by Matt Markham
As far as exceeding expectations go, Bite The Bullet well and truly met the brief at Addington on Sunday.
So much so in fact that John Dunn considered himself more than impressed with the four-year-old’s effort to produce a dashing final furlong to win in his first appearance since April of last year.
“After such a long time away from the track, to produce an effort like that first up was pretty impressive,” Dunn said.
The Mach Three gelding, who ran sixth behind Lazarus in the Sires’ Stakes Final as a three-year-old, is owned by the Ashburton trio of Alan and Ian Neumann along with Brent Clarke and has endured a rather tumultuous last couple of years.
He’s had two wind operations, the second coming after the first was unsuccessful and it’s been a long and slow build up to get back to the track. But judging by Sunday’s win, the wait has been worth it.
“His work and everything leading up to the weekend had been really good, we thought he would go a good race.
“But even half-way down the straight I thought he was just going to finish the race off strongly, but I didn’t really expect him to pick them up in the way he did.
“He really flattened out and sprinted, to get to them as quick as he did left me pretty impressed.”
With a record of four wins and seven placings from 23 starts and his wind issues, hopefully, behind him there’s a good platform from which Bite The Bullet can now launch from – although the direction he’s headed is still up in the air.
As a Rating 70 pacer, options are limited but not scarce and being a part of the dual-located Dunn stable will has its advantages.
Auckland is an option, particularly with the stake levels on offer, but Dunn is happy to take it day by day and see what transpires.
“We haven’t worked that out what we will do next,” Dunn said.
“There are options there but it’s a case of sitting down and figuring them out.”
Bite The Bullet was one half of a driving double for Dunn on Sunday.
He also saluted with the ever-improving son of The Pres, Red Hot Poker for Graeme Telfer.
With 68 wins next to his name for the season, it’s not going to end quite as fruitful as some of his recent seasons but Dunn is still a happy man and he and his father Robert will go close to triple figures again in the training ranks.
“We’ve got a really nice team due to come back to the track soon, some really talented types so that’s always exciting.
“But it’s been a good season, the wins have come again and we have to be happy with what we have achieved.”
Dunn sighted the emergence of the talented Captain Dolmio as one of his real highlights from the season.
The former Southlander is back in work at Woodend Beach and will be aimed at a New Zealand Trotting Cup campaign in the spring.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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