DARREN BUNYAN’S Clifton Lodge yard bears the logo Dare To Dream — today he will do exactly that.
In the eyes of many it is little more than a pipedream, when Hit The Bid, an unconsidered 50-1 rag, aims to outgun Battaash and the rest in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes.
But that’s not how Bunyan sees it. In fact he will be amazed if his stable star is outside the top three.
Even victory wouldn’t come as that much of a surprise.
For the man who trains 22 horses in Co Kildare is more interested in quality than quantity and convinced Hit The Bid still has plenty of it.
That’s why he has no fears about today’s Royal Ascot date, especially with Oisin Murphy in the saddle.
Indeed, Hit The Bid’s form of two years ago would put him right in the mix. Bunyan bullishly insists he is in even better shape now.
In 2018 the horse he bought for 40,000 guineas, who won more than £300,000, finished third in one Dubai race, a place behind Blue Point.
Considering that one did the King’s Stand-Diamond Jubilee double at last year’s royal meeting, Hit The Bid suddenly looks anything but a no hoper.
Bunyan insisted: “He will definitely be competitive, I’m sure of it.
“Last year our horses were under a cloud so you can draw a line through them.
“This winter I didn’t send him to Dubai, but gave him December off and he’s doing things now we’ve never seen from him before.
“He thrives on travelling. Most horses lose a bit of condition but he puts it on. I think he’s a heck of a price. I can understand why he is, but it’s a good job the bookies don’t train him.
“If things fall his way I’ll be disappointed if he isn’t in the first three.”
Hit The Bid will be Bunyan’s second Royal runner. Mister Trader was favourite before suffering a mid-race stress in the 2016 Windsor Castle, with Battaash also in the line-up.
He also made the trip as a 14-year-old stable lad when his father Arthur trained Carhew Lady, fourth in the 1986 Coronation Stakes.
It has been a life spent in racing, as he would sit on a pile of cushions and drive his dad’s car to the top of the Curragh gallop aged just seven, while Arthur cantered the horses.
Then the two would swap and Darren would walk the horse back to the yard. Little wonder he was never going to do anything else. After working with giants like Dermot Weld, Jonjo O’Neill and John Oxx, then assistant to Ken Condon, he took out a licence ten years ago.
Bunyan added “Everyone thought I was mad, perhaps I was. I had no backing, we were in the middle of a recession.
“My brother, Brian, gave me €15,000 to buy a horse. I spent €10,000, on two and he got the change! I didn’t have much money — I still don’t -but wanted to give it my best shot.
“So I bought yearlings, which would hopefully win and I’d sell on for a profit, and people reinvest. We only have 22 horses and if they’re not at a certain level, I tell the owners.
“They appreciate you being straight and I am.”
He couldn’t be more to the point when it comes to Hit The Bid, who travelled over with Bunyan’s wife, Gillian.
He added: “She’s done everything with him. It would take a stick of dynamite to separate those two. I’ll be watching in my sitting room and believe me, he will be very competitive.”
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