Dwayne Dunn comes to Sydney on Saturday with some smart youngsters in mind, namely a pair of impressive two-year-olds and his son Dylan.
Dunn will ride high-priced two-year-olds Mawahibb and Lake Geneva as they debut for the Hawkes,stable, where he is important part of the team. That is business.
But there will also be a family aspect to the trip as he will offer some fatherly advice to Dylan, a 20-year-old apprentice who is having his first ride in Sydney for new boss David Hayes.
"It will be good to be there for the day to help him where I can because it is his first time up there," Dunn said. "He has had a good 12 months in Adelaide with Phillip Stokes and has just moved to David Hayes.
"He's going to get plenty of opportunities and is now only a step or two away from getting some really good rides."
Dunn had been protective of Dylan and held him back from riding, but his son's desire to follow the family tradition won through.
"He does struggle with his weight and I sort of held him back a bit because of it," Dunn said. "I was thinking he was going to get a bit big but he has worked hard.
"He has got his weight down from 64 kilograms to 55, but every time he goes to the races he is wasting, which shows how determined he is."
Dylan Dunn will claim three kilograms on outsider Spacecraft in the TAB Rewards Handicap (1500 metres). His father's chances are more solid in the market. Mawahibb, a half-brother to Mossfun, and Lake Geneva were winners at the official two-year-old barrier trials back but will make their debuts in the Canonbury Stakes and Widden Stakes.
Dunn has been Team Hawkes' go-to man when it comes to stallion prospects, riding Black Caviar's brother Moshe in his brief career, All Too Hard and, more recently, Deep Field.
It is no surprise to see him on Mawahibb, which brought $750,000 last Easter, for his debut as the stable attempts to get a line on where he fits.
Lake Geneva is a $1 million Fastnet Rock filly out of smart mare Hips Don't Lie.
"They are in the right stable to get analysis properly and not get too carried away with what their pedigree says," Dunn said.
"They let the individuals have time to put their hands up and show what they have really got. It's not a rush.
"It is always good to come up to Sydney and these horses I have seen before because they have come through the Melbourne stable, so they are not foreign to me.
"[Team Hawkes] have a very solid book of two-year-olds and we are looking forward to finding a good one."
Dunn has been a major part of Team Hawkes since it was established.
"A lot of people probably don't understand how the system works and everyone has a part in that to play. Right back from trialling them down here [in Melbourne] and educating them, right through to getting them to the races," Dunn said.
"It's a big operation and you really need every cog in the wheel working."
Co-trainer Michael Hawkes said that Saturday's races will decided where Mawahibb and Lake Geneva are heading. The Blue Diamond remains a possibility for both with Headwater coming to Sydney for the Golden Slipper.
"Headwater is the benchmark two-year-old for us because he has won in Melbourne and he is coming here for the Slipper as we didn't pay up for the Blue Diamond," Hawkes said.
"These two have done everything right so far and we find out a bit more about them on Saturday. It will decide where they are going.
They have a little bit left in them as all our two-year-olds do and Dwayne will be able to give us a good guide because he knows the system so well."
