Dods A Growing Northern Force

[Wandering Eyes]

There is tough competition on the Flat in Yorkshire these days, with at least half a dozen trainers from the region jostling for attention against the powerhouses from Newmarket.

County Durham, meanwhile, is not recognised as one of the modern hotbeds of the sport yet it can claim a man who has enjoyed as much top-level success in recent times as his any of his colleagues a little farther south.

Since taking over Denton Hall following the sudden death of his father Dickie back in 1990, Michael Dods has been learning and building, hitting 30 or 40 winners a season for most of this century. Only in the last four years has this most unassuming of trainers become prominent on the bigger stage, firstly through winning the G1 Nunthorpe S. back-to-back with Mecca’s Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) before her sprinting successor Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) arrived.

Her agonising nose defeat to Alpha Delphini (GB) (Captain Gerrard {Ire}) in the Nunthorpe was swiftly followed by a reversal of head-bobs with Gold Vibe (Ire) (Dream Ahead) in the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye, sweeping Dods past the £1-million mark across Europe.

“It’s not very often you get a horse of Mecca’s Angel’s calibre and for one to come along again as good within two or three years, for a smallish yard anyway,” he says. “Obviously the downside was the Nunthorpe, when it was so close. You don’t normally get a second chance in a race like that again, but to go and win the Abbaye was very exciting and the horse deserved it.”

Dods had taken that loss stoically.

“You’ve got to be sporting, that’s the game you’re in, but you’re sort of devastated inside when it’s that close and it took so long for the result. They kept splitting it and splitting it, and couldn’t split them. Ten years ago it would have been a dead-heat, that’s it, let’s be fair.

“We knew the Group 1 would come but we knew we only had one race left and whether it was last season or we’d have to wait for another season.”

Although that prize at ParisLongchamp enhanced what was already a considerable page for the homebred from David Armstrong’s Highfield Farm in Lancashire, she is not destined for the paddocks just yet. The fast-finishing 5-year-old is due back shortly from the Armstrongs’ base, where she has been overseen by the owner’s daughter, Sophie.

“It was always the plan that he’d like to race her this season coming and then decide whether to breed off her himself or let someone else breed off her,” Dods explains. “David’s done very well when you think they’ve got a small breeding operation and he’s now bred two Group 1 winners. He’s raced three with Garswood, but bred Mayson and Mabs Cross. He hasn’t got hundreds of broodmares so it’s unbelievable.

“With a horse like this the races pick themselves, let’s be fair. We’ll have a close look abroad in Ireland and France as well but obviously we’d be looking at Haydock [G2 Temple S.], Royal Ascot, York and the Abbaye again and see what else we have to take in.”

There could be one difference, with Dods disclosing: “Until the last couple of runs we always felt she would be a better filly over six furlongs but then as she raced last year, she seemed to get faster and it might not be her cup of tea. I’d had her pencilled in for the Summer S. at York last year as an intended run but we sort of shelved the idea and kept her at five. If we were stuck for a race and it fitted in, we might give her a try at six.”

The rest of the progeny of Armstrong’s Miss Meggy (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) have not been an unqualified success, with a half-brother by Invincible Spirit {Ire} called Samlesbury (GB) failing to cut the mustard as a juvenile. Dods has been quietly encouraged by the look of the 2-year-old colt by Iffraaj (GB), although he is in the earliest of days.

There is another in the yard of whom the 56-year-old can have more immediate hopes in the shape of Intense Romance (Ire) (Intense Focus), who is the same age as Mabs Cross and became a dual listed winner at sprint distances at Ayr and Ascot in the autumn.

“For some reason she took forever to come to hand; she wasn’t thriving or showing me a lot,” he recalls. “I remember seeing a bit of work one day in the middle of the season at home–she just started to show a little bit of sparkle.

“She went to Carlisle and finished second to another of my horses, and never looked back after that. She improved tremendously in her last three runs last year, with no way of knowing where that would end. Especially if she got the conditions she wants, proper soft ground, and she’s exciting to look forward to again this year. You’d have to look at the penalty structure in the listed races and you could see her being very competitive in a Group 3.”

Denton Hall, in secluded countryside just outside Darlington, is on the land that two earlier generations have farmed, and the family business still includes arable and sheep, along with fattening beef cattle. His wife, Carole, is an integral part of the racing operation and daughters Chloe and Sophie have both ridden as amateur riders as well alongside professional careers.

A bespectacled, reassuring figure, Dods seems the sort of character to engender loyalty in his stable. In a sport where many are after a fast buck, it is even more heartening to hear him espouse that virtue himself.

“There are odd people who were here when my father was training. He had a permit and had just got his licence for one year but within the first two or three years we started training, there are owners that were here then and are here now,” he says. “We’ve been lucky that by having those good horses, we’ve attracted owners who can maybe buy a better quality horse–we’ve had a couple from Paul and Clare Rooney and others have sort of noticed.

“We don’t mind around 80, 85, but I don’t really want any more than that. We have turned away horses this year, to be honest, we couldn’t fit them in. But I’ve had very loyal owners and when you’ve got the likes of Geoff and Sandra Turnbull and David Armstrong, they’ve got breeding operations and you’ve got to look after them because they’ve been here a long time, rather than take new owners that have never been in the yard. They got us there, and we’ll never forget that either.”

Dods is too modest to make any self-congratulatory explanation of how any improvements have been made, but it is clear that there has been some refinement to the regime.

“You’ve got to keep learning, mind,” he says. “I think nowadays that some of these horses don’t need as much work as everyone thinks, especially the sprinters. The days when you’d gallop them hard; I don’t know whether those horses last as long. We would have them very fit, the gallops are on a hill, but they tend to last and enjoy their racing. We like to see horses still racing here at 10, 11, 12 if possible. It’s not quite the graft of maybe 10-15 years ago.”

Careers can also be sustained by gentle starts with Mabs Cross, who was a little small and backward to make her debut before she was three, a case in point.

“Last year we had three that hadn’t raced that came out after mid-October, and all three won as well, even up to couple weeks ago,” Dods says. “That’s sometimes difficult because people like to see them on the racecourse, but if they’re not ready, they’ve got to wait. And some of the late maturing horses, like the Archipenkos, Sea The Moons, the distance horses, there’s no point trying to run them in May, is there, if they don’t want to be running until September.

“We’re lucky the owners understand that. David Armstrong is a prime example. If we think one’s no good, he’s gone, but if a horse needs time he’ll give it as much as it needs.”

With a promising bunch of 3-year-olds and another fine season in the offing, it is those owners with the foresight to give Michael Dods their time who should be reaping the rewards.

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