Trainer Jade Cunningham celebrated an unexpected victory at Churchill Downs on the first official Dolly Parton Day, held exactly one month after the singer's death.
Air Of Defiance held on by a nose to win a £45,000 race in race five at the Louisville, Kentucky track, home of the Kentucky Derby. The win came on 9/25, the date chosen for Dolly Parton Day in reference to Parton's famous hit '9 to 5'.
A Coincidental Triumph
“It was just a coincidence actually,” says Jade, speaking for Mirror Racing. “The condition book lined right up with it so we had been pointing to that race. We just didn’t know it would be Dolly Parton Day.
“It was a beautiful coincidence. At my stage of the game any win is really exciting so to have a family tied to it, and my Mom had come up that day also, was very exciting.”
Air Of Defiance was Jade's eighth win of 2026 from a stable of just 14 horses. Her career tally stands at 22 wins for earnings of almost £1 million.
Family Ties and Racing Roots
Nashville-born Cunningham, 30, is in her fourth year as a licensed trainer. Her career in horse racing was shaped at an early age when her stepfather Rob Williams, a prolific-winning jockey of more than 4,000 races, took the family away from Nashville when she was eight.
She graduated with a communications degree from the University of Oklahoma, then found work on the racetrack, securing assistant trainer roles with Dallas Stewart and D Wayne Lukas, who became a mentor.
“The people that I worked for set me up very well for success and by the grace of God we have done it successfully in the three years that I’ve been going and I hope to continue to do that,” Jade says.
A Personal Connection
Jade's family connection to Parton comes through her grandmother's brother, Carl Dean, Parton's husband who pre-deceased her in 2025, aged 82.
“Dolly was very, very good to us anytime we were around her,” says Jade. “She would talk to my grandmother about once a week.
“She always asked about how I was getting on with the horses and the last time I saw her was a month before she passed. She gave me business advice and noted that she had heard that I was going well. Anything the family was doing, she paid attention to.
“I think she would have really loved to know I had a winner on Dolly Parton Day.”
