RUNNING CLOUD ATTRACTS INTEREST FROM HONG KONG

The victory of gelding Running Cloud at Caulfield on Saturday was significant for both trainer Nathan Dunn and Larneuk Stud’s Neville Murdoch.

The three-year-old is by Wandjina (Snitzel x La Bamba), and the city win was good timing for Murdoch, who only recently announced that the stallion has joined his roster at Larneuk.

For former jumps jockey Dunn, who is predominately a horse breaker and pre-trainer, it was his first city winner as a trainer.

Running Cloud will not only be memorable for giving Dunn his first metropolitan victory, but it’s the same horse that lashed out at him, shattering his leg in four places last June.

Running Cloud made it a hat-trick of victories at Caulfield after going into the race on the back of a track record-breaking win over 1600m on the Pakenham synthetic track.

And Dunn is considering the offers for his gelding that came from Hong Kong quickly after the Caulfield win.

After kicking off his stud career at a $33,000 service fee in 2015 when Wandjina served 153 mares – his biggest book was the following year when he served 165 – his mares remained in the hundreds until the past two seasons.

Wandjina severed 16 mares in 2019 at a $22,000 service fee, and last year, when his service fee was halved, he had 36 mares.

With his oldest progeny being four-year-olds, Murdoch suggests there is still plenty to come from the stallion’s matings.

“We’ve only had him here for a week, and as a type goes, he is a lovely horse,” Murdoch said.

“Don’t get me wrong, he has plenty of ability, and he gets plenty of winners.

“I think he has got seven or eight stakes horses and a Group 2 winning horse, and we are standing him at $8000.

“It will be really interesting if the breeders get behind him in Victoria because, at that value, he should get 100 mares, you would think.

“But the horse is certainly doing enough for people to come and look at him, and they will get a return off that cost.

“He has got a live chance with the horses he has got, and he has still got plenty, coming in the next year or two, but at the moment, he has got plenty going for him.”

Murdoch said Wandjina was doing enough for people to be looking at him and thinking he deserves a fair go at the value he offers.

He said while he hopes it would happen, he knows what the market is like.

And Murdoch said he chased Wandjina last year, but unfortunately, he threw Group 2 winner Mamaragan and Newgate Stud decided to hang onto him.

Murdoch said he was happy with Larneuk’s roster of stallions and said the market would tell them what they have or haven’t done.

“And our Cluster has had two or three winners this week, and he is going really well,” he said.

“The new horse we bought Endless Drama (Lope De Vega x Desert Drama) is a super horse if you go through his pedigree. And he is standing at $8800.”

Larneuk also stands Cluster and Wolf Cry.

And while Murdoch is excited about what Wandjina can offer the Victorian breeding industry, the stallion’s son Running Cloud has certainly provided Dunn was a few up and downs.

Dunn does a lot of work from his Bayles property for the nearby Yulong outfit, as well as other trainers such as Mick Price.

He broke in Running Cloud, and the horse was China-bound, with about another 80 horses, before the pandemic left them stranded in Australia.

After being turned out to the paddock, Dunn bought the horse back in work with the idea of training him, but disaster struck.

During one training session, the gelding lashed out at Dunn – breaking his leg in four places and putting him out of the saddle for months.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Dunn, who purchased the horse when he couldn’t be exported to China when planes were grounded because of COVID-19.

“I was a little bit surprised with the odds on Saturday, but he was stepping up from a synthetic win, but he did break the track record at Pakenham for the 1600m,” Dunn said.

“I thought he warranted a crack in a three-year-old race in town, but when you look at the trainers who had horses competing in the races and little old me who hadn’t trained a winner in town yet, the odds were double figures.”

Dunn said Running Cloud always showed ability and broke through for his maiden victory over 1600m at Moe last December.

“I had broken in a couple by Wandjina, and they are quite nice horses and being by Snitzel, and out of a Commands mare, I just liked him when I broke him in,” he said.

“There are offers for him now from overseas, and he might finish in Hong Kong.

“I had offers today, and I’d be mad not to sell him, having a young family and being a horse-breaker and earning a living the hard way.

“On the third of June last year, he kicked me and snapped my leg in four places, so there will be no love lost.

“He was actually in the late May online sale, but they pulled him and sent him to me and later acquired him. And it had been eight months since I’d broken him in, and I Iunged him with the gear on for a couple of days and then thought right oh and get out of my way, and I’m getting on this bugger.

“He bucked me over the wall and then backed up to me and kicked me in the leg and broke it, in four places and finished me off a treat.

“I had too much confidence in my ability, thinking he’d be all right to get back on, and he wasn’t it.”

Dunn said he was in a bad way for quite a while after breaking his leg, but in another twist, he found out while he was still on crutches that he’d won the 2011 Grand National Steeplechase.

The original winner of the race, Black and Bent, was recently disqualified as part of Racing Victoria’s investigation and subsequent disqualification of former Caulfield trainer Robert Smerdon.

Dunn had ridden the runner-up, Desert Master, who finished 12 lengths behind Black and Bent.

“I got relegated from second to first,” Dunn said.

“I won it by default and managed to do it lying on my back with crutches.”
After resuming after a nine-week let-up, Dunn described Running Cloud’s first two runs back as a bit ordinary, but he then won a 0-58 Pakenham synthetic, returned to the same track ten days later for a bench 64 win, also 1600m, and ten days later tackled the Selangor Turf Club Handicap (1600m) for three-year-olds at Caulfield.

“So in 30 days, he has won more than $100,000,” Dunn said.

“For sheer hard work, we have been rewarded with a win in town,”

Dunn said he would go through the negotiation process with Hong Kong buyers for Running Cloud, which would also have to pass veterinary examinations and tests.

He said there was still quite a lot of water to go under the bridge, but the interest was there.