Dancing David

Dancing David ran a real cracker on his racecourse debut to finish second to Raine’s Cross in a one-mile novice event at Salisbury on Thursday. Settled out the back, disputing last place with the winner, in the early stages, Martin Dwyer had to niggle Brian Meehan’s colt a little and slap him down the neck a bit in the early stages, but that was more because he was running a bit green than because he couldn’t go the pace. Moving up nicely out in the centre of the track at the three-furlong pole, he came under pressure shortly thereafter as Raine’s Cross had a rival and a rail against which to race on the far side. Even so, Dancing David kept on really well, despite flashing his tail and not appearing to be entirely sure of what was being asked of him, and he closed right up on the winner inside the final 100 yards, as he moved over to join him on the far side, going down by just a half a length in the end with the pair of them pulling well clear.

This was a really encouraging run. The time was good, more than two seconds faster than the time that the older horses (admittedly Class 5 horses) clocked in the apprentice handicap run over the same course and distance a half an hour earlier, and the only other race run on the day before the deluge arrived. Also, the form is good. The first two came well clear, and the winner was good enough to run in the Coventry Stakes, and ran really well when not beaten far by Black Snowflake in a top class nursery at Glorious Goodwood off a mark of 91. He is now rated 95 and was giving just 6lb to the runner-up. Furthermore, Brian Meehan’s juveniles almost almost improve considerably for their racecourse debuts, and Dancing David holds some lofty entries later in the season. He could be a Champagne Stakes horse or a Royal Lodge horse. He is interesting.

3rd September 2009