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Horse racing: New stars ready to shine for mighty Quinn’s yard
Distime ridden by Dougie Costello wins the The Imagine Appeal Novices' Hurdle Race at Bangor-on-Dee Racecourse.
Nearly 600 winners – including success at both the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot – Malton trainer John Quinn has come a long way since starting off with just two horses back in 1994.
The last few years, by his own admission, have seen him lack a stable star but Red Duke and company are ready to lead a second wave of success in 2012.
Irishman Quinn has gone from strength to strength since setting up his dual-purpose training operation with just two equine inmates at Bellwood Cottage in Settrington 18 years ago.
Fast forward and the 50-year-old has enjoyed winners on both UK flat and jumps racing’s biggest stages, with Character Building landing the 2009 Kim Muir at Prestbury Park and Pevensey triumphing in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2007.
It is 2007 that Quinn cites as his best ever year – a 12-month period in which Blythe Knight, Kings Quay and Leslingtaylor all won big pots. But, Character Building’s Cheltenham success aside, the last couple of years have lacked any outstanding shining stars.
Excited
That may all be about to change, though, with 2011’s talented juvenile, Red Duke, shooting for the UAE Derby and 2,000 Guineas and Quinn is also sending a strong team to Cheltenham.
“This is probably the best it’s been since three or four years ago when I had a real good batch,” Quinn told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“I had Blythe Knight who won a couple of Group races, Leslingtaylor who won the Swinton, and Kings Quay who won a couple of nice races, including at Wincanton.
“Since then we have had plenty of winners but we have just been missing the better quality horses which hopefully we have again now. They are a nice bunch.”
Casting his eye over his big hopes for 2012, Quinn revealed: “Red Duke will go for their UAE Derby on March 31 in Dubai and after that he will run in the English Guineas. We’re looking forward to that.
“And we’ve also got Duchess Dora and New Planet who we think will be decent sprinters this year, so we are excited about that.
“As for the jumpers, Countrywide Flame will go to Ireland next Sunday for the Grade One Leopardstown Hurdle and then he’ll run in the Triumph Hurdle.
“He’s not in the betting for the Triumph, but he’s fifth best on the topspeed ratings.
“Royal Bonsai will also go to Cheltenham for the Fred Winter and he ran the other day on the all-weather.
“He was a little bit disappointing but he is three stone better over hurdles and the form of his hurdling win at Doncaster has worked out very well.
“That win wasn’t a fluke and he’d have a chance.
“We also run Recession Proof on the 18th of this month and he’ll have various entries at the Cheltenham Festival as well – and his fifth in the Supreme Novices there last year is very good form.
“It was a very good Supreme Novices.”
The list of talent does not end there with Quinn also expecting big things from Moonlight Drive and Distime.
The former is a “nice horse who will be even better over fences”, while Distime is expected to prove his recent Catterick reversal all wrong in the spring.
“He couldn’t handle the bottomless ground at Catterick and I shouldn’t have run,” says Quinn. “He’s a nice horse and I can see him winning something nice in the spring.”
Palawi, Uncle Brynn and Blue Destination are three other inmates Quinn hopes will soon be in the winners enclosure and, all things considered, it has been an amazing rise since the former jockey started up his own stable.
Recalling how it all began, and the excellent progression since, Quinn reminisced: “I started off in about 1994 and it was just me and two horses. That was basically it.
“It was slow to start with, like anything, but we plugged along and then we started getting better quality horses.
“Now we’ve had a Cheltenham Festival winner, a Royal Ascot winner and Group race winners over the flat and over hurdles. In total we’ve trained between 500 and 600 winners, so we have not done bad.
“There are 55 horses in the yard now and we are a dual-purpose yard who have more runners on the flat but also train over jumps.
“The best days were when Blythe Knight won the Lincoln and then came out and won the Group Three Diomed two years running as well. That was phenomenal.
“When Pevensey won at Royal Ascot that was also phenomenal, as was winning the Kim Muir with Character Building.
“Then Red Duke winning the Superlative Stakes last year came at just the right time as I hadn’t had a good horse on the flat for a while.”
He certainly has now – Red Duke rated 112 already and open to any amount of progression. And with a strong team of jumpers in tow, the only way is up.
Quinn certainly hopes so, but he refuses to get carried away.
“You’ve always got to be ambitious but it’s very tough out there – as it is in any business,” said Quinn.
“We just want to a) stay in business, which we will and b) try and pick up a few nice races along the way, which, hopefully, we will do as well.”
There is surely no doubt about that and now, 18 years on from setting up on his lonesome, Quinn has some rather important helpers onboard – his family, meaning any success at the yard is a real family affair.
“My daughter, Kelly, is in the office and my wife, Sue, helps out as well,” said Quinn.
“Then there’s my son, Sean, who works twice a week for William Hill radio, but he also helps me out and is always down watching on the gallops.
“I’ve got some good staff – some very good staff!”
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