It’s a long road without a turn, however, that would be difficult explaining it to Dean Lawson before Junoesque won the B M W Handicap at Sandown yesterday.

Dean has been doing it pretty tough over the last couple of years, slow horses don’t make it any easier, and personal problems to boot.

The last win for him seemed ages ago, Anzac Day 2012, when Underestimation won at Flemington but then failed to live up to early expectations.

Dean formerly trained on the course at Flemington but there was no future there, slow horses don’t pay the rent.

He has now settled at Cranbourne, he has rented three boxes and without Junoesque he may have given the game away completely.

When he commenced training he shared a stable on course with his late father Ray, one of the last great characters of the turf, racing has lost those sorts of people, it has all become too serious.

Ray’s stable was down a lane at the back of Flemington racecourse, with a tiny office inside the front gate.

With the door that opened inwards which meant it was easier to get in, but a darn side harder to get out.

There was a method in all of that, when an owner came for a visit he seldom got out without paying his bill.