TWO things strike you immediately about David Hayes. For someone who has achieved so much in just a few short seasons, he remains so untouched by success, so level headed.
In plain speak, he's a bloody good bloke. But listen to him analyse a problem or explain the methods behind his training and it is immediately apparent how he succeeded his legendary father Colin Hayes and lifted their Lindsay Park training establishment to new heights. His is the most logical of minds. He has the uncanny habit of getting straight to the core of a problem, deducing what is to be done and making it all seem so simple. But then isn't that true of all the world's top sportsmen? Hayes, 32, was certainly at the peak of his profession when last season he chose to leave Australia and accept the challenge of training in Hong Kong. It was not an unexpected move as he'd wanted to make the same break two years earlier. But it is a strange decision as Hayes left after five successive championships in Melbourne and Adelaide.
He's essentially modest but if asked he doesn't mind telling you that he has also set a world record of six Group victories in one day and a Commonwealth record of a staggering 306 winners in a season. For good measure there were 10 Group One triumphs last year and nine in the previous campaign. Oh and I nearly forget, there's also a little matter of a Melbourne Cup, a Japan Cup and a W. S. Cox Plate in the same two years. With a record like that surely the temptation would have been to stay put? 'Actually it was the travelling which was really getting to me.
I was sick of it and am so pleased that I can now walk to work and go racing where I live. This was one of the major factors behind the move - the quality of lifestyle,' explains Hayes. 'Of course there is the financial reward, too, which is probably greater in Hong Kong and I'm not denying that.' Hayes then pauses to order his logic: 'But it is the quality of life and the challenge and then the financial reward in that order.
'I say the challenge because I've always wanted to prove myself away from Australia. 'I believe international success is the ultimate challenge and the ultimate achievement and Australia is a little bit isolated. 'Hong Kong is a truly cosmopolitan place and there is no comfort zone, no hiding place. 'So it is the lifestyle, the challenge and then the reward.' Having opted for an improved quality of life and a sterner challenge, can Hayes be expected to make a dramatic entry to the stage? Is he going to be sending out a similar stream of winners? Not for the first half of the season at least, or so it seems. Hayes reasons: 'I imagine I will have a slower start to my Hong Kong career than Patrick [Biancone] or Ivan [Allan] due to the nature of the way I've set up my stable. 'I've targeted owners I already knew, or trained for, or owners with permits for new horses. I haven't targeted horses as such, so I just hope expectations are not too high for the first five or six months.
'I won't sacrifice my younger horses for early success so the winners I have during this initial period will be a bonus. 'After that they will be planned. I will be much more competitive in my second and third seasons than in my first and I hope that will be appreciated.' In those second and third seasons Hayes is almost certain to retain a stable rider.
