Colin Hayes: Champion Horse Racing Trainer

“If a horse becomes more beautiful in the course of its work, it is a sign that the training principles are correct.” Colonel Podhajsky. This quote is apt for Thoroughbred racehorse champion trainer Colin Sidney Hayes (AM) (OBE), who is credited with training 5,333 winners. Hayes obviously imparted the correct coaching principles to bring home 28 Adelaide and 13 Melbourne Trainers’ Premierships.

In 1924, born in Sempaphore, South Australia, the death of his father when he was 10 forced him to take early employment as a boilermaker for the South Australian Electricity Trust. However, his keen interest in horse racing caused him to shell out £9 to buy a steeplechase called Surefoot, which Hayes had ridden as an amateur. One wonders if he gave it as good advice for horse racing. Although his best finish was a third place finish in the 1948 Great Eastern Steeplechase Steeplechase at Oakbank, little did he know it would be the start of a long and glorious career as a Thoroughbred horse trainer and a long list of trophies including two Cups. from Melbourne. in 1980 and 1986.

Surefoot encouraged Colin Hayes to do his best and expand his business as a trainer, with the introduction of ‘Surefoot Lodge’, his first stable in Semaphore. Although this brought him his first trainer role in 1956, Hayes had greater ambitions to breed winners and established another stable 80 kilometers northeast of Adelaide, in the Barossa Valley. Critics of him thought it was a misstep and felt that the stable was too far from the city area. However, the determined coach formed a syndicate that purchased a 2,000-acre property known as Lindsay Park. The land was conducive to raising horses with very rich pastures and paddocks that were among the best in the country. The Lindsay Park estate included a 38-room mansion built of sandstone and marble quarried from the property, built in 1840.

The move to the Barossa Valley caused Colin Hayes to lose business with several horse owners, thus reducing his stable from 40 horses to just 16. Undeterred by the loss, Hayes launched his first training session at Lindsay Park on August 1, 1970. , a day that catapulted the coach to fame that lasted 30 years. Lindsay Park soon became the most successful breeding and training center in Australian racing history.

Another day that Colin Hayes will probably never forget was January 23, 1982, when he managed to create a world record with 10 individual winners in a single day. Training horses to win races became child’s play for Colin Hayes, a business that came with money, accolades, and much fame and success, making him a highly sought after trainer, which was a huge difference from his earlier beginnings in the Barossa Valley.

The incredible skills of the trainer of champions paid big dividends with Thoroughbreds like Beldale Ball, who won the 1980 Melbourne Cup, and At Talaq, the formidable 1986 Melbourne Cup winner. Among the thousands of other fillies, colts and Geldings that will be trained by the able hands of Colin Hayes include Rory’s Jester, winner of the 1985 Golden Slipper Stakes, and Dulcify, winner of the VRC Derby and AJC Derby. David and Peter, Colin’s sons, followed in his footsteps. Unfortunately, Peter Hayes died in a plane crash in 2001.