This year’s inductee was announced at Addington Raceway on Thursday 8 October 2020 as part of the eighteenth Canterbury Owners and Breeders Night.
The youngest ever reinsman to be inducted into the Addington Harness Hall of Fame in Dexter Dunn was this year’s recipient.
After a breath taking season in North America in 2019, Dexter Dunn has continued his excellent driving form again in 2020. An outstanding reinsman his winning performances worldwide already total in excess of 3,100 victories.
A native of Christchurch recently turned thirty one, Dexter Dunn’s accomplishments as a harness racing driver accumulating victories at a record pace belying his age. Harness racing is a family affair for the Dunns. Dexter’s father, Robert, was leading trainer for the 2019/20 season in New Zealand (career 1,598 wins) with brother John among the top drivers in the country (career 1,185 wins to date) finishing in the premiership’s top five each of the past eight seasons. Rugby has also been another sporting feature of Dunn’s life.
Leaving school at sixteen and after taking horses to Auckland for six weeks, Dexter attained a job in Australia where he stayed for a year. Commencing driving on his seventeenth birthday (1 September 2006, opening day of Australian season) he finished second at Kilmore before three weeks later recording his first win for Andy Gath on The Ultimate One at Geelong. After six months driving in Australia he returned home to New Zealand to work for Cran Dalgety which became a very successful partnership.
Dexter’s first season (2006/7) was split between Australia and New Zealand producing seventeen victories (ten Australia, seven NZ) and was the launchpad for future success.
Dexter Dunn’s impressive and extensive CV of achievements includes :
New Zealand –
- leading NZ Junior Driver for four seasons (2007/8 – 2010/2011) establishing JD record currently standing at 220 seasonal wins; shares with Peter Ferguson only four times and consecutive seasons leading JD
- represented NZ in four Australasian Young Drivers Championships
- youngest driver to reach 100 winners in a season in 2007/08, aged eighteen breaking Mark Jones record set when aged twenty two
- first junior driver to ever win the New Zealand premiership aged eighteen
- winner for ten consecutive years from 2007/8 – 8 through 2016/17 of NZ Drivers premiership (ten out of eleven full seasons before age 30). During this period, winner of at least 200 races on six occasions, twice finishing with 199. Only Maurice Holmes (16), Peter Wolfenden (14, eight consecutive) and Maurice McKendry (10) have same or more premiership wins
- set new seasonal wins tally on three occasions : 204 (2008/9), 220 (2010/11), 229 (2016/17)
- youngest driver to reach 1,000 and 2,000 wins. Current tally of 2,226 ranks him fifth in NZ history behind Tony Herlihy, Maurice McKendry, Ricky May and David Butcher
- youngest driver aged eighteen to win Group One race (Time To Fly, NZ Breeders Stakes, February 2008)
- in 2011 youngest driver to represent NZ in World Drivers Championship (won WDC in 2015)
- 2009 Canterbury Sportsman of Year
- 2015 Halberg Sports Awards nominee
- seven winners at Forbury Park on 8 May 2015 joining Doug Watts (Reefton 1954) and Tony Herlihy (Alexandra Park October 2001) as only drivers to achieve this feat
- driven six winners on a race day on six occasions and five winners on a race day on twenty three occasions (eight Forbury Park, six Addington). These feats far surpass any other drivers achievements in this regard
- NZ Trotting Hall of Fame inductee
NZ Stats – 2,226 winners (354 trotters), NZ$22,019,704 – Addington (585), Forbury Park (422), Alexandra Park (71). Twenty eight Group One victories (Addington eight; Alexandra Park eleven; Cambridge seven; Ashburton two) with multiple Jewels, NZSS, Messenger, Taylor Mile, Easter Cup wins.
First NZ win – Crusader Franco, Ashburton Cup Week Thursday 16 November 2006, tr Robert Dunn
Major NZ winners –
Christen Me – Taylor Mile, Messenger, Jewels – 4, NZFFA, Auckland/Easter Cups
Field Marshal – Taylor Mile, Messenger, Jewels – 4
Sheemon – Jewels – 4T, National Trot, ANZAC Cup
Smiling Shard – NZSS – 2, Jewels -2
Locharburn – NZ Derby, Easter Cup
Onlyforyou – NZSS – 2f, Jewels – 2f
Franco Nelson – Jewels – 4; Time To Fly – Breeders Stakes; Rona Lorraine – Caduceus Club Classic – 2f; Beaudiene Bad Babe – Jewels – 4m;, Orl Black – Welcome Stakes; Texican – NZSS – 3; Mustang Mach – Messenger; Donegal Bettorgretch – Jewels – 3T; Raukapuka Ruler – GN Derby; Pats Delight – Jewels 3
Footnote : NZ Cup best is second with Bettors Strike to Monkey King 2009, beaten neck.
Australia –
Aus Stats – 55 winners, A$3,441,911. First Australian win – The Ultimate One, Geelong 20 September 2006, tr Andy Gath.
Major Australian winners:
Christen Me – Hondo Grattan Stakes, Chariots Of Fire, Hunter Cup, Miracle Mile, Bendigo Cup, Victoria Cup
Bettors Strike – Cranbourne Cup, Victoria Cup, Tasmania Cup
Bit Of A Legend – Breeders Crown 2 and 3
Katy Perry – Tatlow Stakes, Breeders Crown 2f
Nek Time – QLD and Gold Coast Oaks
Smiling Shard – Breeders Crown – 2; Our Renezmae – Breeders Crown 2fT; Let It Ride – QLD Blacks A Fake
Two time winner of annual Noel Smith Memorial Invitation Drivers Championship conducted by the Horsham Harness Racing Club.
North America :
Since commencing driving full time in North America from mid Aug 2018 and basing himself with family friend and former Kiwi trainer Chris Ryder, Dexter Dunn already has over seven hundred North American career wins. In his first full North American season (USA and Canada), the red and black clad driver (Canterbury colours) was named 2019 US Harness Writers’ Association driver of the year. This award was the result of winning 460 races and more than $12.071 million in purses, ranking him eighth in wins and third in earnings (behind Tim Tetrick and Yannick Gingras) among all drivers on the continent. He received his award at the Dan Patch Awards banquet in February 2020 at Orlando, Florida.
Driving for ex Kiwis Chris Ryder and Richard (Nifty) Norman and leading USA trainers Nancy Takter, Ron Burke, Mark Harder, Tony Alagna among others, Dunn has confirmed his status as one of the hottest reinsman in North America.
Among his North American highlights to date are :
- 2018 Grand Circuit wins with Chris Ryder’s Stonebridge Soul (division of the Bluegrass Stakes); Richard “Nifty” Norman’s Southwind Avenger (Valley Victory Stakes)
- 2019 US Harness Writers’ Association driver of year
- 2019 highlights : major player on Grand Circuit featuring drives behind
- Bettors Wish : Dan Patch Award winning three year old male pacer; thirteen wins from nineteen starts, never placed worse than second for seasonal stakes of US$1.64m, leading money winner, 1:47.4US at Red Mile, Lexington. Winner of Art Rooney, Tattersalls, Carl Milstein Memorial, division of the Tattersalls Pace and Kentucky Sire Stakes championship. He finished second in the North America Cup, Meadowlands Pace, Cane Pace, Messenger Stakes, Breeders Crown and against older horses in the TVG Series Open Pace championship
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- Manchego : piloting her to fastest mile ever by a female trotter, T1:49.0 at Lexington’s Red Mile (6 October 2019, Allerage Mares – OMT); fastest on 5/8ths track with T1:50.1 at Dayton, Ohio (27 September 2019); Breeders Crown – 3fT; second in Dan Patch Awards to Atlanta (two points less)
- Treacherous Reign : Fan Hanover
- Amigo Volo : Breeders Crown – 2cT; fastest 2yo trotting colt on 5/8ths track with T1:52.4 (Dover Downs 7 November 2019); second in Dan Patch Awards to Real Cool Sam
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- won championships in state programs with Bettor’s Wish (Kentucky), Milles Possession (Pennsylvania) and Fortune Starlet (New Jersey)
- North American Cup night, Woodbine Mohawk Raceway, Canada – winners Treacherous Reign (Fan Hanover), Pointomygrandson ($20,000 overnight), placed second in NA Cup with Bettors Wish, fourth with Bettors Joy in Roses Are Red – nights earnings $513,400
- at Harrah’s Philadelphia, finished third in the drivers win standings, behind Tim Tetrick and George Napolitano Jr. who between them have won the last thirteen victory belts at the oval
- won twenty five races worth at least $100,000
- 2020 highlights :
- Seven winners on fourteen race programme at Meadowlands (Saturday 11 January), one victory short of tying the mark for most wins on a Big M program of eight wins shared by Mike Lachance (14 July 1995) and Brett Miller (16 December 2016). The last driver to have won seven on a card was Yannick Gingras (I February 2019)
- Meadowlands Pace day – upset winner of Dorothy Haughton TVG FFA with Major Occasion A (one of three wins), defeating reigning Horse of Year Shartin N and Soho Burning Love A for Southern Hemisphere trifecta
- Bettors Wish, winner in 1:47.3US in Sam McKee Memorial at Meadowlands, Dayton Pacing Derby
- Driver of Manchego, fastest aged trotting mare on 5/8ths track with T1:49.3 (Plainridge Park, 26 July 2020)
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- Pennsylvania Sires Stakes hat-trick at Harrahs Philadelphia
- Second most successful driver at Meadowlands 2019/2020 (85 wins to Yannick Gingras’s 86)
- Driver of Jugette winner Party Girl Hill; set world record on half mile track in elimination of 1:49.3 (first female under 1:50 on half mile track); division of Bluegrass Series- 3f at The Red Mile, Lexington (1:48.0)
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- Six winners on Jugette day
- Leading stake earning driver from early September 2020 onwards – at 4 October 2020, US$7.173m approx NZ$11m)
- Second behind Yannick Gingras on Grand Circuit table for drivers as of 4 October 2020
NA Stats –
2011 – 7 $.145m (prior to and including World Drivers Championships (WDC), New York/New Jersey)
2017 – 2 $.018m (WDC/Canada)
2018 – 93 $1.564m
2019 – 460 $12.071m
2020 – 280 $7.173m (to 4 October 2020) – 9th for wins and leader on stakes
Total : 842 US$20.971m
2020 Grand Circuit driver rankings : 473 points, first. In early September 2020 Dunn was leading money winning driver in NA, a position he retained as at 4 October, $750k ahead of Tim Tetrick and $900k ahead of Yannick Gingras.
First USA win was at the Meadowlands on McClelland for Aaron Lambert on 25 June 2011, a month before WDC commenced (still Junior Driver in NZ until 1 August 2011). This was part of two month spell spent in North America in 2011 resulting in seven wins.
Rest of World :
World Drivers Championships –
In 2015, Dexter Dunn representing New Zealand drove off with the World Driving Championship trophy winning five of the twenty championship races in Sydney/NSW (three wins at Wagga, one at Bathurst and one on 2015 Interdominion Grand Final day at TABCorp Park, Menangle).
Dunn had earlier represented NZ at the 2011 championships in New York finishing fourth (won at Tioga Downs) when youngest ever NZ representative and again when defending his WDC title in Canada in 2017 again finishing fourth (won at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island).
Ireland –
Dexter Dunn has taken part in the Ladbrokes Vincent Delaney Memorial Weekend at Portmarnock Raceway in Ireland. In 2016 he stole the show over the two day meeting with his four winners. These included an upset in the very last race of the day in the inaugural Vincent Delaney Memorial final for 2-year-old filly pacers, sponsored by Diamond Creek Farm and the Adam Bowden Family of Kentucky. Dunn who had qualified two horses for the final on Saturday selected the right choice with IB Coyote.
Summary –
In fourteen seasons, Dexter Dunn to 4 October 2020 has amassed 3,127 victories world-wide :
New Zealand – 2,226 wins NZ$22,019,704
Australia – 55 wins AUS$3,441,911
North America – 842 wins US$20.971m
Ireland – 4 wins unknown
Total Wins : 3,127 wins, approx. NZ$57.5m
Peter Craig
9 October 2020
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
