Feel The Pinch looked to have little excuses when leading every metre in his race last week until caught and beaten by a short head at the winning line by Ballylaw Sara.

This was an A4 race over 380 metres and the former’s starting price of 8-1 seemed generous given that the dog is a previous winner at A2 level here as recently as mid-February.

He seems to be the type of dog who does little in his races unless leading but on this evidence, you would have to say that he may be getting back to somewhere near his best.

He should race next time in an A4 event again and even with reduced odds, he would be a reasonable bet.

Trot On trained by Gemma Davidson has won his last two races over 380 metres which is admirable given that he has only had six career races.

Early days for a dog who is about to lose his puppy status, having reached two years of age but it would be interesting to see him run over the extended 540m trip as he looks like a strong type of dog.

His previous victory saw him progressing from fourth place away to land the win and he has now followed this up with a win in a grade higher.

Encouraging signs and with a little further improvement, the hat-trick may well be on.

Newcomer Tropical Blue kept his 100 per cent record here when winning his second race last Friday night.

What he has is early pace, good enough to have shown his opponents a clean pair of heels on both occasions, so having won in A7 and A6 grades, I can see the trend continuing for at least a grade or two more.

Hard to assess until he is beaten for pace away from the traps but he certainly looks like a decent dog that will do well here.