At the end of 2011 Henry accepted an offer to become Assistant Trainer at Macedon Lodge. Here he was exposed to a more European style of training horses and was fortunate to be involved in Green Moon’s 2012 Melbourne Cup victory. This experience at Macedon Lodge whetted the appetite for an overseas jaunt in 2013 and took in Dubai, Newmarket, Chantilly, The Curragh, Ballydoyle and Hong Kong. Henry had the opportunity to spend time with John Oxx (The Curragh, Ireland) and Criquette Head (Chantilly, France), as well as visit numerous other studs, stables and racecourses throughout the course of his travels.
Having returned to Australia in mid-2013 Henry has within a short space of time well and truly broken into the competitive Victorian training market from his bases at Caulfield and Ballarat.
He has enjoyed enviable early success, often with cast-offs from other major stables – most notably winning the G1 Queensland Derby with Sonntag and the G1 Sangster Stakes with Precious Gem.
HOW WE DO THINGS
At Henry Dwyer Racing we focus on three core objectives, which we believe are the keys to success in the business of horse training. While many horse trainers are highly proficient at one or even two of these core objectives, we believe what stands us apart from our competition is our ability to succeed at and integrate into our business these core objectives, on a daily basis. Whilst we’re always going to be at the whim of external factors, we believe that if we can have all our ducks in a row internally, success will follow.
Objective no. 1
To treat each horse as an individual in order to get them to the racetrack at the absolute peak of their powers.
We are fortunate enough to have stables at the premier metropolitan training centre, Caulfield, the premier provincial training centre, Ballarat, as well as a beach facility at St Leonards on the Bellarine Peninsula, giving us the flexibility we need to tailor each horse’s lifestyle to suit their needs.
Across those stables we have terrific staff, dedicated to the health and wellbeing of each horse under their care.
We engage the services of the best vet’s, farrier’s, dentist’s, chiropractor’s and anyone else we see fit, with the aim of leaving no stone unturned in presenting horses at their best on raceday.
Additionally, we have developed a network of strong relationships with external breakers, pre-trainers and agistment providers, who are industry leaders in their field and share the same values and goals that we do.
Objective no. 2
To place each of those horses in their optimum race to achieve maximum return on investment for our owners.
Henry finds the most enjoyable and satisfying aspect of his job to be maximising the potential of the horses in his care. Once everything is taken care of in terms of having the horse at its peak physically, Henry spends countless hours mapping out race programs, studying form and assessing upcoming races to work out where each horse is best placed to provide the maximum ROI to owners.
While we’d love every horse to be capable of competing at the highest level, the reality of the situation is they can’t all be champions and often the next best thing to finding out we’ve got a good horse, is finding out we’ve got a bad horse.
Only once we’ve identified and benchmarked a horse against its peers can we begin the process of trying to maximise the value of that horse and trying to achieve the best financial outcome for its owners. Whilst winning Group One races is fun, Henry finds setting a plan in motion to win a Maiden with a very limited galloper equally fulfilling.
Once this is achieved, we can then utilise our network of bloodstock agents to move the horse on to a weaker racing jurisdiction, where it can win more races and we can in turn focus on trying to find another Champion.
Objective no. 3
To treat each of those owners with the respect and transparency that their investment deserves, in order to provide the most enjoyable and successful racing experience possible.
We recognise that racing horses is not only a very financially intensive pastime, but an emotional journey that can take owners to great heights but equally great depths.
At Henry Dwyer Racing we do our utmost to ensure that this significant financial and emotional investment is reflected commensurately in the quality of communication we provide to owners, and in doing so hope that at all times they feel a sense of transparency and an understanding of what is going on with their horse, for the better or worst.
We’re not in the business of sugar-coating things, and in the long run believe it’s better for all parties concerned to be upfront about the ability or otherwise of a horse under our care.
We pride ourselves on being approachable, and above all else that honesty is the best policy.