Dogs May Bark

There was a lot to like about the performance that Dogs May Bark put up on his racecourse debut to win a seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket on Friday. He was a bit slow out of the stalls and as a result was held back in the field by Jimmy Fortune. But he made good ground up to the leaders when switched to the outside at the three-furlong pole. He looked a bit awkward and green when Fortune asked him for his effort, understandably on his racecourse debut, but he still picked up well inside the final furlong to collar and fend off the challenge of the really well-backed favourite Dean Swift, to win going away in the end.

This was a pleasing debut from Dogs May Bark, a fairly unconsidered 16/1 shot. His trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam actually said afterwards that he wouldn’t have been that price on the way he had been working at home and that he will make a really nice three-year-old next year. He did really well to get the better of Dean Swift here, given that Brian Meehan’s horse had run a promising race on his debut at Leicester previously and was bound to improve a lot from that as most of the two-year-olds from the Meehan stable seem to do. Also, the time of the race was impressive, the second fastest comparative time on the day, and two and a half seconds faster than the second division of this maiden run a half an hour later.

On this evidence, the Iceman colt should get a mile easily enough next season and he should come on a lot for this outing as well, given that he ran greenly throughout the race. He is a half-brother to Soghol, who was placed in a Group 3 race and ran well in Group 1 company in America, having previously been trained by Luca Cumani. He is interesting for next season.

29th October 2010