (@dylancunha_uk) August 10, 2022
Cunha proudly was touched to receive a handwritten letter from his landlord and fellow trainer William Jarvis, congratulating on his debut success second time around and says, “Even though I did well before, there were a lot of mistakes I made personally, with owners, with horses. You learn, and I've grown a lot from that. I used to be very stressed, so hyped up and then so disappointed. I don't get stressed now, and I don't get disappointed either.”
He does, however, get excited at the prospect of targeting York's Mallard Handicap with Moliwood followed by a possible run in one of Newmarket's most historic races.
“I get goosebumps even thinking about the Cesarewitch,” he says.
And while acknowledging the escalating costs of running horses in Britain, which does not compare favourably to the subsidised travel and jockey fees in South Africa, Cunha clearly is still relishing this second opportunity to train while bing based in the town where horseracing, as we know it, began.
“English racing is by far the best in the world,” he adds. “The racecourses are amazing. You take the big festivals: there's nothing better. And then the small meetings…every time I stand in Brighton, I just look up and I'm like, 'What?' You would never see this anywhere else in the world. It's unique.”
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