Genetic testing in Ireland helped Danny O’Brien identify future Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare could be a superior stayer and now AFL legend Denis Pagan is using the same speed-gene profiling method with his team of horses.

Pagan has already turned heads in the early days of his training career with talented two-year-old Johnny Get Angry running a pair of placings at Flemington and showing he would not be out of place in the Group I Victoria Derby.

In the search for his first winner, Pagan sends another of his team to the races at Sandown on Wednesday with two-year-old gelding Frankie Two Angels to make his stable debut.

Frankie Two Angels has been gelded since making his race debut for Troy and Leon Corstens in March, finishing sixth when starting from the outside barrier and settling last in a Listed 1200m race won by Larimer Street.

Frankie Two Angels is rated a $6 chance in the Ladbrokes Same Game Multi Handicap (1300m) at Sandown – Pagan revealing how the gelding has been genetically tested.

Just like O’Brien did in the journey towards Vow And Declare becoming the 2020 Melbourne Cup winner, among the tools Pagan uses in trying to identify the best races for his horses is a speed-gene test developed by Irish equine science group Plusvital.

He sends vials of blood to Ireland for tests which analyse a horse’s DNA to establish the best distance at which it should race.

And then Pagan can also cater a training regime to suit.

“There are three categories - out and out sprinters over 1000-1200m who can maybe stretch to 1400(m), then there are horses who are probably 1300-2200m horses and the last category is horses who are at their best over 12 furlongs and longer,” Pagan told Racenet.

“Johnny Get Angry falls into the third category and although I thought Frankie Two Angels would also fall into that category, he is in the second category.

“I have had all my horses genetically tested but it’s only a guide.

“Danny O’Brien got me thinking about genetic testing, he has done it with all his horses with good results.

“How do you determine whether someone is a persistent individual, got mental toughness, desire, courage and all that sort of stuff – no-one knows until they get in and do it.

“As I say it’s not the be-all and end-all, it’s only a guide, but it certainly helps you with training your horses when you know what they are capable of and where you should be going with them.”

In what could be a pointer for punters, two-time AFL premiership winning coach Pagan says that early on he identified Frankie Two Angels as his stable’s top seed ahead of Johnny Get Angry.

While Johnny Get Angry has gone for a short let-up before returning on a possible Victoria Derby mission, Pagan will know more on Wednesday about whether he can start some spring dreaming with Frankie Two Angels.

“We have gelded him since he ran last – looking back I think he may have been going shinsore in the last couple of days before we raced him – he was OK to race but we tipped him out the next day and got him gelded and he has come back a nice horse,” Pagan said.

“His two trials have been pretty good.

“He certainly was the number one (stable) seed, a lovely looking Medaglia d'Oro horse out of a French staying mare.

“I bought him to run over a trip but he has shown he has got more brilliance than Johnny Got Angry.

“He has drawn well at Sandown on Wednesday and we will find out more about him, he is well weighted with Lachie King’s two-kilo claim.”