A wide barrier draw in Sydney has swayed trainer Henry Dwyer to keep Foreign Affair at home to race at Caulfield.
Foreign Affair is one of three runners for the Caulfield trainer on his home track with the mare to contest the Tile Importer Handicap (1200m) as she tries to net a first Saturday city win before she is expected to head to the breeding barn.
The five-year-old was beaten in a photo-finish at Rosehill last start and was an acceptor for a race at the same track on Saturday but was taken out after drawing the outside gate.
“It’s probably a little bit harder race than I was hoping at Caulfield but you’re not going to go up to Sydney to run from the widest gate,” Dwyer said.
Foreign Affair has a handicapper rating of 72 and contests a mares’ benchmark-90 on Saturday, giving away more than 20 rating points to topweight Whistle Baby and 15 to Alotta Love.
Foreign Affair has been placed in her past two starts in Saturday-grade mares races and Dwyer says the consistent mare is racing as well as she can.
“Her peak is this sort of range,” he said.
“She hasn’t won for 16 months and 13 runs but she hasn’t gone down a rating point. She always runs second, third or fourth and she just doesn’t go down any points, so she’s just finding it hard to win in this grade.
“She’s had a few close misses in Saturday grade and could have won those with any change in luck.
“She’s hard to place because she’s small and can’t carry weight so we’ve got to probably run her out of her grade a little bit.”
“She’s drawn well and will be just behind the speed.”
“It’s just whether she gets luck at the right time, and there are some mares in there with good form.”
