They say time is only important when you're in jail, but it was everything to David Hayes in bringing home a tempo-based double at Sha Tin yesterday and keeping his hopes of a trainers' championship alive. 'I'm not game to say that I can beat John Size, or even Tony Cruz for that matter, his horses are flying,' Hayes said. 'But I'm thinking now that I might be a lot closer at the finish than I expected a few weeks ago. 'I still feel that John's holding something back and my bullets might be all gone when he is ready to kick again, but at least he's coming back.' Championship pacemaker Size is getting into uncharted territory, with eight runners yesterday taking him to 29 starters without a win, while Hayes and Cruz have eroded the big lead he enjoyed in March. The wins of Crocker (Thomas Yeung Kai-tong) and Prime Witness (Dwayne Dunn) moved Hayes to 47 wins, one behind Cruz and eight short of Size's total. Ten-pound claimer Yeung racked up win number two in Hong Kong as Crocker, the outsider of the small field, lead throughout to upset the apple cart in the all-weather Class One over 1,650 metres. 'It was the result of a plan to send him forward in the race with no weight on his back and young Thomas carried it out well,' Hayes said. 'Crocker had failed on the all-weather once before but that was a 1,200-metre race where they went very fast, and he got in behind. 'He was run off his legs and didn't enjoy the kickback. Today he went forward and didn't have either of those problems.' It was no problem for Prime Witness either as the field allowed him to turn the seventh into a 400-metre sprint. 'What can you say? He was allowed the luxury of a very slow lead time and it became impossible for them to run him down when he's running 21 seconds and change up the straight,' Hayes said. 'That might have been the slowest-run Class One I've ever seen.' Dunn was grateful to his rivals for allowing Prime Witness so much breathing room. 'He pricked his ears, got breathing easily in front and he may not be as good as he was but he'll still run a very quick last 400 metres if he has no pressure early,' Dunn said. 'At the start of the season, he was really struggling and we were thinking of having to go up to 1,650 metres at Happy Valley to find a race for him to relax in front, but he's managed to turn it around.'
