Hayes has great ambitions for Great Win
David Hayes took a firm grip on the Juvenile Sprint Trophy next month with sensational two-year-old Great Win yesterday and was already thinking about the higher peaks ahead in the new season.
The colt never looked like losing up the straight as he graduated with honours into Class Three company and lowered the boom on year-older Triumphant Unicorn with a resounding win by almost three lengths.
'I think he'd be a pretty firm favourite for the griffin championship now,' said Hayes as Great Win (Shane Dye) set himself up for a possible tilt at the Hong Kong Sprint in December.
'Look, it's a big statement. We're standing here in May, having won a Class Three and talking about taking on Silent Witness,' Hayes said. 'But what I am sure about is that this is a Premier Class sprinter. He'll go to an 80 rating after that, to 90 if he wins the Juvenile Sprint and in the new season it won't be long before the only option he has got will be playing against the big boys.'
It has all worked out in the end as Hayes expected with Great Win this season, but the road was not without its bumps.
'When he was beaten at his first start, he'd only been here six weeks and was underdone, but when he shied that second day and lost behind Sharki, I was stunned - I still can't believe it happened,' Hayes said, shaking his head.
'I knew what we had when the horse came here. We had two-year-olds at Lindsay Park in Australia which won and ran well in the lead-up races to the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond races, including a very good filly who would have started one of the main chances in the Slipper but for a bleeding attack after she won the week before.
'I knew this horse was better than them and I can assure you he would have been right in the top two-year-old races in Australia.'
Hayes also took on Triumphant Unicorn with some confidence yesterday, despite the age difference.
'My horse Always Flying beat Triumphant Unicorn the other day giving him 14 pounds,' Hayes commented. 'If I work Great Win with Always Flying, Great Win will beat him. So if you take a line between them that way, I didn't think the other horse would be able to give this guy 14 pounds and beat him.'
Dye had scored his first win for Hayes in almost two years last weekend on Always Welcome and never had any concerns making it a second within a week yesterday.
'Great Win is a very nice horse. I think when he comes back next season, he has the potential to be one of the top sprinters here,' Dye said.
Although beaten yesterday, Triumphant Unicorn was far from disgraced, showing great character to lift himself into second place over the final stages and looking as though the opinions expressed by trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing and jockey Olivier Doleuze had come to bear at his third start.
Both have said they don't believe Triumphant Unicorn is a 1,000-metre horse and the gelding seemed to lose his speed yesterday before finding the line strongly.