Racing Legend's $20m Gamble On New Start
HE'S one of our most successful horse trainers, but can David Hayes make his punt on a move to Victoria pay off?
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A PLAQUE on the iron gates of Lindsay Park records the vision of the man who built it, the legendary Colin Sydney Hayes. It reads: "The future belongs to those who plan for it." No one could have predicted that sign would be joined by a "For-Sale" billboard just 11 years after Colin died following a lengthy battle with heart disease. back then, Lindsay Park, near Angaston in the Barossa Valley, was world famous as an equine Mecca of excellence and success. In 1977, the Queen came for lunch – and stayed for tea. now, it lies idle and in search of a buyer in a flat market.
The man who inherited the Hayes empire, David, the youngest of Colin’s four children, is pursuing the biggest adventure and risk of his life – the establishment of a purpose-built training centre at Euroa, 150km north-east of Melbourne. In a way, he’s living that motto on the plaque and echoing the vision of his father. But last year’s decision to sell up and move has been the subject of heated debate – and plenty of rumours.
There have been stories he’s going broke and, with the winners drying to a trickle, a strong sense it is the end for the Hayes dynasty. The word was, finances were now so tight one of South Australia’s favourite sons was divesting the family silver, and abandoning his inheritance and the state. And the fact the majestic 38-roomed homestead of his childhood was also in the sale catalogue was the strongest signal of all that Hayes had wagered the lot.
"Young" David had put everything on the line for the biggest gamble of his life. But was he out of his depth?
NED Kelly first put Euroa on the map when he and his cohorts robbed the National Bank in 1878. David Andrew Hayes has Euroa in the headlines again, but the man who is building his own village on the outskirts of the settlement has a contrary view on financial matters to the notorious outlaw. "Unlike Ned, I’m a very good friend of the banks," he says with a laugh. The Kelly gang netted £2260 for their daring raid, equivalent to about $100,000 in today’s money. you can add two noughts and double that figure to close in on the final sum, about $20 million, Hayes will pump into Lindsay Park, Euroa. there have been significant problems. The wettest winter in a century last year saw the massive building project under water and the work grind to a halt.
Premierships have been commonplace for David but winning one race from his Melbourne and Sydney stables became a challenge as the trainer’s time and resources were consumed by Euroa. by the time David arrived at the Adelaide racing carnival in may people were whispering his name as they do for those who have recently died or are terminally down on their luck. Morphettville had been the setting of many triumphs for the Hayes family over 60 years – this day they were "also-rans". And while there wasn’t a better-known face at the track that "Super Sunday", Hayes sat alone, with just a few form-guides and his indispensible mobile phone.
Three months later he is driving me around the undulating 485ha property, with the rocky outcrops of the Strathbogie Ranges as a backdrop. It’s like being in a Tom Roberts painting. Hayes is more prosaic. "do you know how much concrete costs?" he asks. I haven’t a clue, but I am pretty sure I am about to find out. Further along the snaking bitumen road which provides access to the entire property, he points out a storm drain opening. "With all the water, this road kept collapsing so we have had to shore it up. Every time you see one of those it’s a $4000 variation – you’ll see a lot of those."
Hayes loves a lavish punt and he’s about to let me know Euroa is the most extravagant of the lot. "It’s official," he says with only a hint of the smile he normally flashes. "There’s no more Hong Kong money left." The decade Hayes spent in the former English enclave – and the riches he made – is the reason he is the sole owner of Lindsay Park, Angaston, and can do with the property as he pleases, having bought out every other family member. Hong Kong is the gambling epicentre of the racing world and Hayes won over $120 million in stakes-money alone and as trainer picked up 10 per cent. "I loved Hong Kong," he says still beaming at the memory.
He arrived there in 1996 with wife Prue and four kids aged under five. "you have 60 horses to train, all your bills are taken care of and you get three months a year holiday. I went for three years and stayed for 10 and if our children hadn’t gone to boarding school in Australia I’d probably still be there. I love watching the children play school sports and I just couldn’t do that anymore. It was time to come home." That was 2006.
Home had previously been the Barossa Valley and the magnificent lush surrounds of rolling hills and ancient red gums at Lindsay Park. In its hey-day the Park was also home to three Melbourne Cup winners, nearly 10,000 other winners and a score of genuine champions, including Dulcify and better Loosen up. at its peak there were 500 horses on the estate and 160 staff on the payroll.
But when he returned from Hong Kong Hayes’s family was happiest in Melbourne where eldest children Ben and Sophie were already established and twins Will and James were still at school. David fully intended to continue using Lindsay Park at Angaston as his training base but the constant travel between the two cities soon wore him out.
It was Prue who helped crystallise the idea of putting together a plan to balance family and working life. "This is the greatest thing my wife did for me," he says about his new domain. "She understood I wasn’t a happy camper travelling back to Adelaide every week, training large numbers over there and living in Melbourne. She said, ‘why don’t you get a clean piece of paper and write down what would perfectly suit you’. And this is it, a state-of-the-art training complex with Lindsay Park ideas and new and improved innovations."
There’s no question David Hayes is one of the greatest trainers SA has produced. The day before my trip to Euroa he was back at Morphettville for the first time since "Super Sunday" to be inducted into the SA Racing Hall of Fame. over 400 peers gathered to celebrate a career that began at the forced retirement of his father in 1991. Colin Hayes was the first SA Hall of Fame inductee a year after his death, aged 75, in 1999. CS, as he was known, was an apprentice boilermaker for the SA Electricity Trust when he first harboured an ambition to become a racehorse trainer.
With no grounding it seemed a preposterous proposition, but with the devoted encouragement of Betty Munro – his sweetheart he met at dance night at the Semaphore Palais – he was spectacularly successful. Surefoot was his first horse – bought for £9 as that was all he had in the world. The owner wanted £10 but Colin tossed a coin for the difference and came out a winner when he chose "heads". The future of the Lindsay Park empire could have been determined on the fall of that coin. Surefoot’s first start in a race is part of the family folklore. A licensed amateur rider, Colin decided to pilot the horse himself. The bookies classed the pair "no-hopers" and put up cricket score odds. Confident in his steed and his own untested genius as a horseman, Hayes bet his and Betty’s honeymoon money, each-way, on the result. they had no hope of winning when they missed the start by three lengths, but with the jockey riding like a whirling dervish they passed the stragglers one by one and staggered into third. Betty got her honeymoon.
When Colin saw the elite training environments, with a country surround, in England and Ireland he knew instinctively it was the path to greater success in Australia. he required the financial backing of friends, including winemaker Wyndham Hill-Smith, jockey Ron Hutchinson, and American tennis great Jack Kramer to buy the 400ha rural estate from Sir Keith Angas, named Lindsay Park, in 1965.
In a few short years he carved a kingdom from the rolling landscape that produced a catalogue of big race wins and allowed him to buy out his partners. The boy from the Port, who was just 10 when he lost his dad to a heart attack, was Lord of the Manor.
Not long after David picked out his bedroom at "the big house" he knew he was going to be a horse trainer. "I was standing next to Dad when he won the Adelaide Cup with Wine Taster – I was 10 and it was intoxicating," he says.
Colin wanted to retire as early as 1984 when his heart issues started mounting. he informed the press he had a major scoop and then had to backtrack embarrassingly when his eldest son Peter did the unthinkable and turned down the offer to take over at Lindsay Park. Peter had always been on his own path and he walked out soon afterwards to set up his own training establishment. David Hayes became foreman to his father the same day at the age of 21. Seven years later, Colin finally succumbed to his ailing health and handed over the reins.
The impact was immediate with the best season for Lindsay Park in a decade including better Loosen up – David’s favourite horse – winning the Japan Cup. Word was the "kid" was just the front man and the "old man" was still putting the polish on the winners. "there was a lot of that when I first took over. But the truth was Dad was just too sick to be involved very much, " Hayes says.
David was unquestionably out of his father’s shadow the day Jeune – owned by Sheik Hamdan of Dubai – won the Melbourne cup in 1994. soon afterwards, David and his father put in place the deal to secure Lindsay Park for the next generation that involved the move to Hong Kong to make money in a hurry. With David overseas it was paramount to Colin that a Hayes be in charge at Lindsay Park. It probably extended his life a couple of years when Peter drove through the iron gates to take over.
"The Hayes were the closest family I’ve ever known," a confidant told me. "they could argue like cat and dog, but you wouldn’t ever think about trying to get between any of them." Colin Hayes died a few weeks after a heart attack he suffered in Sydney in 1999 – even Prime Minister John Howard made a statement. But it was Peter’s death that was most shattering. his love for everything aeronautical cost him his life when a light plane he was piloting crashed, 40km south of Mildura, in early 2001.
"I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life," David Hayes says looking out across Euroa. "I can’t think of too many disasters for me at all – well, only the one really." It is the moment I should ask him about his brother’s death but we look at each other and I know he’s out of words.
IT’S now 20 years since David Hayes was dubbed by a racing scribe the "King of the Kids". he was 49 last week, has a receding hairline he’s conscious about and admits to being a few kilos overweight. We’ve driven out to the highest point on the property and he leaps up on a large granite rock as if to demonstrate his athleticism. I half expect him to yell, "I’m the King of the World" like Jack Dawson at the prow of the Titanic
Hayes is enthusiastic, approachable and with manners his mother can be proud of, but his usual good humour has been tested to its limit by the travails at Euroa. last year’s big wet was followed by one just as soggy this year. Ironically, the former cattle property was in drought when he bought it, sight unseen, 10 years ago as a rural retreat for horses having a spell from racing. Drought proofing has been a vital part of the project. there is a dam with a footprint the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground from which to draw water that is also used to swim the horses.
Circumnavigating the dam is a 2000m-turf track with an 8m camber built specifically to allow horses to trial in both a clockwise and an anticlockwise direction. as Hayes says, "why train in a straight line when horses have to accelerate around a bend?" The track is yet to be sown with grass but should be verdant by late autumn. there are four other main training surfaces currently operating and he won’t see much change from $5 million for the lot. Track-work is viewed from a main observation hut. "Hut" is a misnomer, as the inside of the structure resembles a TV control centre. Electronic timing systems embedded at precise intervals allows the trainer to assess the split second performance of every runner, and a spaghetti junction of fibre optic cables enables the recording and review of each gallop.
Nothing will be left to chance, the intention being to lure owners from across the country. Rubberised horse stalls to protect joints, swimming pools with ice baths to aid recovery and a day paddock for each of the pampered residents – this is a country club for horses. "This is a one-stop shop. We’ve got our own farrier, veterinary hospital, quarantine centre, you name it and we’ve got every possible facility," Hayes says. "Financially this is my biggest challenge … the biggest by a long way and I’m not too proud to say that." he readily admits he will never get his money back. all he is missing is the big house on the hill – he has plans for that – but for now horses come first and all the added luxuries are aimed at the livestock.
Hayes is not pleading poverty but is clearly stretched financially and that is the pre-eminent reason Lindsay Park, Angaston, is on the market. The property – initially valued at $15 million – has been packaged into separate lots, but finding buyers has proven difficult. Hayes has taken the homestead off the market – he spent $2 million renovating it just a couple of years ago – as he believes he cannot receive anywhere near it’s true value in the current depressed market.
The one word he uses to describe how he will feel when his famous family estate is finally sold is, "relieved". not sad, or sorry or sentimental. "I am sentimental, which is why I’ve brought all my memories here, but once I make a decision I’m ready to move on."
When I tell him how people perceived him at that Super Sunday at Morphettville, as a man looking down on his luck and deserted by friends, he is genuinely surprised. "I had a fine day. I don’t need to be surrounded by 100 people at the races to have a good time. I can understand how people might have thought I was miserable as we were going through the worst losing streak ever," he says. "I can get miserable but it doesn’t last long … Prue won’t let me. there were good reasons we were losing back then, but if you can’t face losing you shouldn’t be in racing."
Hayes fires up when I suggest that with the significant downsizing – there will only be a maximum of 108 horses at Euroa – there are several of his father’s records he’ll never surpass. "Which ones haven’t I beaten now?" he asks. "I’ve had six Group wins in a day … that’s a world record … I’ve had more winners than Dad in a year, 306, and that’s a Commonwealth record … " The record he most values is the Australian prize money record of $19,413,432, that still stands, achieved in 2006/07, his second year after returning from Hong Kong. "To me that’s my proudest one, because that’s what we’re all trying to do – win the most money," he says. "And before you ask, there’s no more of that money left either."
Hayes has been a world-beater – whether he will be again is questionable for some, but he’s in no doubt. "you don’t do something for 20 years successfully and then forget how to do it," he says. "We’ll target all the big races and I know we’ll be winning them again – and when we do I’ll build that house on the hill."
The bets are on at Lindsay Park, Euroa, and David Hayes is ready for the time of his life.
<a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/racing-legends-20m-gamble-on-new-start/story-fn3o6wog-1226178282050tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/racing-legends-20m-gamble-on-new-start/story-fn3o6wog-1226178282050Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:57:12 GMT”>Racing legend's $20m gamble on new start
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