Different Gravy didn’t exactly beat a crack field, but his win in the inaugural Melbourne Classic was the win of a proper ‘orse.
Globetrotting conditioner Henry Dwyer looks to have a genuine stayer on his hands, and he didn’t bother hiding his enthusiasm. “I think he’s learning all the time and getting better,” he warned, a line that should make future rivals shift in their seats.
Sent out a heavily backed $1.80 favourite, Different Gravy settled closer than he had in previous starts.
Once Mark Zahra pushed him into clean air at the top of the straight, the race was over in a stride. He put his rivals to the sword in the twinkling of an eye, Zahra freezing the last hundred metres to a jog. It was impossible not to think of Observer in the Vase on Cox Plate Day, and the irony wasn’t lost given both horses share the same sire, Ghaiyyath.
Different Gravy is just that!
He justifies the short price with a dominant win in the Melbourne Classic; the future looks bright⭐@HDwyerRacing pic.twitter.com/H54ah7DN3p
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) November 29, 2025
Zahra has partnered Different Gravy in both recent wins, and they couldn’t have been more different.
On Melbourne Cup Day he was dragged back from a wide gate before storming home down the centre of Flemington. This time, up to 2000 metres and with a kinder draw, Zahra had him parked in the first half dozen.
“He jumped well and there was a bit of pressure from out wide, but he was able to come back,” Zahra said.
“He drew 15 there at Flemington, so it’s good to see him do it both ways. I had to drag him back there, but he let rip like a good horse and today he was able to take a spot close to the speed, peel out at the 600, and I was able to clock off late. He won as he liked.”
The rider added that both Different Gravy and Observer share a quirky habit, one that can often bring undone emerging stayers.
“They get on the chewy a bit like they won’t stay, but they’re very tough and they do stay.”
With a promising stayer now firmly in the stable, Dwyer is already eyeing off bigger targets. He has the Group 1 Queensland Derby circled, a race he won in 2014 with Sonntag.
“He’s earned a spell now but we’d like to think he’s a Queensland Derby horse in the winter.”
The $400,000 Melbourne Classic, introduced this season as a 2000 metre race for emerging stayers, lacked depth on paper, but Different Gravy might just have saved the first edition. The winner was good, and he might be very good.
