Caption: Mick Zammit with Jay Is Jay after the smart young chaser won at Albion Park by 19 lengths (Photo: Box 1 Photography)

By PAT McLEOD

Multiple Group One winner Mick Zammit and training partner, wife Selena, know they have two very fast young dogs. Very soon they will know whether they have two very good race dogs.

Some of that final equation will fall into place on Thursday night at Albion Park when both Jay Is Jay and All Natural will be part of the Qgold Feature Night – a 12-race card that includes nine Qgold finals.

The Qgold series is a pivotal part of the Golden Greys Summer Carnival, which puts a focus and almost $250,000 in finals prizemoney into Queensland bred dogs.

Jay Is Jay will contest the gala race of the night, the Qgold Summer Sprint (520m), while All Natural will vie for honours in the Qgold Emerging Sprinters Final (520m). A third youngster from the Mick and Selena kennel, Inevitable, is also in the Emerging Sprinters Final.

Both Jay Is Jay and All Natural have the back story and early stats to be rightly positioned as future champions. Mick Zammit is now allowing time to decide just how good they are.

First, the back story.

Both dogs are from the October 29, 2020, litter of Sennachie – Kealoah. Kealoah (104: 12-15-18, for $84,273 prizemoney) was trained by Selena’s late father Jeff Jones and is owned by Selena’s mother Lillian Jones.

Jay Is Jay is named after Jeff Jones and is owned by Lillian.

Secondly, the potential.

Both Jay is Jay and All Natural showed early that they are speed dogs, as Mick Zammit explains.

“Because of the floods early this year we had to trial them at Grafton, which we don’t normally do,” he says. “They went pretty well there.

“About 10 days later the Albion Park track was back in action (the race surface had been replaced following the February floods). Jay Is Jay was literally the first dog to go on the new surface.

“What he ran for his first go was sensational … and the same with All Natural. They went enormous for young pups, as good as race dogs.

“I didn’t get too carried away because it was a new surface. But, very early we knew they had ability. They are obviously very fast dogs.

“But there is a difference between running good times and being good race dogs, as we all know.”

Mick and Selena continued to carefully nurture the duo to see if potential would equate to performance.

Early indications are very promising. Jay Is Jay won his first 520m at Albion Park by an eye-catching 19 lengths and has so far put together four wins, a second and three thirds ($27,865) from nine starts.

All Natural has five wins and two placings ($21,360) from seven starts.

For Mick Zammit, the jury is a fair way from reaching its verdict.

“When you know you have fast dogs, the next thing you look for is early speed,” he says.

“You start to tally up the negatives. What are the bad habits. Really good dogs have few or no negatives. They don’t stuff up. They can handle inside or outside. Not many dogs have it all.

“This dog (Jay Is Jay), he has been pretty disappointing the last few starts because he has been missing the start pretty badly. His runs overall have been very good, but you can’t miss the start.

“He has a best first sectional of 5.51, which is going OK. But when you are racing good dogs you need to be running that all the time. But his splits recently have probably been in the ‘60s and that is just not good enough.”

All Natural had ‘some issues’ according to Mick and had been off the track for several weeks before returning with a smart win at Albion Park last Thursday night in the Emerging Sprinters heat.

“He (All Natural) is a very fast dog,” Zammit said. “Overall, Jay Is Jay probably is a little bit faster, but All Natural has probably got a little more early speed. He can really come out of the box.

“He did have a trial over the 395m (at Albion Park) and broke the record that Tyanna Belle holds and broke the first split record as well. He has got some issues, but he is super quick.

“Overall, Selena and I are very happy with both young dogs. They are well and happy within themselves, which is important.

“So, yes they were fast. But all you can do is keep doing the right thing by them, cross your fingers and just hope for luck.

“Who knows what will happen over the next couple of months of this summer carnival. It is quite possible that we could be looking back come mid-February and saying that a couple of gems came through.

“You just don’t know who will step up or if they will step up. There is just two or three lengths between having one that stands out and one that just misses out.”

In the Qgold Summer Sprint on Thursday Zammit sees Shipwreck (Ned Snow) as the biggest danger in an open field.

“Shipwreck is the class dog in the field,” he said. “He’s a good, strong dog. In saying that I don’t mind Tony’s (brother Tony Zammit) dog De Ferran out of the eight box. I think he will be better suited out wide.

“Springtime Jet is also a danger, being a very fast beginner – so a very open race.”