Dream Alliance: How a Horse Turned a Small Mining Village’s Dream into Reality

In the early 2000s, a small group of Welsh locals, far removed from the world of horse racing, set out on a crazy wager: backing a very young foal who would eventually win one of the country’s most prestigious races.

A Crazy Bet

Working as a bartender at the miners’ club in the village of Cefn Fforest, Jan Vokes decides to bring a racehorse into existence after lengthy conversations with a regular at the bar. She and her husband Brian buy a mare named Rewbell for £350 and breed her. In 2001, a foal is born.

The foal is named Dream Alliance, after the syndicate she formed to finance his daily care and future training. Its 23 members pledged to contribute £10 per week, a substantial commitment for families whose incomes are often modest. Vokes also works as a cleaner, and the collective includes several workers and retirees, as well as a painter and a car wash attendant.

The young horse grows up on a small plot with a rudimentary shelter, set up on an old mining spoil heap. At three, he joins the stable of English trainer Philip Hobbs and quickly stands out in steeplechase events—grueling turf races punctuated by ditches, fences, and streams.

In 2007, Dream Alliance finished just behind the famed Denman in the prestigious Hennessy Gold Cup. A second place celebrated as a win by his owners, who could never have imagined such a destiny for their charge. Everything changed the following year during a race at Aintree, when his hind hoof severed a tendon in his front leg. A injury so severe that veterinarians contemplated euthanasia.

An Improbable Comeback

For the syndicate members, the horse’s future on the racecourses is no longer the objective; they aim to save the animal who has stirred them so much and remains Cefn Fforest’s pride, having never fully recovered from the coal-mining closures of the 1990s. They manage to raise £20,000 to fund an experimental stem-cell treatment with uncertain results.

Although a return to competition looked highly unlikely, Dream Alliance recovered and returned to racing after 18 months of convalescence. On 28 December 2009, he started the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow Racecourse. At odds of 20-1, he defied the odds and prevailed by nearly a length over his runner-up.

Officially retired in 2012, the horse spent his final years in Somerset, England, in the care of his groom Claire Sandercock. He passed away peacefully in April 2023 at the age of 22. Released in 2015, the documentary Dark Horse recounts his remarkable journey, which also inspired the feature film Dream Horse.

To learn more, discover the story of Snowman, the horse destined for slaughter who became a show jumping champion.