Colin Sidney Hayes (16 February 1924 – 21 May 1999) was an Australian champion trainer of thoroughbred racehorses based in Adelaide, South Australia. During his career he trained 5,333 winners including 524 individual Group or Listed winners. He won 28 Adelaide and 13 Melbourne Trainers' Premierships. The C S Hayes Stakes is named in his honour and run annually at

Flemington Racecourse Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is the world's richest handicap and the world's richest 3200-metre horse race. The racecou ...

. Hayes was elevated to Legend status in the

Australian Racing Hall of Fame The Australian Racing Hall of Fame is part of the Australian Racing Museum which documents and honours the horseracing legends of Australia. The museum officially opened in 1981 and created the Hall of Fame in 2000. The numbers in brackets afte ...

in 2018, a feat only achieved by two other horse trainers, TJ Smith and Bart Cummings.

Early days

Hayes was born in Semaphore, South Australia on 16 February 1924. His father died when he was 10 years old. On leaving school he gained employment with the South Australian Electricity Trust as a boilermaker, but his love of horses soon led him to purchase a steeplechaser named Surefoot for £9. As an amateur rider, Hayes rode Surefoot himself with his best result being a third in the 1948 Great Eastern Steeplechase run at Oakbank. Popular legend has it that Hayes bet his honeymoon money on Surefoot, which ran third at odds of 60/1, enabling him to recoup the money and a little profit. His wife Betty was apparently very angry about the incident at the time. His son David followed in his footsteps and is a horse trainer. His other son was also a trainer, but Peter Hayes, who at the time was training Fields Of Omagh, died in an

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in 2001.

Initial success

Hayes's initial moderate success with Surefoot drove him to expand his operations and he set up stables called 'Surefoot Lodge' at Semaphore. He won his first Adelaide trainers' premiership in 1956 but decided he wanted to expand his operations into breeding winners as well. Hayes chose a place in the Barossa Valley approximately 80 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, with many people saying it was too far out of the metropolitan area to succeed. A syndicate of people was formed to purchase the property known as Lindsay Park, an 800-hectare property of very rich pasture land and superb paddocks. The centrepiece of the property is a magnificent 38-room mansion built in 1840 by George Fife Angas from sandstone and marble quarried on the property. In making the move Hayes lost several owners and promising horses, reducing his stable from 40 to 16 horses. He officially began training there on 1 August 1970 and over the next 29 years created one of the most successful breeding and training establishments in the world. A sign of his success is the world record 10 individual winners in a day, a feat he achieved on 23 January 1982.

Major wins

Amongst the many thousands of races won by Hayes and his horses were the following major race wins:

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Melbourne Cup * 1980

Beldale Ball Beldale Ball (1976−2004) was a brown Thoroughbred racehorse stallion by Nashua out of the mare San Cat (by Barbizon). Trained by Colin Hayes and owned by the Swettenham Stud Syndicate (Robert Sangster) his best win came in the 1980 VRC Melbour ...

* 1986 At Talaq

VATC Vietnamese-American Vocational Training College or "VATC", now known as American Polytechnic College is a private vocational college in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and licensed and regulated by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affai ...

Caulfield Cup * 1976 How Now MVRC W.S.Cox Plate * 1978 So Called * 1979 Dulcify * 1989 Almaarad

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Golden Slipper Stakes * 1985 Rory's Jester

Newmarket Handicap * 1977 Desirable * 1985 Red Tempo * 1988 Special * 1989

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VRC

Australian Cup The Australian Cup is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for horses three years old and older, held under Weight for Age conditions, over a distance of 2000 metres, at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in March du ...

* 1974 Bush Win * 1979 Dulcify VRC Derby * 1974 Haymaker * 1976 Unaware * 1978 Dulcify * 1988 King's High AJC Derby * 1979 Dulcify * 1981 Our Paddy Boy SAJC Adelaide Cup * 1962

Cheong Sam ''Cheongsam'' (, ), also known as the ''qipao'' () and sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown, is a Chinese dress worn by women which takes inspiration from the , the ethnic clothing of the Manchu people. The cheongsam is most often se ...

* 1972 Wine Taster * 1980 Yashmak * 1990 Water Boatman

Breeding

Hayes also played a major role in the Australian breeding industry by standing quality stallions such as Romantic, Without Fear and Godswalk. Some of the horses he trained also went on to highly successful stud careers including Rory's Jester, At Talaq and Zabeel.

References

External links

Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame websiteLindsay Park website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Colin 1924 births 1999 deaths Australian racehorse trainers Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Australian Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees Members of the Order of Australia Australian boilermakers Sportspeople from Adelaide Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees