On Saturday (April 30) the speedy Bulldog Hanover made his much-anticipated four-year-old debut during the session of qualifiers at Flamboro Downs.

With regular pilot Jody Jamieson in tow, Bulldog Hanover did all the work in his afternoon test. After opening fractions of :29, :56.4 and 1:24.2, Bulldog Hanover zipped home in :27.3 to trip the timer nearly nine lengths better than Rockin In Heaven, with the mile timed in 1:52.

"It was pretty impressive," trainer and co-owner Jack Darling told Trot Insider after the performance. "He was just full of himself. Jody said he was just sitting there and never asked him. He said [Bulldog] wanted to take off halfway through the lane, but he wouldn't let him."

Owned by Darling along with Brad Grant of Milton, Ont., Bulldog Hanover (Shadow Play - BJs Squall) enjoyed a stellar freshman season and returned as a strong sophomore, winning 10 of 15 races and more than $682,000. His top performances came in the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes, Ontario Sires Stakes events, and put an exclamation mark on his season with a four-race win streak in stakes events at Hoosier Park where he took his mark of 1:48s. In 21 career starts, he sports a 14-3-1 summary with $931,061 in earnings.

Given there were qualifiers some 30 hours ago at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the question did need to be asked on the timing and the location for the horse's season debut. The reasons are twofold, according to his veteran trainer.

"One, it makes sense to get him around and go over the Flamboro track, because his first start is going to be at Flamboro. I'm going to go back the following week and then he races the following Sunday in the Confederation Cup elims. 

"So the good part about that is he'll have a couple trips around the track. The other thing is, he's breeding mares on Friday. That kind of eliminates the qualifiers at Mohawk, so it works out pretty good."

Darling noted that Bulldog Hanover, now a taller and stronger older horse, is handling his stallion duties and his training duties with flying colours.

"It's just around the corner where he does his breeding," noted Darling. "It takes half an hour from the time he leaves here to the time it gets back. He breeds every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. And his manners are great. He comes back, and he just doesn't do a thing wrong. He's great on the track, and it's not upsetting him at all. He's just one of those horses that can handle everything."

As someone who predominantly concentrates on two- and three-year-old stock, Darling admits that there's something special about Bulldog Hanover that's prompted him to hold onto the two-time O'Brien Award finalist heading into his older campaign. 

"He's definitely the best horse that I've had and I'm just excited to see what he can do in the breeding shed and see what can do racing this year against all the free-for-allers."

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The first test for Bulldog Hanover is slated to be the Charles Juravinski Memorial (f/k/a the Confederation Cup) at Flamboro Downs, with the final slated for May 22. After that, the options are endless as Darling noted that the pacer is staked to "pretty well everything," including open events.

"It's a really tough, tough schedule...We'll just see as we go along how it works out."