In an ideal world, Henry Davis would already be in the UK preparing Asfoora for her defence of the King Charles III Stakes crown at Royal Ascot.
Instead, Asfoora was at Flemington on Friday morning participating in a 900m trial in which she finished on level terms with Winnasedge.
A year ago, on the same weekend, Asfoora was running in the Group 2 Temple Stakes (1000m) at Haydock, finishing fourth, before coming out a little over three weeks later to win at Royal Ascot.
But the availability of flights to the UK after Asfoora finished seventh in the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville last month meant Dwyer had to adapt his training of the mare.
“In our mind we had her there straight after the Sangster,” Dwyer said.
“We thought we would have been able to get a flight in the first week of May, and given that, it would have been a far better scenario than what we are faced with.
“But you can’t swim there, you can’t catch a train, you have to catch a plane, so this is the way it has worked out.
“The plane is next Thursday. It’s a bit of a trek having to go via Sydney, so that’s another frustration, but it’s only frustrating because I’m thinking of the mare.
“We’ll make the best of it.”
Asfoora leaves for Sydney by float on Monday night or Tuesday morning before being flown to the UK ahead of another float trip to Newmarket.
Dwyer said door-to-door from Sydney it was a 38 to 40-hour trip.
Last year the travel knocked Asfoora around, but the team had time up their sleeve ahead of Royal Ascot, a scenario they are not afforded this year.
Dwyer said Asfoora will head to Royal Ascot a fit racehorse following Friday’s hit-out.
“We needed to come here and have a solid enough hit-out having not raced for four weeks since the Sangster and it is now three weeks before Royal Ascot,” Dwyer said.
“We were in a tricky position where we needed to freshen up after what I thought was a bit of a flat run after having a busy time before it.
“She had a week or 10 days of doing nothing and then the build-up to this trial which we’ve used as a quasi-race to get one in the bank before she goes over.
“She flies in two weeks before the race, so really, she won’t be able to do too much in the first week and we might be able to squeeze in one gallop, so she needs to be pretty fit before leaving and then it will be about maintaining her, so hence this morning’s jump-out.”
Dwyer said Oisin Murphy, who rode Asfoora at Royal Ascot last year, is keen to stick with the mare again this time.
“He’s on retainers with various owners over there and if they’ve got a horse in the race, his hands are tied,” Dwyer said.
“But he feels there’s not much going on in the five-furlong division from his perspective and he’s pretty happy to ride her.”
