Jacob Dunn completes northern driving double at Alexandra Park

By Michael Guerin

Jacob Dunn realises he has been handed an opportunity too good to pass up.

So punters can expect the 21-year-old to be an Alexandra Park and even Cambridge regular for a fair while yet after he drove a winner at each on the space of 24 hours.

Dunn reined Twista to win at Cambridge on Thursday night before recording the richest win of his young career with Bravehearthighlander in the TAB Metro Trot Final at Alexandra Park on Friday night.

The talented trotter is of course trained by Jacob’s grandfather Robert Dunn and mother Jenna, so you can imagine it was a popular win in the Dunn households even though the main meeting of the night was at Addington.

Being in the north driving horses like Bravehearthighlander means being away from Mum and Dad (John) in Canterbury and Jacob admits he has at times thought of returning home.

“But the opportunities I am getting up here are just too good,” he admits.

“I am getting great support from RJ (Robert) and through him I am also getting on some good winning chances for Steve Telfer.

“So while I might miss home occasionally getting to drive horses like this on a Friday night at The Park is pretty cool.

“And I have Harry (Orange) here too since he moved up and he is one of my great mates so we are making the most of it.

“It is awesome what Harry has been able to achieve so I hope I can get to that level too.”

While Dunn is still very much in the infancy of his career Friday night’s win was his 10th, with nine having since he moved north in March.

He looks similar to his father in the cart and already it is obvious horses run for him so those 10 wins will quickly become 100 inside a couple of years.

Bravehearthighlander may have a brighter future than it looked a few months ago too as he has hit a rich vein of form and he bolted away with Friday’s final, albeit helped when hot favourite Pantani galloped at the start and took no part.

The Dunn team in both islands is flying and as Jacob continues to gain experience he will provide them with a great option rather than flying John north when they have such big numbers in Canterbury.

“There are so many people to thank. Obviously Rhys Fensom does so much of the work up here and has been really supportive and while RJ’s friendships helps me get drives from the Telfer so too do Tim and Aimee (uncle and aunty).”

Friday night’s other metro final went to Confederate after a lovely Zachary Butcher drive on the son of Bettors Delight. 

Butcher also won on Hooray Henry, trained by his father David, who blew his rivals away in an intermediate grade race while Bolt For The Hill won the main trot for owner-driver Stephanie Burley, the biggest surprise being his $11 fixed odds.

Seaside Boss was excellent winning up in grade after his maiden victory last start while Pacemaker Poutama, first name Andre, won another Nevele R Fillies heat after leading, this time with Always B Magic.
 
It is the third Friday in a row Poutama has won a major fillies race at The Park after leading, two of them Nevele R heats for Team Telfer and last Friday’s Caduceus Club Classic with Shezsofast.