Dunn hoping he has top seed in 2YO Classic

Colorful Victorian harness racing trainer-driver Aaron Dunn is confident his smart youngster Forty Love (Downbytheseaside) will put his best foot forward in the two-year-old classic event at Melton this Saturday night (March 23).

“He’s the best one I’ve ever had at this stage of his preparation,” Dunn said, after the colt’s impressive win on debut at Bendigo (Mar 13).

Watch the replay here.

“Of course, Bondi Lockdown (a winner of 17 starts, including the 3YO Vicbred Super Series) had brilliance about him, but he could do things wrong. Forty Love is more tractable and has stepped up quickly. He just gets out there and does the job,” Dunn said.

Forty Love will line up in the $20,000 IRT Shakermaker 2YO classic against a small but exciting field at Melton.

Check the fields here.

“He’s always been a beautiful type but I’m not sure yet how good he really is. He’s getting a bit boisterous, so he’ll probably have a breather after the Classic,” Dunn said.

At this stage, Dunn said Forty Love was showing at home that he was a “grinder”.

“He’s more tough than speedy and he’s still carrying a bit of nick. He weighed 492kg when he won at Bendigo,” he said.

“It’s going to be a good race on Saturday night and I’m looking forward to it. There’s a fair bit of hype about Clayton’s (Tonkin) two who have drawn inside of me, John Justice has a good opinion of his horse (In An Ideal World) and Damien Burns has a couple of very smart ones in there.”

Forty Love is the second foal of Shadow Scooter (Shadow Play), bred by Dunn’s parents and a winner of two races and five placings from 11 starts.

“The dam use to go along okay, but she broke down and was retired. Her first foal was You Beauty (Sportswriter), who has a couple of issues, but she’s had three wins and as a three-year-old she was beaten a few metres against the colts in 1.55,” he said.

Dunn has a team of 18 horses in work at his property at Horsham, in the Wimmera, which now boasts a 1350m hill track with a three-and-a-half metre rise. He’s also again gone heavily into breeding with seven broodmares in foal.

“Three are in foal to Downbytheseaside including Shadow Scooter, so I’m hoping for a few more along the lines of Forty Love,” he said.

Dunn likes to take a “themed” approach to stable names for his youngsters, with past subjects including the animated kids TV series Bluey and Disney characters.

“It’s always a bit of a headache when it’s time to think up names so last year we came up with the tennis theme. Forty Love is known as ‘Rafa’, and we also have Roger, Barty and Joker,” Dunn laughed.

“I’m not a big tennis follower, but I like to watch the Australian Open each year,” he said.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink