Racing: Dunn to pursue new glory in US

Dexter Dunn is setting a hectic pace. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Racing's wonderboy Dexter Dunn looks certain to smash another record and then set his sights on a dual hemisphere career.

Dunn drove eight winners at the weekend, including six at Invercargill on Saturday where he also partnered two seconds.

That takes him to 183 wins with three months of the season to go, a staggering 65 wins clear of his nearest rival on the national premiership, David Butcher.

It also puts Dunn way ahead of the schedule he was on two years ago when he reined 204 winners of the season, a record for a New Zealand jockey or driver.

So the normally conservative 21-year-old says "barring accidents" he will set a new national mark this term.

"Unless I have a really bad run or something goes wrong I should extend the record a little bit," Dunn told the Herald.

"I think starting last weekend I had about 25 meetings I was likely to drive at between now and the end of the season and needed about a winner per meeting.

"So Saturday helped and if things keep going the way they are I think 210 is realistic." Dunn says barring accidents because almost as amazing as his career record - he last month became the youngest driver to rein 700 winners in this country - is the fact he has never been suspended.

"I've been fined a few times but never missed a meeting through suspension, which helps."

While success breeds success, Dunn's strike rate is also better than in any of his previous four seasons.

"I am getting a lot of good drives, which I really appreciate, but some of the winners are still roughies so it has been another good year," he says with classic understatement.

While there is still almost three months of the racing season to go Dunn's ends on July 10, when he will head to the United States to test the waters and prepare for the World Driving Champs.

"The series doesn't start until the end of July but I have got some contacts up there and want to have a look around and see if I can get some drives," he says.

"I want to do some driving so I can get used to their style of racing before the champs but also I'd like to see how I fit in and if I can make some inroads into a part-time move up there."

Dunn still works part-time for Cran Dalgety but is basically a freelancer and can therefore afford to spend each winter in North America if he tastes success there.

"A lot of it comes down to whether they accept you and you can get regular drives. If that happens and I can get experience and make some sort of impression at one of the good tracks then I might even stay on after the World Champs and not come back until October."

Long-term, Dunn says he would like to make that his annual routine - October till the Harness Jewels in June in Australasia, followed by our winter in North America.

"That is the dream and while I am young enough, single and don't have kids I want to pursue it."

As hard as it is to make your mark in North American harness racing, Dunn is a once-in-a-generation driver and given an even shot he could become a player in the States.

So his dual hemisphere dreams could become reality far more quickly than he expects.

Which is pretty much the story of his career so far.