Page 6 - July 2005 The Game

6 The Game, July 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Remembering Allan Dunn
his partner Sandy McLean owned. Rodeo Queen was one of the best horses that Sandy and Allan owned,
Allan was stabled in the same barn as trainer Mike Keogh, and he tended to a large vegetable garden (where the exercise machine is now located) when he wasn’t tending to his horses. Allan shared his tomatoes, onions, green peppers and lettuce with everyone in the barn.
Sandy, who has a full time job at Humberview Chevrolet Collision Centre, would work the weekends in the barn and recalls a time when their horse Unreasonable Woman, was being just that. She ran off towards the shavings bin with Allan in tow. Mike Keogh was yelling
“Let Go!” and Allan, who was known for being frugal, wouldn’t let go of the horse and retorted, “It’s my $20,000, not yours!”
Allan trained for three years before retiring from the racetrack completely.
Off the racetrack, he enjoyed spending his days cooking, baking, cleaning and doing laundry. Cooking was something he had always enjoyed and he was best known for his batches of peanut butter cookies which he would give away in tins to his friends and family. Chili Sauce and home made pickles were also some of his specialties.
Sandy along with Allan’s four children (from his previous marriage to Joan of 28 years) remember him as a man who was funny, thrifty, loving and caring.
Sandy had met Allan 25 years ago at a racetrack function and the pair enjoyed many adventures throughout the years travelling to Cuba and Hawaii, as well as five trips to Baha, a place they especially enjoyed. Their most recent vacation was a trip to Mexico in February which Sandy had won through her employer as well as a visit to Newfoundland to visit his friend Hugh Chapman, Sam-Son Farms Assistant Trainer.
It was probably the vacations to Florida which hold the most memories for his children though. Cathy, Alana, Mark and Darlene, all recall the days when their father would pack up the car and with three other carloads of friends and their children, they would hit the road to Florida to vacation for a month around Christmas.
“Dad would wear different rubber masks while driving, just to make people laugh and scare people.” said Darlene, Allan’s youngest daughter, “That was the sense of humour he had.”
They also describe their Dad as someone who was very caring and helpful. Cathy recalled a time when she had a school project due. She had drawn a picture of the Eiffel Tower and when she woke up the next morning it had been changed. Her Dad had touched it up to make it better.
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When Allan Dunn passed away suddenly in early May of this year, he left behind a lifetime of stories and memories for his friends and family to share. It is difficult to sum up the life of a person who had lived a full life but with the help of his family and friends I was able to get a glimpse into the life of a horseman who was loved and is most certainly missed by all who knew him.
Allan was born in Dundas, Ontario in 1931 and grew up with his sister and three brothers on the family farm in Tillsonburg.
In his early teens, he was deposited at Longbranch Racetrack by his father and was left to fend for himself working as a hotwalker. It wasn’t long before Allan found himself in the saddle, galloping horses with the aspiration of becoming a jockey. In the early 1950’s he rode 3 races, finishing second in one, however, because of his weight, that was all that the record books contain in his jock’s career.
Back on the ground, Allan began training a public stable of horses for owners A.J. Morrison and Cambar Stables as well as owning a few of his own. One of the best horses in his barn was the Cambar owned filly, Goodfield, who won 13 races from 1957 through 1960.
In 1961, Allan decided to give up training and he
became a jockey agent, a job which garnered him the most success at the racetrack.
With Allan handling his book, Avelino Gomez won the Queen’s Plate with Jumpin Joseph, and also won all five of his mounts that day.
Allan also handled the threesome of Al Coy, Dennis Elliott and John Bacon in Montreal, where they teamed up for more than 150 wins between them during the 52-day meet at Blue Bonnets.
He represented jockeys Dick
Armstrong and Marty Gibson while
getting apprentice rider Dan Beckon
established. And it was Allan who
was able to get jockey Robin Platts
into trainer Gil Rowntree’s barn in
the early 70’s, a union which resulted in three Queen’s Plate wins for Robin over the course of 10 years (Amber Herod 1974; Sound Reason 1977; Key To The Moon 1984).
Robin Platts recalls the time when Allan saved his mount on E.P. Taylor’s Lord Durham, a
horse which jockey Sandy Hawley had first call.
“Sandy had another mount in the race however Allan knew the horse of Sandy’s got hurt that morning.” said Robin with a chuckle, “Allan drove Colin Wick (Sandy’s agent) around the backstretch all morning so he wouldn’t go into that barn. Lord Durham and I won by many that day.”
Allan represented Robin for fourteen years and the two had remained good friends. Allan was by his side when Robin received the Avelino Gomez Award and was there when Robin was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Allan also held the books of jockey Joey Belowus; apprentice Hugh Chapman; and jockey Donny Seymour during his two triple crown wins in 1988 and 1989.
This Toronto Daily Star newspaper clipping from September 5, 196, was among the many newspaper clippings and photographs that Allan had collected over the years at the racetrack. The front page photo depicts Puss N Boots’ now famous plunge. The following year, one of the photos appeared on the front of the Fort Erie program on which Allan had written the names of those involved in retrieving the horse. Allan Dunn was one of the three men holding the reins in the photo.
didn’t win in his remarkable career as an agent. When the 1995 season began Allan returned to the racetrack to train a couple of horses that he and
Agent Allan Dunn with Jockey Don Seymour after winning the Canadian Triple Crown Series for a second consecutive year.
Jockeys Jim McAleney and Na Somsanith were the last two riders he represented before retiring as an agent in 1994. The Canadian Oaks was the only Stakes race he
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