Hayes expecting big performance from Gin Spirit
Lindsay Park are hopeful promising filly Gin Spirit (Spirit Of Boom) can make a winning return at Caulfield on Saturday, with the stable eyeing early season stakes targets should she perform in a handicap over 1100 metres.
Bred by Bell River Thoroughbreds, Gin Spirit was purchased by Lindsay Park for $210,000 at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and showed her talent in her first campaign.
Arguably the most accomplished runner in the juvenile contest, the daughter of Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) made an immediate impression when winning on debut at Morphettville in January. She then returned to Victoria where she finished midfield, beaten four lengths, in the Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (Gr 2, 1100m) behind Palm Angel (Starspangledbanner) and My Gladiola (I Am Invincible).
Sent back to Adelaide, Gin Spirit added black-type to her resume with a comfortable 1.21-length success in the Cinderella Stakes (Listed, 1050m), before returning to Melbourne where she finished runner-up to Bennett Racing’s Military Tycoon (Written Tycoon) in the Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) down the Flemington straight.
Following that run, she was sent to the paddock and has returned this preparation with two jump-outs in readiness for Saturday’s assignment.
“She’s trialled up super, we are very happy with her last trial,” JD Hayes, who trains in partnership with brothers Ben and Will, told ANZ News.
“She showed that she’s got some really nice quality last preparation, culminating in the second in the Ottawa. She does look to definitely have the best form in the race coming into it, and with Logan Bates’ claim she gets in well at the weights too, so we’re quietly confident.”
With the track at Caulfield rated a Soft 6 on Friday afternoon and more rain forecast for Melbourne overnight, the stable is not concerned with how the filly will handle the heavy track conditions.
“Based on her trials, I think she’ll love it,” Hayes said.
“She was quite exceptional in her last trial. So the gut feel is that she will and will be better for her, the knowledge after tomorrow [Saturday] because she’ll be definitely going around.
“We will just be telling Logan to ride her as he finds her. Hopefully, it pans out the way that we hope and she should be getting an absolute gun run, one out one back. But wherever Logan sees fit and as long as she is travelling nicely in a rhythm, she’ll be pretty hard to beat.
A forward showing on Saturday could earn Gin Spirit another crack at black type early in the new season.
“She will have heaps of room for improvement, if she’s able to win well, we’d probably be looking at an early stakes race in August with all the good three-year-old fillies races coming up quickly.”
Lindsay Park will also be represented by three-time Listed winner Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau), who lines up at her second start for the preparation in a 1100-metre handicap.
Now racing in the green silks of Yulong, having been acquired by the operation for $810,000 via an online sale last year, the three-year-old filly failed to fire first-up behind She’s An Artist (Trapeze Artist) at Flemington, but Hayes is expecting improvement back at Caulfield on Saturday.
“We looked at her splits and she ran some insanely quick splits in the middle of the race at Flemington, so she was entitled to get a bit tired,” Hayes said.
“It’s going to be good to see her back around a bend. We are going to try a little bit of a different tactic riding her a touch colder, so it’s going to be an interesting watch.
“Hopefully she’s able to put her best foot forward because when she is good, she’s very good. She’s clearly won the most prize-money in the race by quite a way, so she deserves to be carrying the weight, and with Logan Bates’ claim again she gets in nicely at the weights, and if we’re able to ride her with a bit of a sit and might add another string to a bow.”
Lindsay Park enter Saturday’s meeting on the back of a standout 2024/25 season, having prepared 231 winners so far and are currently sitting atop the Victorian Trainers’ Premiership. Among those are 19 individual two-year-old winners.
“We have had 19 individual two-year-old winners. It’s been a very good year, we’ve had some good support with horses coming to us. Eight of those were horses that we selected at last year’s yearling sales, so the process at the yearling sales where we were guided by Dean Hawthorne and our sales team seems to be working and I’m very happy to be getting the results through on the track.”
The stable received another boost this week after being named among the trainers selected to take on horses from the former James Cummings-trained Godolphin team, following the global operation’s shift to a public training model in the new season.
“It’s extremely exciting and very fortunate for the opportunity and hopefully we’re able to get some success for the Goldolphin blue,” Hayes said.