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Dan’s Dream Seeks Fairytale Victory For Spinal Injuries Charity In The QIPCO 1000 Guineas

Dan’s Dream Seeks Fairytale Victory For Spinal Injuries Charity In The QIPCO 1000 Guineas

The fairytale horse is a general 12/1 shot to land the Classic on Sunday...

Josh Akers

Josh Akers

Dan's Dream and Soliloquy were both added to the potential field for the one-mile fillies' Classic at a cost of £30,000 each, meaning that there were 18 entries for the Group 1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas, the second leg of the 2018 QIPCO British Champions Series, following today's confirmation stage.

Dan's Dream would be a fairytale winner of the showpiece on Newmarket's Rowley Mile Racecourse, since all the money that she earns during 2017 and 2018 will be going towards the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF). She is named after Dan Nicholls, who broke his neck while swimming off Bondi Beach in Australia and dreams of being able to walk again.

She is owned by Fred Watt and Simon Peckham after their bid was successful at an NSIF auction, in partnership with two supporters of the charity, the sporting legends Sir Ian Botham and Sir Gareth Edwards.

Sir Ian Botham
Sir Ian Botham

Her breeder, and the man to whom her ownership will revert in 2019, is Steven Smith, owner of Hunscote Stud in Warwickshire. Smith's association with NSIF dates back to a serious neck injury of his own, sustained in 2011 when fleeing armed villains at his house in the south of France.Initially paralysed, Smith learned to walk again and completed last year's London Marathon to raise money for NSIF.

Dan's Dream has already given her band of owners a fabulous day out by winning the Group 3 Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Newbury nine days ago, but that would pale into insignificance if she could follow up in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.

Soliloquy has been supplemented on the back of her victory in the Group 3 Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes over seven furlongs of the Rowley Mile on 18th April. Her trainer, Charlie Appleby, will also be represented by the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac heroine, Wild Illusion.

Dan's Dream
Dan's Dream

Mick Channon, trainer of Dan's Dream, said "She's done very well since winning at Newbury - we wouldn't have stumped up thirty grand to supplement her if she hadn't! She breezed this morning and everything seems right."

"One of the reasons that we supplemented her is that she goes on any ground. I know that it was on the soft side when she won her Group 3 but fast ground wouldn't bother her either."

"Some purists may doubt her getting a mile but I'm confident that she will as she settles so well."

"I would imagine that a massive prize like this would make a real difference to the charity - let's hope that we can win them a few quid on Sunday."

Mick Channon
Mick Channon

Andy Lloyd, former England cricketer and manager of Hunscote Stud, breeder of Dan's Dream, said: "Ian [Botham] sadly won't be able to make it on Sunday as he is hosting people on his annual fishing trip on the River Spey but Gareth [Edwards] is hoping to be able to swing it so that he can get there."

"In many ways the stud has already hit the jackpot as Dan's Dream is a Group 3 winner so the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation is the main thing for Sunday - that's where we want to see the profile going. If we could lob £300,000 into their pot it would be wonderful."

"When Steven [Smith] put her up as an auction prize, we never in our wildest dreams thought that she would be a Guineas filly but it's fantastic that it's turned out that way."

"Hunscote Stud owns both her dam, Royal Ffanci, and a 40 per cent share in her sire, Cityscape. Amazingly, when she was born in January 2015 she was Cityscape's very first foal and she was rejected by her mum - we had to get a foster mare called 'Dolly' to look after her for the first six or seven months of her life."

The QIPCO 2000 Guineas on Saturday 5th May marks the start of the QIPCO British Champions Series and Stobart Flat Jockeys' Championship.

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