The Lindsay Park team is desperate to win the C S Hayes Stakes at Flemington and hopes to have two chances in this year’s edition of the Group Three race.
The race is named in honour of the late Hall of Fame trainer Colin Hayes, father of trainer David Hayes and grandfather of David’s co-trainers at Lindsay Park, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig.
The stable has More Sundays and Mickey Blue Eyes among the 26 nominations for Saturday’s C S Hayes (1400m), a traditional lead-up to the Group One Australian Guineas two weeks later.
More Sundays sits at the bottom of the ballot with a field limit of 16 plus four emergencies.
“We’re busting to try to win it,” Dabernig said.
“We’re sick of presenting the trophy to other trainers.
“But the race has turned into a mini Guineas. It’s always a really good race and always a hard race to win.”
More Sundays is a colt by Fastnet Rock out of former star racemare More Joyous.
He won on debut at Geelong in August and then impressed in a Sydney barrier trial but his spring campaign was aborted after he was unplaced in a 1300m-benchmark race at Randwick.
He resumed with a fifth to Hawkshot over 1200m at Sandown on January 16 and Dabernig said he seemed to have trained on well.
Hawkshot, now with Lindsay Park after formerly being trained by the disqualified Darren Weir, won Saturday’s Group Two Autumn Stakes (1400m) from which More Sundays was scratched.
“Originally we planned to run in the C S Hayes and then we entered him for the Autumn Stakes. When we saw barrier one for a big colt we thought we’d wait the extra week,” Dabernig said.
“He’s talented. His past couple of runs have been a bit of a mystery but I’m hoping once we go to 1400 metres and maybe a mile he will be better.
“He’s probably a horse who prefers a little bit of rain.”
Mickey Blue Eyes won the Listed Dulcify Quality (1600m) in Sydney last spring before being unplaced in the Spring Champion Stakes, The Vase, Victoria Derby and Mackinnon Stakes.
“He seems good,” Dabernig said.
“He’s a colty thing so I wouldn’t know what he would be like first-up at the races but he’s another one that if he takes that next step he’ll be thereabouts.”
