Henry Dwyer with two chances in Gold Rush
Henry Dwyer insists there’s little between his debutantes in the VOBIS Gold Rush at Bendigo.
And the Caulfield trainer will be disappointed if his two fillies – If Not Now When and Snitzelway – are not competitive in the $250,000 race.
Snitzelway will jump from the outside barrier in the capacity field while If Not Now When has drawn slightly better.
“They’re very evenly matched,” Dwyer said.
“(Apprentice) Mick Dee has done a lot of work on them in recent weeks and he was given the option of who to ride and chose If Not Now When. It was a hard decision for him though.
“He trialled them both and was very happy with their trials. We galloped them together last Saturday morning and they went over the line together.
“It’s just If Not Now When, he probably thought might be the more professional of the two.”
A daughter of Artie Schiller, If Not Now When was bought for $15,000 as a yearling while Snitzelway, by Snitzel, was a $100,000 purchase.
First prize money on Saturday is $137,500.
Dwyer said both fillies, who have both won barrier trials, warranted a shot at the race on debut.
“They’ve gone through and won their jump-out then won their trial at Cranbourne impressively,” he said.
“This race, without being a target race, was right there at the right time so it was a logical option.”
He said the pair still hadn’t been fully tested on the training or trial track.
“So we don’t really know what’s there but they’ve both done enough to say that there’s something there,” he said.
The Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra-trained Creativity, a stakes placegetter on debut at Flemington, is the $4.40 favourite ahead of Valliano who was unplaced in the Blue Diamond last start.