Trainer Matt Dunn mourns passing of 99-year-old nanna in same week he lost stable star Cepheus

Trainer Matt Dunn has endured a difficult week with the passing of his beloved 99-year-old grandmother and the loss of stable favourite Cepheus.

Matt Dunn has paid a heartfelt tribute to his 99-year-old grandmother who passed away this week, decades after she gave him the inspiration and motivation to become a horse trainer.

Murwillumbah horseman Dunn is a successful and respected trainer but said he never would have kicked off in the racing game without his grandmother Norma, fondly known as “Nanna Norma.”

It has been the week from hell for Dunn, losing not only Norma but also one of his stable stars Cepheus.

• ‘We've lost a beautiful soul’: Tributes for media icon Graham McNeice

“Norma introduced me to racing,” Dunn said.

“She owned a couple of shares in some horses and when I was going to school I used to go to her place on school holidays, she lived at Forster.

“She got me going to the stables of the trainer who trained her horses.

“In her final years, she was as deaf as a post but she was still completely switched on.

“She lived at Wyong and I would often drive up there when I would go to Sydney with my horses.

“I might have had one horse racing at Sydney and then I would finish up and go and see her.

“She could remember everything.

“And she would still give me a hard time when my horses were going sh-t.”

Horse trainer Matt Dunn's grandmother Norma passed away during the week aged 99. Pictures: Bradley Photos/Matt Dunn

Compounding Dunn’s anguish during the week was the loss of stable favourite Cepheus.

“It does happen in racing and when you lose horses, it’s always very sad,” Dunn said.

“But when you lose one like him, it’s very hard to take.

“That was a tough one.

“It wasn’t much of a 24 hours.”

Despite his losses during the week, Dunn knows the racing show must go on.

During the week he had Boom Torque and Tribeca Star snapped up by slot-holders in the $2m The Kosciuszko in Sydney next month.

Boom Torque will race at Rosehill on Saturday and Tribeca Star will be unleashed at Eagle Farm.

• $1.1m colt can fulfil promise as $55,000 gelding

On Friday, Dunn was sweating on a run for Boom Torque in the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) where he was first emergency.

The plan was that even if Boom Torque failed to get a run in the Theo Marks, he would line up in a lesser race at Rosehill on Saturday.

Boom Torque at his brilliant best in the QTIS Open at the Gold Coast. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

Boom Torque’s best win was when he came from well back in the field to power over the top of his rivals in the $1m QTIS Open race on Gold Coast Magic Millions day in January.

“Boom Torque has to run in New South Wales to be eligible for The Kosciuszko, as he hasn’t had a start in NSW as yet,” Dunn said.

“He won his first four starts for me, but by the time he was eligible to run in a Highway race in NSW he was kind of past that grade of race.

“After Saturday, I will bring him back home and the next time you will see him will be in The Kosciuszko.”

Dunn has four runners entered to race at Eagle Farm on Saturday but nominated Tribeca Star as his best winning chance.

Tribeca Star is the $2.40 favourite in the Class Six Plate over 1200, drawing barrier 10.

In early betting on The Kosciuszko, Boom Torque is a $10 chance while Tribeca Star is on the $15 line of betting.

Originally published as Trainer Matt Dunn mourns passing of 99-year-old nanna in same week he lost stable star Cepheus