Scotlynn the brave

The Dean Taylor trained Scotlynn Crunch (Captain Crunch) showed a ton of tenacity to win her second race at Addington on Friday night.

The four year old mare with John Morrison in the cart was unable to wrestle the lead off Iron Heart early, despite two attempts and was left parked for most of the 1980 metres. Coming down the straight Iron Heart had a narrow advantage, but Scotlynn Crunch fought hard and won by a head.

SCOTLYNN CRUNCH REPLAY

“She’s got better and better as she’s done a bit of racing. Most of that breed have been pretty damn tough,” Dean said.

Scotlynn Crunch qualified as a three year old at Ashburton in June 2024 and when she debuterd at Addington ten months later she ran third.

“She was a standout filly in the paddock when she was a foal, with big long legs. I broke her in quite early. Then I got really sick and she virtually had 12 months off. I reckon that’s been the making of her.”

Since her debut she’s had eleven starts for two wins and three seconds, plus another third.

Scotlynn Crunch goes back to the Franco breed that was developed by Wayne Francis. Dean and his wife Lesley got to know Francis early in their lives.

“We bought our property off Wayne’s father George. And Wayne was like that guy just round the corner. He was great to us.”

It was Lesley who negotiated to borrow one of Wayne’s mares.

“He loaned me Tenisha empty and I got her in foal to OK Bye. She was at the stud until the foal (Scotlynn Bye) was a couple of months old then the mare and the foal came here,” Lesley said.

Dean trained Scotlynn Bye to win one of her three starts.

Tenisha, a Nero’s BB mare, won two of her nine starts for northern horseman Mike Stormont. At stud she’s left 16 foals including The Perfect Storm (18 wins) and Rider On The Storm (13 wins), both by Live Or Die.

Scotlynn Bye was Tenisha’s seventh foal.

“I still have her and I haven’t bred from her since she was nineteen. We’ve kept her because she’s been so good to us and she’s a pet,” Lesley said.

Dean and Lesley have had a lot of success with members of this extended family, thirty eight horses carry the Scotlynn prefix. The best that have raced in New Zealand only, have been Scotlynn Hamish (5 wins), Scotlynn Justis (5) and Scotlynn Mach (5).

They’ve also sold a number of the Scotlynn horses to Australia where they’ve raced successfully. They include Scotlynn Jiggs (22 wins), Scotlynn Beach (16), Scotlynn Jack (9) and Scotlynn Fire (7).

“Those guys that bought some of those horses came back and bought other horses off us. We’ve got real good money for those horses and bought a car, horse float and a truck (laughter),” Dean said.

Lesley has continued to support sons of Somebeachsomewhere like Stay Hungry and Captain Crunch.

“That line seems to click with my breed. I think Captain Crunch is doing a brilliant job, but they’re not early horse,” Lesley says.

Not all the Scotlynn horses come from the Tenisha line.

“Scotlynn Hamish would have been the roughest and toughest horse I’ve ever had. My grandfather (Alex Purdon) trained horses for Charlie Blakely who lived in Hororata. He had horses like Superfortress (7), Highland Fortress (8) and Double Cross (9). Scotlynn Hamish is from that family,” Dean said.

Dean thought he had Scotlynn Hamish sold for $100,000 but the sale never went through.

“I took him to the trials, he reared up, went over backwards and smashed his head. That was a bit of a knock in the bum but he could really run.”

Taylor trained the gelding to win five of his seven starts.

So where does the name originate from?

“Dean’s grandfather is Alex Purdon and they’re Scottish. We couldn’t call them Scottish this and Scottish that, so we just put Lynn on the end of Scot to make it Scotlynn.”

The Taylors are continuing to breed from Scotlynn Jan, the dam of Scotlynn Crunch and have a Stay Hungry yearling filly out of the mare.

“She (Scotlynn Jan) never raced but she ran a half in 59 as a yearling. She cross fired when I was easing her up and she went right back into the back of her tendon. She could really run.”

The Taylors are rightly proud to be continuing with the breed and Scotlynn Crunch looks capable of extending the great Franco legacy.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink