Lord dubs high-flying Doonan as Million Dollar Chase candidate
If Doonan impresses in the $6610 New Sensation Heat 1 at Wentworth Park, the possibilities are so vast that he could be competing in a Million Dollar Chase in the not-so-distant future.
That is the opinion of the talented two-year-old's kennel foreman, Andy Lord, with the flyer carrying four wins from five starts into Wednesday night's race.
“If he stands up, the next Million Dollar Chase would be his mission. If he can find a few more lengths and become competitive in the higher grade, then you'd look at that,” Lord told AustralianRacingGreyhound.com.
“But at the moment, this is a nice race for him. If he can qualify for the final of the New Sensation that'd be great.
“Then after that we'll just run him around Wenty and see if he becomes a good dog.”
All the signs are pointing to Doonan making that quick progression to becoming a mature runner who can bring in plenty of prizemoney.
“He's a really smart young dog, and he's still learning. But he's learning in a good way,” Lord said.
“Not many young pups can go and win four out of five at Wenty, but he's done that.
“He just needs to take the next step. After this he'll go to the Saturday night meetings, and just progress and we'll see how he ends up.
“But it's how you want all young pups to start their careers.”
Doonan has already shown a lot of patience and versatility, evident in his win in the $5840 Happy 21st Kyal Dash (520m), coming back from the inside number-one box after a modest start on March 16.
The race before that, he copped a check and fell back to second-last in the $5840 Ladbrokes Same Race Multi 1-3 heat (520m) on March 9, but he scrambled well to finish fifth in a time of 31.28 seconds.
“He can (come back from adversity). But in these types of races (on Wednesday night) you can't really afford to do that, unless you're running 29.60 seconds coming up from behind,” Lord said.
“That's not easy to do for young dogs in these races. He just needs a bit of luck early.
“He's probably badly boxed (box six), but I only say that because there are a few dogs who want to get up the track.
“So you just have to hope he comes out from the lids and goes.
“He'll probably need a little bit of luck early. If he gets that he'll go good. If he doesn't, we'll have to wait and see.”
With highly respected pedigree, Lord believes Doonan is consistently capable of running times similar to his impressive 29.71-second effort in the $8900 NSW GBOTA Welcome Maiden Series Final at Wentworth Park on February 19.
“He's very well bred. He's a Fernando Bale out of Book Of Luck, who was well bred and handy herself,” he said.
“It's a handy litter, and hopefully they can take the next step. A lot of dogs don't – they just stay who they are. But we won't know until he's two-and-a-half or two-and-three-quarters.”