Dan's Dream fuels hope of 1000 Guineas glory and charity windfall

Owner/breeder Steven Smith, stood beside trainer Mick Channon on the far right, at Newbury on Saturday (Francesca Altoft)

It is not often that a decision to supplement a horse for any race could potentially make a positive impact on thousands of people living with debilitating spinal injuries.

As the dust settles on the stunning last-to-first success of Dan’s Dream in the Fred Darling on Saturday whether to run or not in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas on Sunday week is the difficult choice facing trainer Mick Channon and part-owner and breeder Steven Smith.

Dan’s Dream is a 20-1 shot for the fillies’ Classic and to buy her a berth at Newmarket somebody is going to have to pay the £30,000 supplementary fee by April 30. Put in to the mix that she won £34,026 at Newbury on Saturday, and has accumulated £39,232 in all, and that a victory in the fillies Classic would yield £283,550 and you have a traditional problem faced by many owners.

But every penny that Dan’s Dream earns as a racehorse is currently being fed back in to the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, a charity that was set up to fund research and development into a cure for paralysis.

The money from Newbury could well help a few. A Classic victory, however, would be life changing for many. Channon was adamant after the race that the first Stakes-winning daughter of Dubai Duty Free winner Cityscape and unraced Royal Applause filly Royal Ffanci could drop back to six furlongs or step up to a mile. It seems the lure of the Rowley Mile may well be too strong for the man who is set to make the ultimate decision.

“All the prize money this horse earns goes to the charity and she’ll be the biggest earner for the charity,” Smith said.

“For the charity this is huge. I’ve now got to talk about the supplementary for the Guineas. The trainer is advising me that may not be the worst thing we have ever done.

“My view is that she is so quick she is better over that distance (seven furlongs) or less on better ground. I’d be Commonwealth Cup personally. She’ll go in the Guineas, I’m sure. She’s already in the Irish Guineas as we thought the ground might be a bit softer.

“I’ll talk to the charity to see if the charity wants to take a punt. If she wins the Guineas, that is life changing for the charity. Thirty-five grand ain’t.

“If the charity said no, I may supplement her myself, as it is about the breeding.”

The charity was set up some years ago when Dan, the son of David Nicholls, a chef, was swimming between the safety flags on Bondi beach in Australia on his GAP year when he dived into a wave, hit a hidden sandbank that lay beneath and broke his neck.

Father David Nicholls, with his son Dan, has dedicated his life to try to fund research in to a cure for paralysis (NSIF)

From Nicholls’ distress at his son’s plight grew a determination to do everything within his power to help his son, and the 40,000 people in Britain living with spinal chord injuries, to walk again.

The charity has robust links in sport with patrons ranging from Gary Lineker, Sir Alex Ferguson, golfer Retief Goosen and boxer David Haye. It is in cricket and rugby union, however, where Dan’s Dream found a warm embrace.

“To raise money for auction we got two very famous co-owners in Sir Ian Botham and Sir Gareth Edwards and we are the third owner, Hunscote Stud, and we bred the horse,” Smith added.

“We put her up for auction at the spinal injury golf day and for a quarter of the horse we got £15,000. The deal was they could name it. Dan is a quadriplegic. Dan’s dream is to walk again. That is why the horse is called Dan’s Dream.

“The full sister died recently but the mare has gone back to the stallion again and we should have a full brother or sister next year. She has already had one by Cable Bay and by Twilight Son.”

Although Smith is a central figure in all of this, his interest does not just stem from producing Dan’s Dream from his burgeoning breeding operation that he set up at his Warwickshire stud in 2012.

Seven years ago he was in his holiday home in the south of France when he was attacked by armed men who had broken in to his property. To escape, he leapt out of a first-floor window and fell in to a ravine and crushed his spine, broke a leg and an arm and dislocated his shoulder.

He thought he had been left for dead and was later told by doctors that he would never walk again. Step by step he has slowly crossed mental and physical barriers until last year he raised over £75,000 by walking the London Marathon in nine hours and 17 minutes. It was estimated it would take him 14 hours.

Smith, who is in his late 50s, still suffers complications, and standing with a walking stick at Newbury the chartered accountant, tax adviser and chief financial officer added: “I would say Dan probably hasn’t improved very much in the last five to seven years but the charity supports ground-breaking stem cell research, which for him and even me, could change our lives so we’re hopeful. Every penny we earn is very important. I can walk, just not as much as you may think. He can’t.”