The Henry Dwyer Racing stable has four runners today at Bendigo with COPPER FOX, IRISH BUTTERFLY, THE SISCOS KID and ELEGIST all running for the stable.
Bendigo – Good (4)
The rail at Bendigo is out 5m having been true on April 21. The track has been racing really well of late and wouldn’t expect that to change despite that rail movement. Fine, warm weather is forecast so expect an early upgrade to a Good 3.
Race 4 (2.45pm) Get some pork on your fork BM70 Handicap
No.3 COPPER FOX – Michael Poy (Barrier 1)
COPPER FOX heads to Bendigo today where he will tackle the 1600 metre Benchmark 70. He has drawn gate one and Michael Poy will ride.
He can be a bit of a lazy horse sometimes COPPER FOX and he has shown that in his recent runs outside of his first-up run fresh where he ran really well. The 1600 metres today is ideal for him and there doesn’t seem a lot of speed in this race so we will look to ride him positively from barrier one and he should be thereabouts in what is a very open race with only seven runners.
PRINCE OF HELENA does look hard to beat, but if he can get a good run in transit, COPPER FOX is a chance to fill the placings.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $6.50 (as at 8am)
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Race 6 (3.45pm) Apiam Animal Health BM70 Handicap
No.2 IRISH BUTTERFLY – Damien Thornton (Barrier 4)
IRISH BUTTERFLY also heads to Bendigo today where he will contest a 1400m BM70. He has drawn well in gate four and Damien Thornton will ride.
IRISH BUTTERFLY comes into this off an eleven-week break having had an excellent campaign last time in that netted a win and two seconds from three runs, including a strong win at Sandown most recently. He is well and truly up to BM70 grade and there doesn’t look a huge amount of depth to this race. The 5YO went to the Avoca jump-outs on April 19 where he had a lovely tune-up ahead of this resumption and based on that work he has come back as well as he went out. The positive here is IRISH BUTTERFLY has performed well both off fast and slow tempos so the potential lack of speed shouldn’t worry him and his strong turn of foot will see him competitive no matter what race shape eventuates.
He’s come back stronger this campaign which means he is in for a longer preparation and while today is just starting point today, he will either be winning or going close in this field with EXCELLERATION clearly his main danger.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $3.90 (as at 8am)
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Race 7 (4.15pm) Grow Better BM58 Handicap
No.6 THE SISCOS KID – John Allen (Barrier 2)
THE SISCOS KID is our third runner at Bendigo today where he tackles a 1300m BM58. He has drawn gate two and John Allen has been booked to ride.
THE SISCOS KID posted a strong rating in winning two back at Stawell and backed that up with a very similar performance up to a 0-58 last time out. The horse who beat THE SISCOS KID last start was very heavily-backed and duly got the cash but there was a good gap back to third and the overall time was strong. He will again make his own luck up on speed and only needs to hold his past two ratings to be one of the key winning chances.
While ideally he would be stepping up in distance today, the prizemoney on offer for this level of grade was too good to look past and he is better than this grade. Other horses in the field have had a similar idea so it’s fairly strong for a Benchmark 58 with GRAND POPE the obvious competition, but the quick back-up is ideal and if he can bowl along in front he should be hard to run down.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $3.30 (as at 8am)
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Race 8 (4.50pm) Western Plains Pork BM64 Handicap
No.13 ELEGIST – Michael Poy (Barrier 7)
ELEGIST is our fourth and final runner at Bendigo today where he will contest a 1000m BM64. He has drawn gate seven and Michael Poy will take the ride.
ELEGIST will relish the likely fast tempo. His run two back at Albury on a race favouring those on speed was excellent, ripping home in the best last 5th best last split of the meeting after enduring a chequered passage through the field. Even though he was well beaten last start there was plenty of merit to the run as it was a race dominated up on speed and he was still home the 4th best last 400m split of the meeting in a race that has already seen four subsequent winners (3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th), while the second horse was desperate unlucky at his next outing.
He did get galloped on last start so he has been recuperating down at St Leonards which has healed his wounds well, he should run well today but whatever he does today he will improve on so might be one more for the multiples with an eye to next start on being a genuine winning chance.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $7 (as at 8am)