Dyce’s career high moment, winning the Gr 1 wfa World Pool Cape Flying Championship. (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Lucky Houdalakis’s training motto is “I don’t train the program, I train the horse.”
He is therefore not sure what is in store for his Gr 1-winning sprinter Dyce this season, but he is sure the son of William Longsword is happier now, in the week ahead of his seasonal reppearance on Saturday, than he was in the second half of last season.
Lucky said. “He is a sound horse, there is nothing wrong with him, I just think he was run down. When he came back from Cape Town he began to haemoconcentrate, so he was under pressure already. Then we gelded him and he didn’t have time to get over it before going into the Computaform and Scottsville. I sat down with David (Shawe – the owner and breeder) and said he’s had three unplaced runs and there’s no way this horse can run unplaced – it’s impossible – he’s telling us he’s not happy, there’s something wrong, so we just have to back off him. Enough is enough.”
Dyce won the Gr 1 wfa Cape Flying Championship in scintillating fashion on WSB Met day, beating the subsequently named Equus Champion Sprinter Thunderstruck by 0,40 lengths in a thrilling duel in the front.
However, in his next run in the Gr 3 J J THe Jet Plane Stakes over 1000m at Turffontein Standside about five weeks later he was beaten 11,10 lengths.
He was then gelded but in the Gr 1 Jonsson Workwear Computaform Sprint over the same course and distance another five weeks on he was beaten 7,75 lengths.
About eight weeks later he disappointed again in the Gr 1 Golden Horse Sprint, beaten 7,10 lengths.
It was then that the decision was made to rest him.
He did not go on holiday and stayed in training at his Vaal yard.
However, Lucky said, “I put him away and just played with him until he started enjoying life again. I didn’t take him out of work,I just took him out of pressure. I just think he went through a lot of changes going from a colt to a gelding. Whatever, it was, something was bothering him, because he can’t run like that. So, we’ve freshened him up and we will start again. “
Lucky’s motto entails listening to the horse and planning races accordingly, but he said when attempting to adapt a horse’s well-being to coincide with a pre-planned long term program, it was usually detrimental to the horse’s well-being and to his or her long term career.
Dyce is now a six-year-old, but he is relatively lightly raced with just 17 career starts to date.
Hopefully, he can bounce back to his thrilling best, in which he shows high cruising speed followed by a devastating kick.
Lucky concluded, “So we’re bringing him back on Saturday, let’s see what he’s got.”
The William Longsword gelding runs in a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1000m at Turffontein Inside and has landed a tricky draw of eight out of eleven, so Piere Strydom will have his work cut out.
