It will be his first ride in the Caulfield Cup on his first trip to Australia and despite the understandable fatigue after the long-haul flight to Melbourne from England, Ray Dawson wasted no time in seeing Enjfaar at Werribee.
Landing at 6:30am on Wednesday, within a couple of hours the 33-year-old had reunited with the $11 chance in Saturday’s 2400-metre highlight at Caulfield after the morning’s track gallop.
“I’m tired and it is a bit colder than I thought it would be, but I am excited and I’ve just seen Enfjaar and he looks really well and ready and set for Saturday,” Dawson said.
“I just said to (the team) that he is very relaxed. He can have days at home where he is a bit irate and he wears a hood galloping and he wore a hood at Goodwood to keep the noise levels down but he seems really relaxed over there. There’s not a problem on him.
“Hopefully he will be like that on race day but he can be a bit highly strung and that is in his character.”
Drawing barrier one is another positive in Dawson’s thinking and the often-daunting rush to the winning post the first time around does not seem to be faze him either together with some helpful words from James McDonald.
“I was happy to see him draw one and that makes life a little bit easier. Hopefully we get a clear run,” he added.
“I’ve watched a lot of replays and they seem to go quite quick to the bend and steady up. I’ve watched the last ten years of replays and it seems that you need to have a good horse but also luck.
“It will be different for Enfjaar as he’s probably never experienced track like it but it is a horse race and I’m well used to it. We’ll go on there with a bit of confidence and hopefully get a bit of luck on the way around.
“He has got a lot better this year. Even at Goodwood he was a lot better in the parade and the way around.”
The pair combined to win the Group 3 Glorious Stakes (2414m) at Goodwood in June in a platform that Dawson says set the scene for the Melbourne trip that he saw as a ‘no-brainer’ proposition.
Dawson will ride Enfjaar in the Roger Varian-trained six-year-old gelding’s final hit out on Thursday morning.
