Seafall, who wasn’t the leading Winter Championship prospect for Lindsay Park at the campaign’s outset, is now the mare carrying the Hayes family’s hopes for a long-awaited win in the Finals Day feature race.
The five-year-old, by The Autumn Sun, will be the sole representative for trainers Ben, Will, and JD Hayes in the $200,000 Listed race at Flemington this coming Saturday.
While the Hayes family has frequently celebrated success on Finals Day as the event has evolved, their grandfather Colin Hayes was the last to claim victory in this specific race, achieving it in 1985 with Kiwi Slave.
Ben Hayes is content for Seafall to lead a considerable team of runners for Finals Day. This group includes Ndola in the Santa Ana Lane Final, The Western Front in the Banjo Paterson Final, Stylish and Grid Girl in the Leilani Final, and Stars Of Dom, Vivid Storm, and Resolutely in the Next Generation Final.
“You always like to have runners at Flemington and it has been a good meeting for us over the years,” he said. “I think we’ve going to have a good team there and hopefully we can get a winner or two.”
Seafall is poised to continue her upward trajectory at what will be her first start in Stakes grade since an eighth-place finish in the Group 3 Kembla Grange Classic when she was a three-year-old, trained then by Chris Waller.
She joined Lindsay Park last spring and failed to win in her initial seven starts for the team, but has since recorded four victories from her past five runs.
Her most recent win came in The David Bourke at Flemington on June 20, which confirmed her entry into the Winter Championship Final.
“She’s thriving, she’s a mare in form and when mares are in form they just keep going,” Hayes commented. “She’s a lovely, sound horse and I think it’s a great opportunity for a mare like her to go for Black Type. If she draws a barrier and gets the right run she can go very close. There aren’t many Stakes races this time of year, so it’s a good opportunity to hopefully get some Black Type for her.”
Seafall is one of 24 nominations for the Winter Championship Final, with the defending champion Jimmy The Bear being the headline entry.
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