ACCLAIMED writer, breeder, owner, trainer and a man of many other talents, John Berry is one of the great characters of Newmarket and, together with his wife Emma, they are prolific and well respected chroniclers of the worlds of racing and breeding.

At Galway last Sunday Dream Walker ran for the 66th time in his career and won his 10th race, in the process capturing the feature on the last day of the festival for the second year running.

Sold by his breeders, the Berrys, for £4,500 as a yearling at Doncaster, this son of Gold Away (Goldneyev) has now won 40 times his purchase price and what an advertisement he is for soundness and longevity.

In terms of these qualities he is not alone. He is one of four winners to date for his dam Minnie’s Mystery who has six named offspring, and all of them have run in 2017! Not only that, but her four winners have all won this year, Grey Panel (Largesse) bringing his career total to 14 this year, Roy Rocket (Layman) landing his sixth success this term, while the fourth winner is White Valiant (Youmzain) who has won two bumpers and is trained by John Berry.

It shouldn’t be too long until Minnie’s Mystery’s three-year-old colt Rock On Dandy (Rajsaman) joins the list of winners (he was beaten half a length on his most recent start for Harry Dunlop), while in the wings is a two-year-old full-brother to White Valiant who cost Alan King 55,000gns at the breeze-ups this year.

Minnie’s Mystery is a daughter of Highest Honor (Kenmare) and she was a standing dish in Jersey where she won 11 races and was placed 19 times.

She was bought by John Berry as a yearling for just 700gns! She is one of just four foals produced by the Green Desert (Danzig) mare Madary, a winner at Redcar and Yarmouth, and three of her daughters are stakes producers. One of these is the unraced Hawattef (Mujtahid) who is the dam of the Group 2 winner and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes runner-up Kodi Bear (Kodiac).

Madary’s unraced half-sister Dievotchka (Dancing Brave) left her mark on the breed as she was responsible for six stakes winners. Best of these was Esoterique (Danehill Dancer) who won three Group 1 races, the Sun Chariot Stakes, the Prix Rothschild and the Prix Jacques Le Marois. Three more of that sextet were successful at Group 2 level, namely Russian Hope (Rock Hopper), Russian Cross (Cape Cross) and Archange D’Or (Danehill).