Hayes shattered after the death of star charges
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 12, 2010
The Hayes stable will try to end a devastating week on a high with an Australian Cup victory at Flemington, writes Andrew Garvey. LEADING trainer David Hayes has been in racing all his life but if he needed a reminder of what a tough business it is, it certainly came this week in the lead-up to Saturday's postponed Australian Cup.After Tuesday's trackwork at Flemington, Hayes had five potential runners in the Australian Cup. But after a disastrous 24 hours two of those are dead.Not long after an impressive gallop that morning Changingoftheguard was found to have contracted a virus, and the decision was made to geld the imported galloper and look forward to the spring.But the normally minor procedure went wrong. Changingoftheguard suffered a perforated bowel and had to be put down on Wednesday.Changingoftheguard, which had been prepared in Ireland by leading trainer Aidan O'Brien, had been bought by some of Hayes's stable clients for an undisclosed sum with a view to running in last year's Melbourne Cup. But the horse was controversially scratched by Racing Victoria vets on the morning of the race.If the Australian Cup had not been put back a week, Our Aqaleem would have already run in the race. And if an impressive win at his local debut was anything to go on, he may well have even won the group 1 event.After that win over 1600m at Flemington in late January, Hayes was making comparisons to several other imported former stable stars including Almaarad and At Talaq, comments that were backed up by stable racing manager Gary Fennessy after trackwork yesterday."He might well have been a Cox Plate horse in the spring, he had shown us that much," Fennessy said.In what was to be his final piece of work before Saturday's race, Fennessy said Our Aqaleem was working along on the Viscoride track but was pulled up by his rider Steven Arnold after faltering for a couple of strides near the 400m mark.The six-year-old suffered what was thought to be a fractured shoulder but was sent to Werribee Veterinary Clinic for X-rays and specialist assessment.After further examination at the clinic, vets decided there was no chance of saving the stallion and he was euthanased."They were both top-class horses and we had been easy on them looking towards the spring. That was going to be their time," Fennessy said.Before his importation, Our Aqaleem, which like Almaarad and At Talaq was owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, had run third in the 2007 Epsom Derby.Subsequent to that race, he had suffered two fractures to his pelvis and had been sent to Hayes to try to resurrect his career. The plan looked to be well on track before his demise."He [Our Aqaleem] was probably our best chance, but we've still got three good chances," Fennessy said. "Extra Zero is a very good three-year-old and he has trained on very well since his last-start win, and the extra week has probably been good for him."Hayes opted to dodge the likes of Denman and Set For Fame in the Australian Guineas, and Extra Zero is the only three-year-old in the cup. Extra Zero is a last-start winner of the Autumn Classic at Caulfield, and big-race jockey Glen Boss has stuck with the Danzero colt.Fennessy was also upbeat about the chances of Growl and Zagreb, the latter finishing third in last year's Australian Cup behind stablemate Niconero."Zagreb is coming along nicely and Growl has gone on very well since coming back from his third in the Hobart Cup," he said. "These days I think Growl's best distances are probably around 2000 metres rather than 2400 and he loves Flemington, so I think he should be able to run a good race."TAB Sportsbet has installed the Mick Price-trained Heart Of Dreams as $6 favourite. Extra Zero heads up the Hayes trio at $13 , Zagreb is $18 and Growl $51.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald
