Clare Cunningham is back at Warwick Farm, or is she?

Cover image courtesy of Clare Cunningham Racing

Twelve months ago, Clare Cunningham had 25 horses in her Warwick Farm yard and 50 in total on the books. She was a bustling, popular, on-the-rise trainer for the likes of Linda and Graham Huddy, and Ellen and John Collison.

Fast forward a year and Cunningham is down to two horses, both of whom she’s in for a small ownership. They are the vintage campaigner Jungle Book (Animal Kingdom {USA}) and the 5-year-old Foxwedge mare Glamour Fox.

In between, Cunningham and her partner, jockey Jason Collett, had a little girl.

Gallery: Clare Cunningham's two-horse team, images courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Scarlet Nini is now six months old and, while Cunningham closed up shop in lieu of her arrival, the trainer is back at it again in a way at Warwick Farm.

“I’d planned ahead last year and kept the door a tiny bit open,” Cunningham said. “I kept control of the barn I’d been in and rented boxes out to Matthew Dunn, and I just kept what I needed for myself. I loved the barn I was in and I’d worked very hard to get there. It took me four years to get into it, so I didn’t want to give it up too lightly.”

At the moment, Cunningham needs just two of her boxes. Jungle Book is in one and Glamour Fox the other.

The trainer kicks around Warwick Farm each morning with her daughter, Scarlet sometimes in the pram, sometimes in the baby carrier and other times on a blanket in the tack room. It’s the new order of things for Cunningham and Collett.

“Sometimes she’s with me in the front pack and other days she’s at home with Jason doing the form,” Cunningham said. “Depending on what it is and whether Jason is riding or not, she just goes wherever between us.”

Apples don’t fall far

Cunningham grew up in similar circumstances herself. Her parents ran the Desmond Park operation for Ray Richards, so her exposure to horses was early and constant.

She remembers Diatribe, who won the Caulfield Cup, and Australasian Oaks winner Use The Space (Star Of Heaven). While her father trained, her mother gave riding lessons to the local catchment of Bairnsdale kids.

Cunningham qualified as a nurse and spent a year at Box Hill Hospital before jumping into work with Peter Moody. Those were the Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) days, and Cunningham’s seven years with Moody imprinted a lot on her.

As a solo trainer, setting up in 2017, Cunningham had her first winner in the winter of that year. It was a horse called Sir Barb (NZ) (Pins), who won on the second time of asking in Cunningham’s care.

Subsequently, the trainer had the very good sprinter Cradle Mountain (West Quest {Can}), who won seven races for her, while Glamour Fox has won six and counting.

Cunningham’s departure last year was widely reported and widely rued by her fans. She was considered a strong talent in the training ranks, and her straight-shooting attitude and sensibilities made her well-liked.

“I wasn’t going to continue training when Scarlet came along, although I had left it open,” Cunningham said. “I’d said to my owners that it was in their horses’ best interests to go to another barn, so I did the right thing by them and we found homes for virtually all of them.”

Strong return

Cunningham had no intention of returning to training so quickly when she moved her horses along last year. But the best-laid plans don’t always go to plan.

After four or five weeks after Scarlet’s arrival, both her and Collett were in the groove with new parenthood and she thought she could manage a pair of horses in the yard.

“When Jungle Book was ready to get back into work, I told the owners that I’d be ready to make a decision,” Cunningham said. “I’d either have time to train him or we’d find him another trainer. Jason and I had a talk and we thought we were going well-enough that I should be able to manage one horse, and I was very transparent to the owners. If Jungle Book was missing out on any care that he needed, or I was jeopardising his career, we’d move him on.”

Jungle Book got enough of Cunningham’s time to reappear at Canterbury in early December. He was then fourth, second, third, fourth and second for the trainer in respective starts, all in town.

“For me, I needed something to do,” Cunningham said. “When Scarlet was born, I left the house for half-an-hour or an hour when Jason looked after her, and that was pretty much the only time I was away from her. That was pretty good, I thought. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things for her to be away from her mum.”

Glamour Fox came back to Cunningham in the new year, and she was fourth at Canterbury before winning at the same track on January 21. It was a welcome result for both horse and trainer and, in a way, it justified Cunningham’s decision to return to small-time training.

“The workload hasn’t proved to be that much that I can’t have Scarlet with me,” she said. “And there are some days where there are other kids at the track too and she gets plenty of attention. I think it’s an amazing environment for her to be around because she’s interacting with people and interacting with the horses.”

Seeing the industry in a new light

Before motherhood, Cunningham didn’t have a feminist’s view of the racing industry.

It hadn’t done her ill because of her gender, and she hadn’t experienced any of the ‘sheila struggles’ that have stamped the sport at times. And likewise she hasn’t experienced any of it as new mother.

“I’ve found a whole new appreciation for the industry since having Scarlet,” Cunningham said. “Who gets the chance, a month after giving birth, to go back to their job and have your child still with you? I feel very grateful, and I probably didn’t see it in that light until I was put into that situation.”

Both Cunningham and Collett grew up around their parents’ careers in racing, so it’s second-nature for their own children to do the same.

“We can see that it’s really good for the kids to be around the industry,” she said. “It can be really sociable. People come and say hello to Scarlet and she’s around animals every day. I find it more social than me being at home in the lounge room, which would be mentally isolating for both me and her, I think.”

Cunningham admits that she’s not as career-focused as she used to be, but she’s at peace with that too.

“It’s definitely not the workload that I used to have, but this little balance that I’ve got at the moment is really working for us,” she said.

Crystal-balling

Cunningham and Collett live at Chipping Norton on a half-acre block not far from the racecourse. For young parents, they’ve found an ideal routine, which isn’t always easy in a working household.

However, Cunningham’s reappearance among the training ranks isn’t the start of bigger things. She isn’t taking outside horses, or any other horses at all, really.

“It’s very possible that I’ll have none in work this time next year,” she said. “I’m very realistic that right now it’s working, but it will change when I have another child, or if I felt Scarlet needed me more, then I’d give it away straight away.

“The horses and the training will always come second, but if I’m happy I can balance both professionally and well, then I’ll do that.”

Cunningham is under no illusions about the realities of careers and raising children. It’s not a racing-industry thing, but a motherhood thing.

“If I wanted to focus on my career, I could do it while being a mother,” she said. “But the reality is that someone else brings up my children. You can’t do both the way I want to bring up my kids. I want to give them every chance educationally, to have hobbies and hang out with friends, and I don’t want my career to get in the way of all that.”

Down the line, Cunningham and Collett might consider a training partnership of their own. It’s a small vision of theirs tossed around in conversation as parenthood evolves. They know that race-riding is a finite career, while training isn’t.

“I can see that in our future, us poking along together in a partnership,” she said. “I don’t feel like there’s a timeframe age-wise on training. You can train until you’re on your deathbed, so I can always go back to training, while I’m not always going to get the chance to be with the kids.

“This is my chance to be a mum, enjoy their childhood and give them what they need to head-start in life, and I’ll come back to training when it’s the right time.”