Bletchingly ideal for Lord Of The Sky, says Dwayne Dunn

By Patrick Bartley
Updated July 29 2014 - 10:08am, first published July 25 2014 - 12:33pm

Dwayne Dunn hopes his ride on Lord Of The Sky in Saturday's $150,000 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield will be the beginning of a successful season.

Dunn is excited about his spring carnival prospects with a number of smart horses already earmarked for the five weeks of racing in October and November.

However he is equally pleased to be on Lord Of The Sky in the 1200-metre group 3 event at Caulfield, a race the astute former South Australian believes will be ideal for the sprinter.

 

"He's the sort of horse that hits the ground and runs,'' Dunn said. ''He's a powerful racehorse and has the unique ability to accelerate again mid-race, which is always a quality of a high-class racehorse.

"Robbie (Laing) tinkered with the gear and took the norton bit off him and he raced well under those conditions. He can run exceptional time and the wet track is far from a problem for him."

Dunn believes the three-year-old Lord Of The Sky, while a wonderful sprinter, must shed the reputation of being a one-dimensional speedster.

"In a perfect world, we would like to see him get out in distance to say 1400 metres,'' he said. ''It would largely add another string to his bow. At the moment, it's a matter of what you see is what you get. There's no wildcard to be produced and your opposition know this so he's got to come out of that distance range to be even better.

"Ideally, you'd like to think he could get to 1400 metres and he's a powerfully strong horse who could, at a longer distance, dictate to his rivals and have an explosive final 200 metres underneath him.

"That would be great, but at the moment he's beating his rivals and at the same time his climb up the ladder has been against softer options, so he's managed to build his confidence and is now a horse with a great future." 

Dunn said that he had ridden two high-class sprinters  – former South Australian-based galloper Toledo and the Sydney-prepared All Silent.

"It's often hard to compare sprinter to sprinter, but you know one thing with this guy is that he can go to the front steady and come again, which is a great part of his make-up," he said.

Bookmakers opened Lord Of the Sky, a winner of the Monash Stakes at Caulfield three weeks ago, at $1.80, but that price was crushed by favourite backers with the colt now at $1.60.

Dunn maintains that he won't ride at midweek meetings until the new season restricting his mounts to just Saturday city race meetings. He said 

 this would keep him fresh and ready for good rides in the spring.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Gloucester news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.