We are back at Shawfield on Saturday with Swift Hoffman and Newinn Yolo who both went well last week.
It was a relief to see Hoffman do a good run after a bizarre 18.08 sprint trial at Newcastle.
Since my flapping days I have always clocked my dogs myself, you can learn so much by their time to the third bend. I also try to record them from the winning line to the pick up to see who looks as though they are staying on.
I took the dog on the track at Newcastle and only heard ‘08’ so I assumed it was 17.08, which was slower than I had clocked him, but possible.
It was only the next day that I found out the official time and it just didn’t make sense. I spoke to the Newcastle racing office who admitted that weren’t happy with the time either.
They had spoken to the hare driver who didn’t think it was an ’18 second’ trial, but what could they do? They could have made it a ‘no trial’ but it wouldn’t have made any difference because he was always going to re-trial anyway before he raced.
So it was very pleasing when Hoffman recorded 29.09 (-10) at Shawfield which was even quicker than Newinn Yolo (29.21).
The quality of the run was confirmed with Slick San Siro who clocked 29.58 having run 29.59 in a Nottingham 500 metre trial a few days earlier.
Don’t be surprised if Hoffman really kicks on now because from the very earliest days I thought there was nothing between him and Yolo.
People tend to forget that he recorded 28.24 at Perry Barr in his first ever four bend trial. That was quicker than Yolo. He did 27.74 (480) at Monmore as a puppy and broke the Nottingham 480m track recorded (28.08)
But while Yolo progressed, Swift Hoffman’s career went backwards. I could never understand why.
But after he last raced, we found a small shoulder injury, and I don’t know how long he has had it. Since we treated it, he has trialled brilliantly, so here is hoping.
We also have four youngsters trialling at Kinsley for the Betfred Gymcrack. They are all very inexperienced and I don’t really know how good they are.
I am very sweet on one particular pup though, Swift Carter. He has already won at Newcastle in 28.91 and trialled at Monmore in 28.40 (both 480m).
What I really like about him is his attitude. He has a fantastic will to win and appears very very genuine. He is only around 31 kilos and should be well suited to Kinsley.
Carter is one of the first pups by Michael Dunne’s new Australian sire Iso Octane. If he is an example of what is to come, the sire will do very well.
Carter was bred by Ian Greaves who I’ve had a lot of decent dogs from him over the years. The one thing about Ian is, he will sell you his best dogs. Some breeders hold the best ones back for other people.
I generally like to buy unraced dogs and have had a lot of really good one from Jim and Shari-Anne O’Donnell from Newinn near Clonmel and whose dogs race with that prefix.
Jim is a control steward and the success that they get from the comparatively small number of dogs that they breed is exceptional.
We are currently qualifying a December ’13 litter from Blackstone Gene out of Oaks runner-up Rebellious Queen.
The reports from Ireland suggest they could be very good so we are very excited by them.
