Racing: Dwyer anguishes over big-money offer for Bianca

Don Dwyer bought Bianca for $2000 as a weanling. Picture / Trish Dunell

Don Dwyer sat at home yesterday not knowing what to do.

A mixture of excitement and nervousness enveloped him and he wasn't sure which emotion was stronger.

What he could be sure of was that the decision he had to make in the next 24 hours could change his life.

Whether to sell Saturday's remarkable $35,000 Great Northern Foal Stakes winner Bianca.

Last week Dwyer turned down a fairly big Australian offer to sell Bianca, who won Saturday's listed Stakes race by 9- 1/2lengths without actually being pushed.

"When I told them how much money I wanted they laughed," said Dwyer.

The prospective buyers apparently stopped laughing and reached for the phone after the Foal Stakes display at Ellerslie because Dwyer now has a second offer on the table - an offer his heart of hearts tells him he shouldn't turn down.

But sentiment may see him do just that.

"It's a good position to be in, but not for me. I get too attached to them and I know I shouldn't - I've been around too long."

The history of thoroughbred racing is full of stories about people who have turned down big-money offers for horses that have not lived up to the potential that created the interest in the first place.

Dwyer bought Bianca for $2000 as a weanling and is battling with the thought of leaving behind the excitement of racing a potential top-class racehorse he both owns and trains.

"I'm loving this. For excitement this was amazing," said Dwyer.

"I was in that new Ellerslie birdcage bar during the race yesterday and when they turned for home I could see she was going to run at the leaders.

"I ran outside, leaped the rail into the birdcage and yelled myself hoarse.

"I was clapping her all the way down the home straight and yelling and everyone was looking at me thinking, 'What's that mad bastard up to?' "

Dwyer knows what money can do - he also knows it cannot buy the fun he had on Saturday.

"I get a tingle every time I think about it - and I'm a hard bastard when it comes to horses - I've been around a while.

"I don't know what I'll do.

"It's good to have something behind you to pay the bills, but this filly could set me up for life."

Watching the way Bianca put a big space on some talented opposition on Saturday, you wouldn't disagree with that.

Dwyer bought the filly because one of his idols when he was a youngster was her granddam, Cariere, who won an Avondale Cup at group-one level for Jim and Veda Morris.

If Bianca adds that type of stamina to what she showed on Saturday her potential is unlimited.

But a couple of horses Dwyer was associated with, one standardbred and one galloper, stick in the Pukekohe horseman's mind.

"I sold Ore Else to Hong Kong. He was showing plenty at the time, but he didn't win a race up there in 18 starts."

The other niggler is the 1987 pacing Derby winner Dillon Dean, which Dwyer trained during his harness years before switching to gallopers.

"Dillon Dean had been the top 2-year-old and top 3-year-old.

"After winning the Derby everyone assumed he'd come back as the leading 4-year-old, but I couldn't get him right. He got beaten in everything to start with.

"He got every bug going and I had to take blood off him every week to monitor it. Then just before the Messenger Stakes I drove him myself at the trials and let him drop in behind - we'd been leading with him - and he felt different.

"Colin de Filippi drove him in the big race and I said to take him quietly and he won the Messenger.

"Bianca's win on Saturday gave me the greatest excitement, but that Messenger win was the greatest satisfaction I've had because it was one hell of a challenge. There was a lot of pressure on me. That one came off, but it may not have. It's a good example of how horses sometimes don't live up to what you expect of them."

Bianca has a bit of mana behind her through her name. Dwyer is a big fan of the Rolling Stones and named the filly after Mick Jagger's former wife. Bianca's sire, Painted Black, is named after one of the Stones' hits.

The connections of the beaten runners in Saturday's Foal Stakes have something to ponder - Bianca was meant to run in a $15,000 maiden race at Ellerslie next Monday and Dwyer put her in the big race only when the club left nominations open a further 24 hours because of light entries.

"She was the only late entry that started," said her trainer.

What Dwyer has to ponder today is which way to venture at one of life's inevitable crossroads.

Decision time

* Bianca broke through for her first win in the stakes race at Ellerslie on Saturday, leaving the opposition behind by nearly 10 lengths.

* Last week owner and trainer Don Dwyer turned down a big offer from Australian interests to by the filly.

* Today he has an even bigger offer to ponder.