David Hayes returned to training in Australia as a winner yesterday, scoring with his first runner since going back after a 10-year tour of duty in Hong Kong.
Hayes, 42, won the A$50,000 Cash Logistics & Security Handicap at Melbourne's Moonee Valley racecourse with four-year-old filly Plans, ridden by seven pound claimer Ryan Hinton.
Hayes's late father, Colin Hayes, was famous for the saying 'the future belongs to those who plan for it' and his son's comeback-day winner was undoubtedly set-up with the professionalism and marketing flair for which the family is so renowned.
It was a similar story when Hayes arrived in Hong Kong in 1995, after winning 10 trainers' championships in five years in Australia.
Hayes scored with his first Hong Kong runner, Esteemed, owned by Feng Chin-yen and ridden by Steven King, at Sha Tin in race two on the opening day of the 1995-96 season. Esteemed, a son of Bletchingly, was backed from $82 to $65 and was followed by 448 more winners before Hayes called it quits at the end of June.
Plans, a daughter of Strategic, had won four of her 12 starts under the tutelage of Tony McEvoy, who had trained the team since the death of Hayes' elder brother Peter in an aviation accident four years ago.
Hinton settled Plans ($2.8 favourite) in fifth place and allowed her to travel smoothly to the lead before the corner. On straightening, Plans held a 11/2-length lead which she maintained to the line, scoring from Regal Summer (Noel Callow) and Palatine Hill (Peter Mertens).
