Murwillumbah trainer Matt Dunn set to cap off fairytale rise at Eagle Farm

MATT Dunn was once so poor he had to “borrow” electricity from a pool filter outlet just to keep his fridge running.

Murwillumbah trainer Matthew Dunn with his wife Keira.

MATT Dunn was once so poor he had to “borrow” electricity from a pool filter outlet just to keep his fridge running.

Today, Murwillumbah trainer Dunn has 130 horses on the books, owns a lavish five-acre property and drives around in a Mercedes-Benz.

Life’s pretty good and it will become even better if Kebede, his first Group 1 runner, wins the Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm today.

But there was once a time when he was just like any other young horse trainer struggling to make ends meet with just a handful of horses in work on the Gold Coast.

“I was living in a unit complex in Southport and I couldn’t pay the power bill so they cut the power off,” Dunn recalls.

“So I used to throw my extension lead out to the pool filter power point at night and run all my power off it.

“Then I would go back out there at 3am in the morning when I was going to work and unplug it.

“I did it for about two weeks until they figured out what was going on because the pool went green and I then had to pay my power bill to get it back on.”

Stories like these were commonplace for Dunn.

He even worked two jobs in the early days just to keep his dream of training racehorses alive.

“I couldn’t even afford to eat and when I first went back to the Gold Coast I was working at a Chinese restaurant seven nights a week just to get enough money to buy some food,” he recalls.

Fast forward 14 years and Dunn and his wife Keira are now finally reaping the rewards.

Dunn is currently sitting third in the Brisbane trainers’ premiership and today his career will reach new heights if Kebede wins the Queensland Oaks.

It’s been quite the remarkable rise but the 43-year-old admits it never would have turned out this way had he not been offered a position as a foreman for trainer Gerald Ryan in Sydney about 13 years ago.

“I was chugging along but I was in a situation where I would just be another trainer at the Gold Coast with 20 in work,” he said.
“I was never going to get the quality of horses to get to where I wanted to be.

“To do that I needed to get myself in a spot where I was exposed to better horses and learn how to train better.

“Gerald is a very good trainer and I could train a horse when I went there but he taught me how to train lots of horses and there’s a big difference.”

Dunn spent about eight years under Ryan in Sydney before Ryan set up a satellite stable at Murwillumbah and it wasn’t long before it was transferred into Dunn’s name.

Four years later and with the help of Keira and Gold Coast bloodstock agent Neil Jenkinson, Dunn is now on the verge of something special.

“Keira is my assistant trainer and she manages everything and she is really good with people,” Dunn said.

“She could go to a party and stand there and talk to any person while I stand there in the corner and can’t hold a conversation with anyone.

“Neil’s been a massive part of it as well and he does all my short lists at sales now and he is a really good judge.

“He picked Kebede out at the sales and she was an ugly duckling as a yearling but he saw something in her that I probably wouldn’t have seen.”

As for Kebede’s chances today, Dunn feels she can produce the fairytale ending.

She won the major lead up race to the Oaks two weeks ago and has only thrived since.

“She ticks most boxes and I’m a bit surprised a few more people aren’t singing her praises,” Dunn said.

“She has beaten a lot of these horses before ... and I’m sure of all the Oaks fillies that have come through she is the one that will run the trip out the strongest.”

READ BRAD DAVIDSON’S EAGLE FARM ANALYSIS IN TODAY’S GOLD COAST BULLETIN GREEN GUIDE