Dream Horse

The heart-warming, moving story of an ordinary Welsh woman who dreamed of training a racehorse and Dream Alliance, the horse who defied the odds to become a champion.

The moving true story of an ordinary Welsh woman who dreamed of breeding a race horse, and Dream Alliance, who defied the odds to become a champion and brought a community together.

Janet Vokes was working behind the bar in her local working men's club in the small Welsh mining community of Cefn Fforest when she fixed upon the idea of breeding a racehorse. She'd always loved animals, having dabbled in showing whippets and racing pigeons, and her husband Brian used to be a rag and bone man with a horse of his own. Why shouldn't a working-class horse take on the high flyers in the rarified world of racing?

She bought a mare for GBP350, paired her up with a pedigree stallion and helped to create a syndicate of twenty-three friends from the village - each paying GBP10 a week - to raise the resulting foal, Dream Alliance. He may have grown up on an allotment but Dream Alliance had star quality, beating all the odds to become a winner at a number of world-class racetracks. Then a terrible injury to his leg threatened not just his career but his life. Refusing to have him put down, the syndicate paid for experimental surgery and Dream Alliance went on to not only make a full recovery but win the Welsh Grand National.

Funny and charming, Dream Horse by Janet Vokes is the extraordinary story of a woman who defied the snobbery of the racing world to breed a champion, and a remarkable horse who brought a community together.

About the Author

Janet Vokes began working behind the bar in a local working men's club in a small Welsh mining village when she fixed upon the idea of breeding a racehorse. Raising a foal named Dream Alliance on a small allotment, who went on to win the Welsh Grand National, Janet became the subject of both a film entitled Dark Horse in 2015 and her own book entitled Dream Horse. After success with Dream Alliance, Janet Vokes has continued to breed racehorses and hopes to find another champion. Her ambition now is to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.