Lindsay Park has become the second Victorian stable to notch 100 winners in the metropolitan area for the season after Bullish Stock scored at Flemington.
Victory in the Ken Cox Handicap (1800m) on Saturday puts Lindsay Park in touch of the 103 winners it recorded in 2006-07.
Lindsay Park sits second on the Melbourne trainers’ premiership behind Darren Weir and well clear of third-placed Robert Smerdon.
Senior trainer David Hayes, who works in partnership with son Ben and nephew Tom Dabernig, said landing its 100th win in town was reward for the staff at its Euroa and Flemington bases.
Hayes is confident of building further on this year’s success.
“I reckon we’ll be stronger next season,” he said.
“I like our depth of two-year-olds which is your future and there’s plenty of yearlings coming in behind them while the older horses are racing consistently.”
Hayes said teething problems at Euroa had restricted the winners in the early years but he’s proud of the results over the past two-and-a-half years.
He said the stable now has a grasp of manoeuvring horses between its country base and stables at Flemington.
“We’ve built six new tracks at Euroa and I thought the results would be quicker as I had the knowledge of the old Lindsay Park,” Hayes said.
“We finally worked out that Flemington is a very important part of the operation as it allows us to change the horses around.
“Racing straight off the farm didn’t suit some horses and we weren’t using Flemington much but with Tom’s help I think we’ve got the balance pretty right.”
It might have been an off-season winter race but Hayes is already thinking of the spring with Bullish Stock.
Ridden by apprentice Chris Caserta, Bullish Stock ($13) scored a short-half-head win from the $4.20 favourite Zourkhan with Kilimanjaro ($5.50) a length away third.
Hayes has his eye on the Bart Cummings at Flemington in October for the stayer.
Almandin won the Bart Cummings last year before going on to win the Melbourne Cup.
“There’s a 2000-metre race here in early July but the big plan is the Bart Cummings which is a Melbourne Cup qualifier,” he said.
