Dave's Dream

No prizes for originality, but Dave's Dream looked like an obvious one to follow after he obliterated his rivals in the hugely competitive Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday.

This was a performance that smacked of quality, and he would have gone into many notebooks purely on the back of the visual impression that he created. It is not always the case that the substance of a performance can back up the visual impression, but this is one case in which it does. The 'right' horses chased the winner home. Runner-up Seven Is My Number was a potentially really well handicapped horse racing off a mark of 120 and hailing from a yard that has an almost unblemished record in the Imperial Cup, third-placed Prince Taime has given the impression in his last two runs that he had a big performance in him off his rating of 126, while fourth-placed Mr Thriller, like Seven Is My Number, also came from the Pipe yard, and had been a strong ante post favourite for the race on the back of an impressive win from a decent rival on his previous run. Dave's Dream beat them all pointless, by seven lengths, four lengths and three lengths respectively.

Okay, so Seven Is My Number suffered some interference on the home turn, but it is unlikely that he would have caught the winner even with a clear passage. Furthermore, the time of the race was really good, by far the fastest of the day, some three seconds faster than the mares' bumper that was run over the same course and distance (but obviously without the hurdles) a half an hour later, and almost 0.3secs/furlong faster than Racing Post par.

The other notable thing about this performance from Dave's Dream was that, even though they went a proper gallop through the early stages, he took a fine tug under Barry Geraghty. He will be even better when he learns to settle better. He proved that he was able to mix it in a big-field handicap, which wasn't altogether certain after he disappointed in a big field at Ascot on his previous start. He is still just six and this was just his fourth run over hurdles. In the short term, there should be at least another big prize in him over hurdles. Looking further ahead, given that he is out of a half-sister to Irish Grand National winner Son Of War, he could be a really exciting novice chaser next season.

7^th March, 2009

Back