Under The Radar: Dullea has national ambitions with Kings Halo

Kings Halo was an easy watch.  Out in front and bowling along, rhythmically, Danny Mullins sitting easily on his back, his field stretched out behind him as they raced down Naas’ back straight.  His rivals closed up on him a little as they rounded the home turn, and he was only about two lengths clear on the run to the second last fence.  Then his rider gave him a squeeze, and he came away, over the last and up the hill, putting 18 lengths between himself and his closest pursuer by the time he reached the winning line. 

“We had a couple of options,” says trainer James Dullea, in reflective mood.  “But that was the race that seemed to suit him best.  Thankfully it worked out well.” 

The plan was to allow him jump and run.  Two and a half miles, light weight, make use of his jumping. 

“That was the general plan that we had,”he  says, “but I wasn’t going to be telling Danny Mullins what to do!  That was our plan at Tramore, too, in November, to be handy, but they went fast early on and Danny dropped him in, allowed him get into his rhythm, then delivered him late.  That’s the value of having a rider like Danny on your side.” 

When Kings Halo won that day at Tramore, he was winning for the first time over fences.  He stepped up to three miles after that, for a handicap chase at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve, and put up a career-best performance, going down by the bob of a head to Clonmeen, the pair of them clear. 

He said: “I was talking to Willie Murphy (Clonmeen’s trainer) before that race, we were both kind of thinking that the other was our main danger.  That’s how it panned out.  Of course, we were disappointed not to win, but we were delighted that he ran so well.  I came down off the stands that day thinking that it wasn’t that he didn’t stay three miles.” 

Third in a point-to-point for Aidan Fitzgerald as a five-year-old, James liked the Fame And Glory gelding from the first time that he saw him. 

Dullea says: “He was a good-looking horse, Aidan liked him, Neil O’Donnell liked him.  He was well-schooled at Aidan’s, he knew his job, and he was the right price for a syndicate.  The lads have been great, they have been very patient.  They’ve never given out when things haven’t been going right.” 

Injury kept Kings Halo off the track between February 2021 and October 2022, but he made good progress when he returned, and he recorded his first victory when he won a handicap hurdle at Limerick last March off a mark of 90. 

And he has progressed nicely over fences this season.  Each of his past four runs has been a step forward on his previous run, each one a career-best performance and, signs are, his rate of progress has not plateaued yet. 

“He has taken time,” says his trainer.  “He’s a big light-framed horse, and he doesn’t have huge mileage.  He’s just in really good form now.” 

You need to have owners with patience, of course, but you need to have patience too as a trainer.  A small trainer with a relatively small number of horses, there must be a huge temptation to rush a good horse back. But that is a temptation that James Dullea resisted with Kings Halo, and he is reaping the rewards of that policy now. 

He trains for longevity.  He trains his horses so that they are still progressing when they are eight, nine, 10.  It’s a refreshing attitude in a world that is spinning these days faster than it has ever spun. 

From Bandon in West Cork, he rode in a few point-to-points, but it was the training side of it that always interested him most. His Dad dad always bred horses. 

“I worked in a few different yards,” he says.  “I worked with Robert Tyner, John Murphy, Jessica Harrington, Eugene O’Sullivan.  I got great experience with those trainers.  Then I took out my own licence then in 2009.” 

He has had good horses along the way, including Rocky’s Silver and Tikkanen Express and Dark Outsider and Line View.  Chalky White was a late developing horse who was just starting to get going when he suffered a fatal injury.  It’s a tough game. 

“It’s not easy, of course,” he says.  “But, was it ever easy?  Forty years ago, when Tom Dreaper was dominant, was it easy then?  We do it because we love doing it.” 

Kings Halo was the second of two winners that Dullea had last week, after Rusheen had battled on well to win a handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse on Wednesday. 

“Rusheen is a grand horse,” he says.  “He’s a giant, over 17 hands, a real chaser in the making.  We’ll find another similar race for him, a 0-102 or a 0-109, and go on from there.” 

He has a couple of nice young horses too, that he is looking forward to getting out in the spring and, of course, he has Kings Halo. 

“I’d love to get him into a National,” he says.  “He might get into the Leinster National and, if he did, that’s where he would probably go.  Hopefully there’s more to come from him.”