If you had the fastest dog in history over 520m at Wentworth Park, what path would you plot for the 2025 racing season?
It’s a sliding doors moment facing trainer Bill Butler and owner Terry Hines as their rising star eyes a return to the track after he was last seen falling at Wentworth Park on December 14.
“We need to get the all clear first because he suffered a concussion and picked up some other little injuries in that last race, but if he gets the green light this week or next, we might be targeting a step up to 600m and potentially further,” Butler said.
“We will start putting him around over 500m and if he somehow runs 5.40 to the peg, we might start looking at the big sprint races for him like the Easter Egg…but we want to test him over more ground because he’s starting to get a bit bashed up over the sprints.”
“We don’t know if he’ll stay yet but if he can, a race like ‘The 715’ at The Gardens in May could be very high on the radar for him. Either way, I think he’ll come back with a bang and better than ever.”
The son of Aston Dee Bee x Rasheda has only had the eight race starts for four wins and two minors, but it’s the two race falls in the run to the first turn at Wenty Park that have Butler and Hines weighing up their options.
The first tumble came in start number two, which just so happened to be the final of the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase Maiden. The second came less than two months later in a heat of the Group 1 Ladbrokes Paul Wheeler.
A worrying Wenty trend for a dog with the racing world at his feet.
“He’s a mad railer so he gets tangled up a bit trying to get down to the fence over the two turn tracks. The poor bugger has struggled with boxes in his first eight starts as well, drawing six or eight on five occasions, so he’s found some trouble and we just want to look after him,” Butler added.
“He usually jumps well but hits a flat spot not long after so we’re thinking a step up in trip will help him find a better position in running. If we step him up, he won’t be jostling with the real speedsters early and hopefully he can find a better spot to get through his gears.”
“His mum was a good stayer too, so we just need to teach him to be a bit more dour. I was talking to Minnie [Finn] one night about what she would do with him, and she said he could be one of the best stayers ever. I asked if she seriously thought he would stay and she said “bloody oath” so that gives me some confidence.”
Finn doubling down today when told connections were flirting with the idea of targeting middle distance and staying races in 2025 with the dog they call 'Hitch'.
“He’s an out and out stayer and if I owned him, I’d be putting him over more ground this year,” she said.
“His times are great obviously, but I’ve seen the dog race at Wenty and the way he pulls up is the important part…he just stands there like he hasn’t gone around at all.”
“And he’s bred to get it. You don’t really know how they’ll handle 700m until you put them over it so he’d need to have half a dozen 600m starts before he went up.”
“But he needs to have a go at it because if he can’t stay, he’s in a world of bother over 500m as he’ll keep finding trouble at the first corner. We did the same thing with Poco [Dorado] because they were a bit slow early, so I think it’s a good move.”
Bill Butler and Dalwhinnie after breaking the long-standing Wentworth Park 520m track record of Shakey Jakey
No trainer in the country has had a better stayer than Jack Smith in recent times with Palawa King joining the million-dollar earners club after multiple Group 1 staying successes in the last two years.
But Smith was a bit more wary of stepping Dalwhinnie up in trip considering how few race starts the youngster has had this early in his career.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve learned there’s no point rushing them. A dog needs to learn how to race first and sometimes you’ve got to wait until they start bludging a bit before you step them up in trip,” Smith said.
“With ‘King’, he worked out how to get himself out of trouble really well and he got to the stage where he might check himself into clear space and go again. Dogs need to learn how to conserve energy instead of rushing all the time if they want to run out 700m…and that only comes with racing.”
“At his best, our bloke would just sit back, wait until the others got tired and then go whoosh. You can’t teach that, it’s just time and experience. I had the same thought process with Feral Franky when he was racing. I said to the owner [Lindsay Niccol] after he ran second in his last start in the Paws Of Thunder that he needed to go up in trip.”
“I said “this dog cannot keep giving these dogs that much start, he can’t beat them”. He could have been one of the best stayers we’ve ever seen but he never got a crack at it.”
Maybe this is the same sliding doors moment for Dalwhinnie?
