Lindsay Park bolster their young stock with some Easter treats
After victory for Scenic Point (Written Tycoon) extended their lead in the chase to be crowned Australia’s most prolific trainers of juveniles, Lindsay Park set about replenishing their stable stock by acquiring three yearlings at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, including a colt whose dam is close to the Hayes brothers’ hearts.
Having been taught by the family patriarch never to rest on their laurels, Ben, Will and JD Hayes used some of the prize-money amassed over the course of another super Saturday for the stable to purchase a pair of Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) colts and a filly by Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) at the sale.
Unsurprisingly, given that they sit atop the two-year-old premiership and in the top four of the country’s overall training ranks, investors needed little persuading to snap up shares in the trio of babies bought by Lindsay Park and their partners at the Riverside complex.
The most sentimental of the purchases was that of Lot 234, a Home Affairs colt offered by Coolmore for whom Lindsay Park paid $380,000 in partnership with their trusted bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne.
Like most members of the buying bench, the Hayes brothers have been very impressed with the athleticism of Home Affairs’ progeny, but in reality it was the colt’s mother Tulip (Pierro) who really sealed the deal for the team.
Having been acquired by David Hayes for $400,000, Tulip hit the ground running in her juvenile season in 2016, winning on debut at Moonee Valley before registering the first of two stakes wins in the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Rosehill, where she beat home subsequent Group 1 heroine Alizee (Sepoy).
Tulip returned to Rosehill one week later to run third behind She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), and although that was the closest she would come to prevailing at the elite level, she later stamped her class with victory in the Typhoon Tracy Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) before retiring with a record of four wins and more than $1 million in prize-money.
Given their father’s association with the mare, the Hayes boys have kept a close eye on the progeny she has produced since joining Coolmore’s broodmare band in 2019, and having been summarily sunk by John Stewart’s $900,000 acquisition of her colt by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) at last year’s Inglis Easter Sale, they made a successful move for her fourth foal on Monday morning.
“He’s just a lovely colt and obviously it helps that we know the family so well through the success Dad had with Tulip,” Ben Hayes told ANZ Bloodstock Media.
“A lot of the Home Affairs have ended up on our list this year, he’s throwing really nice types and this colt fitted the mould perfectly. He looks the sort of horse that will be up and running early, much like his Mum, and if he can have the sort of career she did then we’ll all be very happy.
“Tulip was a fantastic horse for the stable, she ran really well in an Everest [fifth in 2017] and won a couple of stakes races for Dad. She was always super competitive whenever she went to the races, so hopefully she has passed that competitive streak onto her son.
“Obviously there was a little bit of sentiment involved, but regardless of that he was one of my favourite horses in the whole sale. I think we got him for a very fair price and we were also really pleased to pick up another Home Affairs colt [Lot 167] for $200,000.
“He’s out of a High Chaparral family, and we think he’ll probably be more of a later two-year-old because he’s still got a bit of growing to do. We’ve bought several horses similar in style to him – Poifect is one that comes to mind. Once this colt fills out into his frame, he’s going to be a lovely horse and the same goes for the Farnan filly [Lot 414] we also bought for $200,000 late in the day.
“Her sire has made a strong start to his stud career, and we’ve liked a lot of the Farnans at the sales but they’ve been hard to buy. This is the second Farnan we’ve bought and we were delighted to get her at that price, so I’m pretty confident the remaining shares in her will be taken quite quickly.”
While Farnan is only just starting out on his journey as a stallion, Written Tycoon (Iglesia) is coming towards the end of his time in the breeding barn but it seems that age shall not weary the champ, with his daughter Scenic Point the latest product to make her mark on the racetrack.
Hayes rates the filly, a $450,000 purchase by Ron and Judi Wanless, with KPW Bloodstock as agent, at last year’s Inglis Easter auction, in the top two of Lindsay Park’s juvenile pecking order. That is quite the compliment, especially since her stablemates Tycoon Star (Written Tycoon), Miss Celine (Magnus), Shining Smile and Gin Spirit – who are both sired by Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) – have all tasted stakes success this season.
Following her black type breakthrough at Caulfield on Saturday in the Redoute’s Choice Stakes (Listed, 1100m), Scenic Point was put on a truck to Euroa where she will spend the next few weeks in the paddock ahead of a spring campaign geared towards the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
“She was super on Saturday and it was great to see her justify the very high opinion we have of her,” said Hayes, who was trackside at Randwick to witness Evaporate (Per Incanto) take out the Carbine Club Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) on Saturday.
“Everything she’s done so far in her career has been a bonus, because we think she’ll improve lengths as a three-year-old and if that is the case, she looks to have a very bright future. We’ve kept her to sprint trips for now, but she looks to be a real miler in the making.
“At this stage the Thousand Guineas would be the main aim, but we’ll look to kick her off over sprint trips and gradually step her out in distance so that she’s peaking for her grand final. Hopefully she can keep improving because we think she’ll be a real force in whatever races she lines up in over the spring.”
The stable’s rich run of juvenile success could well continue this week, with Killiana (Brazen Beau) bringing some impressive form lines into Saturday’s $250,000 VOBIS Gold Dash (1100m) at Bendigo, having won by 4.25 lengths on debut before finishing fourth behind the unbeaten McGaw (I Am Immortal) as the race favourite in the $1 million TBV VOBIS Platinum Showdown (1200m).
While Hayes concedes there is no magic wand and that the art of training two-year-olds requires a fair degree of luck, the advice passed onto the boys by Hayes Senior – who won the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) three years in a row from 2006-08 – has proved invaluable.
“You obviously need the right stock but we’ve also got very good processes in place, and that was largely handed down to us by Dad,” said Hayes, who also confirmed stable star Mr Brightside (Bullbars) would have another trial this Friday before boarding a flight next Monday (14 April) bound for Hong Kong, where he will contest the Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m).
“There’s also an element of luck, but the harder you work the luckier you get in this game. We only take our two-year-olds to the races when we think they are definitely ready and can handle the experience, because a lot of young horses can easily get overawed if you expose them to raceday pressure too soon.
“So we prefer to take our time, and Dad was definitely big on having patience. He was one of the best trainers of two-year-olds during his time here, so obviously we asked him a lot of questions before he went to Hong Kong and it’s great to know we can still pick up the phone to him now whenever we need advice. Obviously we’ve adapted our own methods since he left, but we would be mad not to have taken on board all the lessons he taught us.”