RACEHORSE trainers often talk of the pitfalls of treating the best horse in the stable differently to other horses, but David Hayes is happy to throw out the rule book when it comes to dealing with the world's best staying thoroughbred, Americain, reports The Age. It says: Yesterday, just three days out from his debut for the trainer in the Australian Cup at Flemington, it was easy to spot Americain among the dozens of other horses going through their routines at Hayes' Euroa property. First, th
RACEHORSE trainers often talk of the pitfalls of treating the best horse in the stable differently to other horses, but David Hayes is happy to throw out the rule book when it comes to dealing with the world's best staying thoroughbred, Americain, reports The Age.
It says: Yesterday, just three days out from his debut for the trainer in the Australian Cup at Flemington, it was easy to spot Americain among the dozens of other horses going through their routines at Hayes' Euroa property.
First, the former French-based, US-bred stallion is enormous at nearly 17 hands and he carries such a presence about him when he swaggers onto the track. But the easiest sign as to his identity is the simple fact that whatever he does on the track, he does it alone. Hayes has set up his new Lindsay Park property to accommodate a variety of training techniques, but the most common method, especially with the younger horses, is to work them in a string so as to teach them to gallop in a pack. But not so for Americain, as Hayes said he was attempting to mirror the horse's routine when he was being prepared by French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre for the past two Melbourne Cups.
''He's done 90 per cent of his work solitary,'' Hayes said yesterday of Americain's regime. ''When he was at Werribee [quarantine centre] all his work was solitary so I know that works.''