No Darwin, but Dyer excited as winter looms

The Kyneton trainer has been a staple at the Darwin Cup Carnival since the late 2000s, where he has enjoyed amazing success.

But barring something remarkable, he won't be there this year - not that the carnival is any certainty of going ahead in its usual form due to the coronavirus.

Dyer is naturally disappointed, as much for the Darwin Turf Club as for himself.

"It kind of reared its head a long way out - the COVID stuff started and they started closing up the Northern Territory, so I started thinking about it then," said Dyer, who has won a trio of Darwin Cups with Hawks Bay in 2011-12 and Royal Request in 2017.

"I'm quite prepared for it now though.

"At this stage, unless someone turns up with a Darwin Cup horse for me, I'm staying home.

"As it is, the horse can go up, but I have to stay here and we put the horse in the care of another trainer. You would have to isolate for 14 days when you got up there.

"I've been there 12 years in a row, it's disappointing, but I've got a few things to do around home. This is a good opportunity to do them."

Rather than dwelling on the negatives, Dyer, who has won all of the top end's major races, including the Darwin Guineas and Northern Territory Derby, believes his staying home might in fact be a godsend.

"The Darwin Cup has been great for me, but it has kind of stopped my momentum my down here," he said.

"I want to get cracking again and at least get 10 or 12 winners a year down here, which is what you need to do if you are going to live here.

"I'm always looking for new horses. (Dyer's son) James is always on the internet looking for new horses, trying to spot something."

By the looks of it, his perseverance, diligence and attention to detail have paid off following the recent acquisition of the former Western Australian galloper Metro Boy.

The four-year-old gelding, and winner of three of 18 starts back in his home state, galloped to an eye-catching victory on debut for the Dyer stable in a $31,500 benchmark 64 event at Moe last week.

Dyer was quick to deflect praise for the purchase to James.

"When all the borders were closing down, James was following all the sales on the internet and he showed me Metro Boy," he said.

"I'd heard he'd won a couple of races in town in Perth and he was only four-years-old and had only had 18 starts, but I said to James we are not going to have that sort of money to buy a horse like him.

"Anyway, the next morning, James came to me and said, 'dad, that horse got passed in'.

"We got him for a pretty reasonable price, but then we had the problem of trying to get him over the border.

"Eventually they were letting the transporters through and we got him here about three weeks ago.

"He had one jump out at Kyneton and it was a little bit lethargic to say the least, so went to Moe wishing and hoping we'd see something that justified the price.

"But as soon as the gates opened he just jumped out and put himself there, like it was track work, and he won quite easily with 61.5kg and the outside barrier, so he had plenty against him.

"He must get white line fever, when it's race day he just knows when to turn up."

"In his last 10 starts, he hasn't been beaten by more than 3.5 lengths ... and that's in pretty good company."

Metro Boy's win was the second in six days for Dyer, who also scored with Latest Bentley on the Ballarat synthetic on May 24.

As the name suggests, the six-year-old gelding is the last in a long line of foals out of Dyer's highly-successful mare Mrs Bently, who remains the only locally-trained horse to have won the Kyneton Cup in the race's nearly 120-year history.

Mrs Bently won 13 races, including a Mildura Cup, and amassed nearly $400,000 in prizemoney before her retirement in 2003.

Dyer said a win with any of the much-loved mare's progeny was always special.

"She's still alive on my property .... she's about 26-years-old now, but this her last foal," he said.

"It's very pleasing to get another win.

"We have another one in work out of her, Pot Black. He's probably been the best one out of her, but he's had dicky legs.

"He (Latest Bentley) has been knocking on the door to win one for quite a while, but he's been drawing bad barriers and hasn't been getting a fair go.

"At last we drew barrier one the other day and he got a lovely position on the fence behind the leader all the way, and young Campbell Rawiller just rode him perfectly."

Metro Boy's win broke a two-month win drought for Dyer, at the same time as he is looking to up the ante from his Kyneton base.

"You go through a stage where you wonder where the next meal is going to come from and then all of a sudden you break through and then you get another one," he said.

"Let's just hope the tables turn."

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.