Lindsay Park trainers Ben and J D Hayes have continued the family tradition of winning Melbourne’s premier two-year-old race.
Little Brose provided the Hayes brothers with their second Group 1 win in taking out the Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Sandown on Saturday.
David Hayes, the brothers’ father, holds the Blue Diamond record of six wins, including a win with Ben and nephew Tom Dabernig, while David’s father Colin won the race on three occasions.
Ridden by Michael Dee, Little Brose ($9.50 at betr) scored by a length from Don Corleone ($10) with Arkansaw Kid ($10), a stablemate of the winner, a long head away third.
The Hayes brothers won their first Group 1 race with Mr Brightside in the Doncaster Mile at Randwick last April and Ben Hayes could not contain his delight at Saturday’s success.
“I’m shaking. I thought he was good enough to win and I’ve felt like vomiting all-day,” Hayes said.
“It’s good to be winning the Blue Diamond and keeping that family tradition going.”
Hayes said he and his brother sat down at the end of last season to work out what they could improve after their first year in a training partnership.
One of the things they focussed on was changing how they worked their two-year-olds which has seen the pair train seven individual winners this season.
“We got our two-year-olds slightly wrong and we changed a couple of things and I think our results have spoken for themselves,” Hayes said.
“That’s our seventh individual winner and most of them have been listed and group races so we improved on that.
“I think it is huge going forward. Very exciting and thrilled for my whole family.
“We work so hard and to do it in our second year of training as a partnership, it’s a big thrill.”
Dee is starting the fulfill the promise he showed when he arrived from New Zealand as an apprentice to ride for Mick Price,
Saturday’s victory on Little Brose was the jockey’s eighth at Group 1 level.
“You get used to it when they happen, and you enjoy it when they come, but you get brought back down to earth soon enough,” Dee said.
“He’s a horse that takes everything in his stride. He never turns a hair. He just canters around to the gates lovely and he’s just such a beautiful colt to ride.
“I’m sure it is onwards and upwards from here.”