Veteran Herne Hill trainer Kevin Keys declares that former Victorian pacer Dominate The Dojo is one of the fastest beginners in Western Australia and he says that the six-year-old has bright prospects of returning to the winning list after three seconds and two thirds at his past five starts.
Dominate the Dojo is ideally drawn at the No. 2 barrier on the front line in the 1730m $20,000 The Rookie New On Channel 7 Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“Seventeen hundred metres seems to be his best distance and he has his foot on the till,” he said. “The plan is to lead, and we’ll be going all out to cross the polemarker Mighty Flying Deal. We’ll be going all out to lead.”
Punters will surely be influenced by the decision of champion reinsman Chris Lewis to drive Dominate The Dojo in preference to the consistent The War Nurse, a winner of eight races this season.
The War Nurse, trained by Debra Lewis, wife of Chris, will be handled by Jocelyn Young from barrier seven.
Dominate The Dojo arrived in Western Australia with a Victorian record of 41 starts for three wins and 19 placings. For Keys, the Art Major gelding has raced 32 times for three wins and 17 placings (11 seconds and six thirds).
His three wins have been at Gloucester Park over 1730m, with rates of 1.57.4, 1.55.9 and 1.55.7. In five other starts over 1730m Dominate The Dojo has recorded two seconds, a third, a fourth and a sixth.
Dominate The Dojo has a winning record of just eight per cent but placings at his past five starts behind horses of the calibre of Speed Man, Bechers Brook, Mad Robber, Zennart and Major Trojan are a strong indicator that he will be hard to beat this week.
He will clash with recent winners Mighty Flying Deal (barrier one), Infinite Symbol, Bettor Reward, Four Starzzz Forsa, Ideal One and Courage Tells, but his biggest danger looms large as last season’s WA Derby winner King of Swing, who is awkwardly drawn on the inside of the back line.
King of Swing has a losing sequence of six, but he boasts a winning record of 47 per cent (17 wins from 36 starts). He was most disappointing last Friday week when he started out wide from barrier eight, raced in seventh position in the one-wide line and did not threaten danger in finishing last in a field of ten, six lengths behind the winner and pacemaker Thereugo. That followed hjs wilting ninth behind Golden State a month earlier.
However, he showed good signs of a revival when he contested a 2150m trial at Byford on Sunday morning. He charged to the front after 250m and set a brisk pace, dashing over the final three quarters in 28.9sec., 29sec. and 28.2sec. to win by just under four lengths from Space Junk, rating 1.55.9.
Ken Casellas