Racing: Dwyer to cement code swap

If trotting-convert Don Dwyer wins a dozen more group races none will be as sweet as Lazaros landing the $100,000 Aussie Browne's Winter Cup at Riccarton tomorrow.

Since swapping sulky for saddle four years back the Pukekohe trainer admits he's copped his share of flak from career-switch critics.

But no one has been more supportive of Dwyer's code change than Lazaros' high-profile harness owners Kypros and Mary Kotzikas.

The Cyprus-based husband and wife team gave Dwyer some of his biggest wins on the standardbred circuit and will be at Riccarton to see Lazaros race for the first time tomorrow.

"I'd love to win this for Kypros and Mary," said Dwyer, who quit harness racing after becoming disillusioned with its handicapping and red-tape.

"They really have been an incredible support when a lot of people said I'd be no show in this game and I'd struggle learning it.

"I have to admit that I have struggled at times too, but I've got on top of it now."

Anyone who saw Dwyer's exciting filly Bianca win the listed Great Northern Foal Stakes at Ellerslie in late May could see that.

Bianca was sold to clients of Gai Waterhouse's Sydney team soon after.

But Dwyer is confident that Lazaros is now ready to take over the hole she left in the stable.

"He's a lot stronger this time in and probably a bit harder after his Australian trip," he said.

Nothing went right for Dwyer with Lazaros in a two-race Melbourne campaign last month.

Instead of the soft to heavy tracks the gelding prefers Dwyer found himself in the middle of the driest Victorian winter in a century.

"On top of that they had water restrictions - I can really pick them can't I," joked Dwyer.

With no luck in making the field for his main Melbourne mission, the Winter Championship (1600m) at Flemington, Dwyer returned home hoping he could sneak Lazaros into the Winter Cup at Riccarton instead.

This time last year he'd set an in-form Lazaros for the same race.

But when it became evident the Slavic gelding would still be in the ballot zone under the new rating system he stayed north.

While the horse was still hovering around the same classification a year later, Dwyer had the perfect race in mind to avoid a repeat this year - a 1600m event at Ellerslie last month.

But the club canned the race because of insufficient entries, forcing Lazaros to scramble for his Winter Cup ticket against R92 rivals at Ellerslie over 1400m, a distance now short of his best.

"When we couldn't find a 1600m race for him, I thought I'd nearly blown the whole thing," said Dwyer.

"He won well at Ellerslie over 1400m but he's screaming out for 1600m now - that's his best distance.

"And the 53kg he has in the Winter Cup is really awesome. To come into a major handicap near the minimum is what you aim for."

Rider Noel Harris, who partnered Lazaros in one of his recent Melbourne runs, agrees that Dwyer's big hope is perfectly placed in the weights for the group three feature.

A winner of the same race aboard Real Vision four years ago, Harris believes that Lazaros now only needs a track that's at least soft to give him a serious shot at a repeat.

"There's something about him I like - and if he's going to do anything this will be his year," said Harris. "He really impressed me a couple of times last year."

All Dwyer needs now is some of the luck he had a few kilometres across town at Addington raceway as a trainer-driver in the harness world.

In one unforgettable season there he won eight races and finished second twice in just 10 attempts.

His big-race Christchurch scalps include a New Zealand Derby and two NZ Free-For-Alls, the first with the Dwyer-driven Dillon Dale in 1984 and then Dillon Dean five years later.

So far, so good for Dwyer with the first thoroughbred he's taken south.

Lazaros tips the scales at the same weight he was before he left, proving he's taken no harm from the long float trip.

"And the people here who know tell me that it won't take much more rain here to make it heavy," said Dwyer.

"To be fair, I'd be more confident if it was. His best form has been on those tracks.

"But I wouldn't dismiss him if it stayed soft either."

Dwyer has respect for a slew of other party-spoiling lightweights in the race, thanks to the Balmuse-compressed handicap scale.

Classy 4-year-old Final Reality could be tough to beat with a massive weight relief on a course he loves.