By Jack McInerney –
Today we will be having a yarn with the connections of Port Macquarie trained CULT HORSE, the one, the only DANGEROUS DAN.
Aptly named when you take his reputation for being nothing short of a volatile weapon of mass destruction in the yard, into consideration. He truly lives up to his name, as seen in the picture below!
There are horses that get a bit fizzy in the yard then there is Dan who takes it to the next level and rears right up on his back legs like something off an old school Western movie.
Spare a thought for poor jock Luke ‘Sausage’ Rolls who has been legged up on Dangerous Dan an anxiety inducing 17 times now. Dangerous Dan is full of fire & brimstone and when he has his mind in the job, he is a very capable racehorse. He is also a half brother to another Enigma, the much maligned TORRENS.
Lets find out the backstory to the great horse, Brothers Dan & Matt McCudden sat down with YTP to discuss how he came to be owned by them and the journey has taken not only the brothers on, but their extended family, who are all in the ownership!
It was a fate in a way that the McCudden Family came to own a horse called Dangerous Dan considering that Daniel McCudden himself is the human embodiment of Dangerous!
More details on Matthew McCudden Racing including information on his latest tried horse purchase can be found at the end of the article!
First and foremost and most importantly, Who is Dangerous Dan? And how did you two end up owning/training him?
Dan the man AKA The People’s horse, was an $8,000 buy off the Bloodstock Auction a few years back. Our pop passed away and left Dad some money, so Dad wanted to buy a horse with it and 6 months went on and I didn’t really like much and I just happened to go onto the Auction site after too many Great Northerns one night and here’s a horse called ‘Dangerous Dan’ and I just thought that’s the one.
So I rang mum and she said the limit was $5k, Once we got past $5k I told her I’d stopped bidding when I was actually buying him no matter the price, then I told her we got him for $8k and she abused me and hung up the phone and the rest is history.
Who is in the ownership?
All family, We have our mother and father, Grandfather Glen Hodge and Grandmother Jean Hodge, Our other Grandmother Diane McCudden, Cousin Priscilla Looker and another cousin in Timmy Sharman.
Does he have a stable name?
Yeah it’s pretty original, ‘Dan’! He has been called plenty of things in the past though. Dmac and I normally run with ‘The People’s Horse’, ‘The Cups Horse’ or ‘The Champ’ but most of the family don’t buy into it and run with names we can’t say on here.
What characteristics would you say shine through most in him as a horse? (Brave, tries hard etc)
He is just Dan. He’s a very strange creature but one thing about him is he just loves being a race horse. By a country mile the toughest horse I’ve ever trained, He could have a hard run today and tomorrow he is a brand new horse.
We backed him up once 2 days apart and the 2nd run he was crazier than the 1st. If it was up to him he would go to the races every day of the week.
What do jockeys say about riding him? Have any jocks been injured from his antics?
Early days there were a few victims but nobody ever got hurt, more jumped off or couldn’t sit on him carrying on. These days though they actually love him.
He has this reputation of being pretty wild and crazy so I think any new jockey that rides him has these idea’s in their head, but once they ride him they always come back in and love him.
Luke rides him 90% of the time now, and he’d never admit it but we know he loves him, everything he does you can’t help but laugh at.
Has he always been a bit mad since you guys got him?
He’s more an entertainer, when there is nobody around he is actually a big softy, and once he has an audience or a camera in his face he just puts on a show.
He does have his days where he goes a little too far but he has never hurt anyone since we’ve had him so I think it’s more him showing off.
What is he like to train in general? A nightmare? Have you figured him out yet?
I could write a novel about all his little quirks. Most of how we train him and handle him now is just second nature, but it’s been eye opening and you certainly have to be very open minded and left-field with him.
Basically he is just the opposite of everything else, if he looks fat, he needs less work, if he’s a bit lean, he wants a good gallop. Even with handling him, the more you try and restrain him the worse he gets, so we just hype him up and it takes the game away from him and he relaxes.
Whats been your most memorable win with the horse since purchasing him?
They’ve all been pretty memorable for different reasons. The first win we had with him was the first family owned horse I’d won with so that was very special. He broke a Track record winning the Woop Woop Cup which then kicked off the whole ‘Cups Horse’ gee up, but then when he won by 6 at Port last year was just a whole different feeling all together.
We’d always joked about him being ‘The Peoples Horse’, but after that was when a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon and ran with it.
What’s been the best description of Dan you’ve heard?
A little while back we were swimming them in the river, and they swim behind a boat which Pop (Esteemed Trainer Glen Hodge) rows and I hold the horse, and Dan just got out in the middle of the river and started swimming faster than pop could row, so we spent a good 10 minutes just going in circles until he started knocking up, once we got back to shore Dan stood there gassed for a good 5/10 minutes, then started squealing and pig-rooting and Pop just looked at me and said:
‘If he was around when the wars were on, they’d all be fighting to ride him.’
It was the most accurate thing I’ve ever heard.
What’s been the funniest thing you’ve witnessed with him?
It’s never ending. The one that stands out the most was a good while back, He went for a spell and I let him go in the paddock and just stood there watching as he galloped off.
After a few minutes we noticed he was picking up a lot of speed and joked he might fall over, about 10 seconds later he jumped up in the air and lost all footing before belly flopping on the ground and sliding into a post.
He slowly got up and looked around and then took off playing again.
What does he mean for your stable and the owners?
He’s part of the family now. It’s a whole different vibe around the place when he’s in the stables, mostly because he’s up to no good destroying something. But I doubt we will ever let him go, we’ve actually used him as the stable pony for the young horses quite a bit and he loved it so I’d love to keep him as a pony once he’s finished.
What makes Dangerous Dan the G.O.A.T?
Well let me make it clear it’s certainly not his ability, we’re under no illusions that he is a superstar or anything like that, it’s 100% just his off-track antics and how hard he tries.
I mean that’s what people love, a character.
Where has he been since he last raced 7 months ago? Was there any injuries?
No he never had anything wrong with him, It was just a call we made to give him a good 3 month spell. Now he’s getting a little older I wanted to give him a good break and sustain longevity in his legs.
He actually ended up having about 4 1/2 months out at Bud Regal Park, and by the end I was getting phone calls almost every day to come and get him because he was destroying all the fence posts and pulling all the electric fences down.
Where will the great horses next run be?
Trailled nicely at Taree on the 27th June, funny story actually he was only tied up in the race day stalls for about 30 seconds on arriving before ripping a wooden rail off the wall and swinging it around at other horses, so safe to say he hasn’t changed at all.
But he will go to a 1200 at Port Macquarie on the 13th August to kick him off, then there’s a 1500 again at Port a few weeks after that and we’ll see where we end up.
Well its safe to say we cant wait for the return of the Great horse! Thanks for that Boys! Long Live DANGEROUS DAN!
Matt McCudden is a young up and coming trainer based in Port Macquarie and is always looking for more owners to come on board! In fact he has just picked up a Sydney Metro performer OFF HER ROCA who will be very well placed back to country/provincial grade- he has a few shares remaining so get in quick!
Get in touch with Matt via any of the following avenues:
Matthew McCudden Racing Email: mccudden.racing@gmail.com
Matthew McCudden Racing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthewmccuddenracing
Matthew McCudden Racing Twitter: @m_mccudden
Some Dangerous Dan themed Content:
Yeah The Punt 