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Gallant sprinter Asfoora has taken trainer Henry Dwyer around the world.Credit: Getty Images
A long way from Paris
Less than a week after becoming the first Australian trainer to win a group 1 in France, celebrating with an elaborate meal of “snails, foie gras and frog legs”, down-to-earth horseman Henry Dwyer was stopping for a chicken pie at Dunkeld’s Izzy’s Café on his way to the Hamilton Cup.
“I love those country cup meetings, I have been going to them since I was a kid,” Dwyer explained on Sunday.
It has been a whirlwind 18 months for the popular Dwyer who caught the racing world by surprise in June last year when his mighty mare Asfoora won the 1000m group 1 King Charles Stakes.
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Since then, he has shaken hands with King Charles, won a group 1 in York and followed up with Asfoora’s history-making victory last week’s Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamps.
But the contrast of dining out in Paris and being at Hamilton Racecourse on Saturday afternoon was not lost on Dwyer.
He said the philosophy behind his Ballarat-based boutique training operation had always been about doing things differently.
“It’s hard to think with a team of 50 that you are going to be winning Melbourne Cups and trainer’s premierships and that sort of stuff, so you pick things you can do, and we thought that was an achievable goal, taking Asfoora over there and winning a group 1,” he said.
“But we never once thought we would win three groups 1s. ”
Not bad for an unwanted yearling who was passed in at the sales.
Dwyer said Asfoora had been left in the UK for a spell, with the view of setting her for another tilt at Royal Ascot next year before retiring her to the breeding paddock.
For the record, Dwyer’s runner Chasing Aphrodite was beaten a head in Saturday’s Hamilton Cup, while he picked up an earlier race with Northern Barrage, a six-year-old gelding winning just his second race in 22 starts.
“He’s not going to be going to Europe and winning group 1s, obviously, but they (winners) can just come from anywhere and that’s the exciting part of it,” Dwyer said.
Brayden Star, right, wins the Herbert Power Stakes at Caulfield.Credit: Getty Images
’The soundest horse ever’
The fallout from last year’s Melbourne Cup safety protocols, which saw five horses scratched across eight drama-filled days, continues to resonate even 12 months later.
On Saturday at Caulfield, one of those horses, Brayden Star, won the 2400m group 2 Herbert Power Stakes.
The seven-year-old gelding had been ruled unfit to race in last year’s Melbourne Cup by Racing Victoria vets because CT scans showed he was at “heightened risk of injury” and “unsuitable to complete”.
At the time, co-trainers Trent Busuttin and Nat Young said they were “perplexed” by the ruling.
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“There is no sugarcoating it, our team is very disappointed as our horse has never been so outwardly happy, healthy and in great form,” Brayden Star’s ownership group said in a statement.
But there were no such concerns on Saturday after their competitive stayer finished first past the post.
”He’s the soundest horse you’ll ever see,” Busuttin said of Brayden Star.
“He’s never had a shot of cortisone, obviously, the Melbourne Cup is different standards, the scans are what they are.
“But we were flat as anything when he was scratched out of the Cup because we knew there was nothing wrong with the horse. And as you can see, there’s nothing wrong with him now, so it’s just straightforward.”
Racing Victoria continues to maintain that its strict safety protocols have ensured the Melbourne Cup has been fatality free since they were introduced in 2021.
No follow-up to horse death
If a horse dies in a race and there’s no footage or no subsequent review, does it really die in a race?
Racing Victoria continues to tread a tightrope between genuine animal welfare concerns and brand protection in its ongoing dealings with mid-race fatalities.
Last month, the Ciaron Maher-trained gelding Chorlton Lane was the latest horse to be euthanised on course after suffering a severe leg injury during the group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield.
There is no suggestion or findings that the untimely death was anything but a racing incident, but, once again, there was no public proof.
Footage of Chorlton Lane suffering his injury has typically disappeared. As is common practice at the industry’s media arm, Racing.com, horse falls and horse deaths are edited out of replays. Racing’s form of censorship.
But even more concerning is that the public is told after every one of these racing fatalities that the “incident will be referred to the RV Veterinary Services Department”, and yet no findings are ever released.
Racing Victoria was contacted for comment.
John Kanga has resigned from the board of the Melbourne Racing Club.Credit: Eddie Jim
Kanga leaves spare seat on panel
John Kanga’s shock resignation will continue to cause ripples across the racing industry throughout the spring.
Kanga had been earmarked to sit on a five-member panel, alongside billionaire owner Jonathan Munz, to interview candidates in coming weeks for two vacancies on the Racing Victoria board.
But his decision to quit as Melbourne Racing Club chairman on Friday means the interview panel is suddenly one-person short. Suitable candidates are recommended to Racing Minister Anthony Carbines who then appoints them to the board.
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The panel usually consists of a rotating group of stakeholders – one member from a major metropolitan club, one member from Country Racing Victoria, one member representing the Racing Minister, the Racing Victorian chairman and a member from the remaining groups such as the trainers, owners or jockeys.
This year it was Melbourne Racing Club’s turn to fill a seat, so it remains to be seen whether Kanga’s replacement as MRC chairman, the relatively inexperienced Cameron Fisher, fills the void.
Interestingly, Munz, the chairman of the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association, has maintained his place on the panel for two years running when it would normally pass on to the next stakeholder’s turn.
As it stands, the RV board will roll through the spring two directors short, following the resignation of vice-chairman Sharon McCrohan last month to join the AFL and a decision not to fill the vacancy left by the retiring Mike Hurst in June last year. Tim Rourke has been named as the board’s new vice-chairman.
Safety in crowd numbers
Security numbers were out in force at Caulfield on Saturday and hats off to the Melbourne Racing Club for providing a smooth passage for more than 18,000 people into the course.
MRC members had complained at the recent annual general meeting amid concerns that the Caulfield Racecourse was down to its last demerit point for its liquor licence.
Pictures had been posted on social media of coffee cups and water bottles being confiscated at the front gate, while one elderly member complained about the heavy-handed way in which she was told to empty the contents of her thermos on the ground before being allowed entry.
But the MRC assured this masthead that its Caulfield liquor licence was not under threat and that it would continue to “operate in full compliance with all licensing obligations under Liquor Control Victoria”.
Hard to disagree. Extra security detail is a small price to pay in the war against the under-age drinking scourge that had plagued the Caulfield Cup carnival more than a decade ago.
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