Dillydingdillydong is a six-year-old Territories gelding based with James Owen in Newmarket. He joined Deva Racing in the first half of 2024 and opened his account a handful of starts later with a highly impressive victory at Wolverhampton.

Previously trained by Richard Hannon, he was a 50,000gns foal purchase whose price rose to 110,000gns when offered at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2019. He is a sibling of Festivale, who won the Listed Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot in 2008, and the Listed Prix de Saint Patrick winner Arctic Gyr, as well as the dams of the Listed winner and Gr.1-placed Grande Dame, the Listed winner and Gr.1 2,000 Guineas fourth Eydon and the French Gr.3 winner Sajir.

Clearly blessed with an exceptional pedigree, Dillydingdillydong made his racecourse debut in the July of his two-year-old season and finished third over 7f at Salisbury. The winner of that race, Francesco Guardi, went on to win in Gr.2 company in Australia later in his career, and Dillydingdillydong finished ahead of a whole host of subsequent winners. He performed similarly in two more runs as a juvenile before being gelded ahead of his three-year-old campaign.

Allotted an opening handicap rating of 74, Dillydingdillydong struggled to recapture his initial promise in two starts in the 2021 season and was then absent from the track for nine months due to injury. Returning as a four-year-old, he was often utilised as a schoolmaster for the apprentices at the Hannon yard and continued in that role for the next couple of seasons. Remarkably, despite his obvious talent and a rapidly decreasing handicap mark, he took 27 starts to break his duck.

That breakthrough success came in the aforementioned Wolverhampton race, on just his second attempt at 1m4f and his fourth run for James Owen. Settled in midfield by promising title-chasing apprentice Sean D Bowen, he cruised into contention with three-furlongs left to run and found plenty in the straight to win by three and a half lengths.

That win came in a classified race, and Dillydingdillydong was only rated 45 at the time, so any reaction from the handicapper is going to do little to hurt his future prospects in handicap company. He clearly has the scope to continue winning races from this end of the handicap, particularly given that he has now proven his stamina for 1m4f. Who knows, perhaps he will stay even further?

James Owen is a dab hand at transforming lowly-rated horses picked up from other yards, one such example being the Deva Racing-owned Destinado, who made a winning stable debut in January from a rating of 45 and has won another five times since! Dillydingdillydong has started life with the Owen yard at a comparable level and we fully expect him to add to his Wolverhampton victory in the coming months.