How Michael Dickinson played an unwitting role in Dawn Run’s Gold Cup win - and wasn’t amused when Jonjo O’Neill told him

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Jonjo O’Neill has said that Dawn Run wouldn’t have won the 1986 Gold Cup without an inadvertent assist from trainer Michael Dickinson - who was “rubbed up the wrong way” when O’Neill thanked him for it.

O’Neill and his son and co-trainer AJ were speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper, grateful to have emerged from a tough spell before Christmas when they didn’t have a single runner for three weeks.

O’Neill also looked back 40 years to the day he helped Dawn Run to make history by becoming the only horse to win the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup – a victory that required all of his renowned cunning.

The 73-year-old cast his mind back to the racecourse workout that revealed to him the moody, recalcitrant side of the mare, who, out of sight of onlookers, on the far side of the track, slowed to a halt, showing a distinct unwillingness to either gallop or jump when required to by her jockey, who soon realised that his plan to settle in behind potential front-runners in the Gold Cup wouldn't work on a creature who would only exert herself when she thought she was heading for the finish line.

At the start at Cheltenham, O’Neill, sensing his mount was in uncooperative mood, asked the starter to get the field to take one more turn, and then rousted Dawn Run into a prominent early pitch as his fellow jockeys cursed him, not at all under their breaths. After that, he used his inside knowledge to produce a tactical masterpiece.

O’Neill had never ridden Dawn Run over fences in public before, but he had ridden Wayward Lad to be third in the 1983 Gold Cup, as part of Michael Dickinson's Famous Five, and had formed a strong opinion of the great three-miler.

Michael Dickinson: unwitting role in Dawn Run's Gold Cup winCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I rode him work at Catterick ten days before Cheltenham and he went so well that I thought he'd win the Gold Cup," he recalled, "but coming down to the last he was emptying and Bregawn and Captain John outstayed us.

"So, when he took on Dawn Run, I knew he wouldn't get up the hill. I'd been saying to Michael he didn't get the trip, and he'd say no, the horse just hadn't been fit enough, but sure enough, he passed us going to the last fence, travelling well, but I saw Brad [Graham Bradley] hanging across to his left and I knew he was gone, so I went the other way and she outstayed him.

"I thanked Michael afterwards, because if he hadn't let me ride Wayward Lad that one time, I'd never have won that Gold Cup. I think it rubbed him up the wrong way for a while, but he was a proper genius of a trainer."

Read more from Jonjo and AJ O'Neill in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday.

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