Tough gelding Doss has broken his maiden status in style at Eagle Farm and put himself on the road to much bigger prizes.
Having his first start since July, Doss ($19) stormed home along the fence on Saturday to beat Tullio ($15) by half a neck in the Three-Year-Old Handicap (1000m), with another half a head to Elixir ($21).
Trainer Barry Lockwood has always had a big opinion of Doss but believes he will need time to reach his best.
“The ability has always been there but he just hasn’t been strong enough. But he’s toughened up this campaign and I knew he would be coming home strongly,” Lockwood said.
“His five starts before today had been a second, a third and three fourths. That about sums it up.”
“I told (jockey Dale Smith) before the race that there would be a lot of early pace and that he would get his chance late. That’s how it worked up.”
Doss finished so quickly he clocked 56.9 seconds for the thousand, which would have been excellent on any track let alone a new surface such as Eagle Farm.
Lockwood said he would like to qualify Doss for the $2 million Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) on January 12.
“But prize money will be the problem. He really needs to win again to be a chance of getting into the race,” he said.
