Look for better run from green Argyle on Saturday night with can’t-see-back blinds

Trainer Mark Dux will be surprised if Argyle doesn’t run a good race at Albion Park on Saturday night, calling his first-up run “inconclusive.”

Argyle, having his first race for more than four months last Saturday, did plenty of work three wide to the death, before dropping out to run last.

But Dux points to two factors that muddy the result, the horse’s greenness and the fact he went to the line on another horse’s back, unable to get clear.

“At the finish he had nowhere to go and couldn’t be tested so it was an inconclusive run. I’m sure he had something to offer.”

But Dux said it was more the horse’s inexperience that told against him.

“He didn’t seem to know what to do. He continually switched on and off.”

Right from the start, Argyle made it difficult for driver Nathan Dawson.

“He wanted to run the gate, and then he didn’t, and when Nathan went to pull back he grabbed the bit again.

“And when he let him go down the back he dropped the bit and raced greenly. If he’d held his position outside the leader down the back he might have been OK but when he let the other one go, the horse switched off.

“He’s done that with me at home too. Some days you can’t get him going, but when he’s switched on he’s good.”

Argyle … hot and cold.Given Argyle can run a little hot and cold, Dux will try him in “can’t-see-back” blinds on Saturday night to make him concentrate more.

“He can pull so I don’t want to close him up too much.”

Though Argyle is the highest rated horse in the field on R74, Dux said he’s a beginner compared with most of his rivals.

With just 17 starts under his belt, he is easily the most lightly raced and seven of his rivals have won more races than him, having slid up and down the grades.

Argyle hasn’t had that luxury of dropping many points, having jumped quickly in class and finishing in the top five in nine of his starts.

With three wins at Cambridge and one at Auckland between last April and August, Argyle rose from R45 to R60. And when he won a rating 67 to 75 race first-up at Melton in September, he jumped into a grade populated by battle-hardened runners.

“But I still think he’ll race well on Saturday,” Dux said. “I’m pleased with him and I rate him a top four or five chance for sure.

“Obviously from three on the second row we’ll have to come from the back, drive him quietly and follow them, but so long as they don’t walk, I think he’ll be thereabouts.”

Argyle, who has earned A$50,559, is raced by John and Lynne Street, David Turner, Barry and Marie Jones and the Friday Frenzy Racing syndciate comprising Ian Middleton, Peter Jeffares, Bernie McCahill, Mike Ledger and Rob Redwood.

Argyle races at 9.10pm NZ time at Albion Park on Saturday night.