A Full-Circle Career: Come Full Circle’s Victory Adds To Bob Dunham’s Six-Decade Training Career

If there is a horse’s name that reflects a trainer’s career, then Bob Dunham may have the horse with Come Full Circle.

Making his fifth career start in Friday’s eighth race at Saratoga Race Course (a New York-bred $30,000 maiden claiming race), Come Full Circle stalked the pace, then drew clear under Ricardo Santana Jr. for a 2 ½-length win.

Not only was this Dunham’s first victory this year, it was also his first Saratoga win since August 2021 when Byhubbyhellomoney, a filly that he claimed for $40,000 out of a maiden race in June that year, took the Fleet Indian Stakes.

Come Full Circle’s victory also had a personal connection for Dunham. The gelding is one of the last couple of horses bred by E. Siobhan McCormack before her passing on June 2, 2024. After graduating from Towson University, she moved to Long Island in the 1980s to become a pharmaceutical researcher while following her passion for Thoroughbred racing.

Dunham worked with McCormack for 25 years in both breeding and racing as their first winner was New York-bred Kaydeross over the Aqueduct Inner Dirt track in January 2009. Though, their follow-up New York-bred horses had struggled. 

Crick was on the verge of winning his first race following two second-place finishes before Rudy Rodriguez claimed the mare for $25,000 in November 2020. Wind in My Sail went 0-for-11 after coming close with a second-place finish and five third-place finishes. Sachia never finished better than fourth in eight races. Second Fortune went 0-for-14 with just a second-place and third-place finish.

However, one of their state-breds provided a glimpse of hope: two-time turf winner Cirque, who is the dam of Come Full Circle. Of her 13 career races, Cirque finished second twice and third two other times. The 9-year-old mare is currently in foal to Galilean, a winner of six black type stakes races on the West Coast after originally brought for $600,000 as a two-year-old.

“She was into New York-breds and had four mares at one time,” Durham said. “Cirque is the best thing that she had. Though, I tried to get her to upgrade.”

Durham also has one other horse under the McCormick estate: Kaaterskill, who is slowly training following a minor setback. Her lone victory came late last year on the grass in beating a group of state-breds competing at a $75,000 maiden claiming level. Since that race, she has also been in foal to Galilean.

“She had an ankle issue, but she is getting back into training,” Dunham said. “We have just the two mares who are in foal. We’re trying to hold onto them.”

At 88, Dunham has a memorable horseman career – even outside of racing – that spans more than six decades. Being from Lexington, Kentucky, Dunham always had an interest in working with horses and those who were associated with them.

His interest led him to gallop horses while attending the University of Kentucky. After a couple of years, Dunham admitted that he was tired of attending classes, but still wanted to be around the horses. 

Since college was no longer an option, Dunham enrolled in the military as he went through the first six weeks of basic training (including learning to jump out of a tree from an ex-paratrooper) in Kansas, then going to Fort Knox for the second half where he scored well on tests that landed him an opportunity to learn about being a counter intelligence coordinator.

Durham eventually went back to the horses by working as an assistant to Moody Jolley, the father of Hall of Fame trainer Leroy Jolley, in the late 1950s. During his time with Jolley, he got a chance to work with five-time Eclipse Award winner and 1958 Horse of the Year Round Table, as well as Doubledogdare, who was a champion filly at two and three years old, and 2-year-old champion colt Nadir.

That experience became a pathway to his career. One of his highlights was training Chou Croute to become the 1972 sprint champion after winning 8-of-15 races that year, including the Fall Highweight Handicap in which she defeated Icecapade.

Dunham also had a good trainer-jockey relationship with the late Mike Venezia. In fact, both of them went to the Kentucky Derby twice, which included one of them overcoming an accident.

In the 1970 running, Action Getter jumped over Holy Land who clipped heels with another horse and fell around the half-mile pole before finishing 13th. Shortly after that race, Venezia jokingly entertained the idea of steeplechase racing for the horse.

“Mike Venezia and I were close, and we won a lot of races together,” Dunham said. “He was a great guy and very intelligent. Mike’s horse jumped over the other horse going into the turn. As Mike is unsaddling the horse, he said to me that ‘We didn’t win the Derby, but we may win the Grand National.’ I thought that was so great.”

Another person that was integral to Dunham’s career was Carl Hughes Jr., who played pool while they were in a Bourbon County high school in Kentucky. When they were in Keeneland, Dunham convinced Hughes Jr. on a mare, Ten Ahead, who didn’t have much success on the track, but there was potential through breeding.

Hughes Jr. took Ten Ahead, and in return, he gave Dunham a horse: Dunham’s Gift, who won 9-of-25 races that included a pair of Saratoga allowance races and the Westchester Handicap. Dunham’s Gift was also a promising 3-year-old with on-the-board finishes in the Bay Shore and Gotham Stakes before finishing sixth in the Wood Memorial.

Hughes Jr. and Dunham also had two other horses who were graded stakes winners in the mid-1980s: Aggressive Bid and Moment of Hope. Aggressive Bid, a winner of 7-of-13 races, took Aqueduct Handicap. Moment of Hope won 6-of-23 races, including the Stuyvesant Handicap, Discovery Handicap, and the Salvatore Mile Handicap while finishing second to Lac Ouimet in the Jim Dandy Stakes.

While Dunham still has a passion for training horses, he also enjoys fly fishing and his yellow retriever. In fact, after Friday’s winning race, he planned a trip to Vermont for a weekend of fly fishing. He believes all of this is part of his longevity.

“This gives me something to do. If you got a dog and a horse, I think you live longer. I’ve got a yellow lab and I’ve got the horse,” Dunham chuckled. “Racing has been great to me.”

With the Saratoga win, it may be fair to say that Dunham’s career has come full circle.