Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes ready to lead Lindsay Park into a new era
Tom Dabernig, the grandson on legendary trainer Colin Hayes, is the fifth man to the country’s most successful stable - Lindsay Park. He’s not showing any pressure as he can count on his grandfather’s teachings.
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Tom Dabernig’s most treasured keepsake — an ornate gold, personally engraved French stopwatch — is kept in a safe.
Given to Dabernig in May, 1999, a week before his grandfather Colin Hayes died, the Joseph Auricoste timepiece has a simple message engraved on the back: “Good luck for the future.”
The future is now for Dabernig, whose most valuable racing inheritance from Colin Hayes resides in his brain - an unmatched education, more than four decades in the making.
When the new racing season started on Saturday, Dabernig became only the fifth man to lead the famed Lindsay Park training operation founded by his grandfather in 1965.
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If the weight of responsibility for sustained success — Lindsay Park last weekend logged its 27th Victorian metropolitan premiership – sits heavily on Dabernig’s shoulders, it is not obvious.
Dabernig started his first season at the helm of a highly-decorated stable, now based at Euroa in country Victoria, supported by his co-trainer and first cousin Ben Hayes.
“It’s a great opportunity for Ben and I,” Dabernig said.
“We’ve both had a great grounding and David (Hayes) has left us in a really good position.
“It’s a thrill to win the premiership again and to be in this position, but we know we have to continue to innovate and improve in order to be successful.”
Dabernig, 44, was barely a toddler when he first grasped the obsessive regard his family held for everything in racing, no matter how seemingly minor the detail.
Born into Australian racing royalty, Dabernig’s maternal grandfather — CS Hayes — wasted little time in stamping the youngster with an incurable passion for the sport.
Growing up at Lindsay Park in the Barossa Valley, Dabernig recalls Hayes having no issue with any members of the famed racing clan taking days off or holidays — on one proviso.
“You were expected to go to the races every weekend and if you went on a holiday, there was an expectation that it had be related to the races,” Dabernig said.
“So if you were going to the Gold Coast, it was generally when the yearling sales were on. If you went to Melbourne for the spring carnival, you’d work in the stable.
“That was just the way ‘CS’ felt about racing and I was very fortunate from the time I was toddler with my grandparents and to talk with them about racing.
“There were so many experiences to pick up on and all of those things have helped me along the way.”
A third-generation member of the Hayes dynasty, Dabernig succeeds David Hayes as Lindsay Park’s head trainer in a role filled previously by Colin Hayes, Peter Hayes and Tony McEvoy.
Astute, engaging and polished, Dabernig’s father Arthur was Lindsay Park’s stud-master in its halcyon days.
His mother, Jan, David and Peter’s sister, worked in the property’s front office.
As a child growing up at Angaston, Dabernig was immersed in the property’s mystique but also forged outside interests — cricket, football and athletics while at Adelaide’s Pembroke School.
He represented South Australia in under-age athletics, showing decent talent in sprinting.
“I enjoyed it but if you relate it to horses, I won as a two-year-old before Christmas and didn’t train on at three,” he joked.
“I always had a passion for racing and my grandfather probably sensed that early.
“He got a kick out of my enthusiasm and all the questions I’d ask. I was surrounded by all these great experiences. I learnt from ‘CS’, Peter and David.”
Exposed to all aspects of training – and dealing with owners, including celebrities — Dabernig had several roles at Lindsay Park, including riding trackwork and strapping horses.
At other times, he became his grandfather’s personal chauffeur, driving him to the races, all the while soaking up every sliver of information he could.
He would sometimes act as receptionist on Saturdays, answering diverted calls, including those from former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and crooner Kamahl.
Both on the hunt for tips.
“It was an incredible place to grow up and I guess in many ways it was a normal sort of childhood,” Dabernig said.
“But to grow up at Lindsay Park was a great place for my particular interests. There was always something happening.”
When the time came for Dabernig to spread his wings internationally in search of a cross-pollination of racing styles, he worked for Barry Hills, Peter Chapple-Hyam and David Wachman as well a stint with a prominent jumping stable in England and Ireland.
Philosophy aside, the most dynamic element of the ancestral Lindsay Park education stems from David and Colin Hayes’ most defining trait — a fierce will to win.
“One of the things I admire about David, and it was the same with CS, is his competitive spirit,” Dabernig said.
“There’s an emphasis on being able to evolve and improve the business at every opportunity.
“In horse racing you always have your little ups and downs, but the interesting thing is how resilient David – and CS before him – is when things aren’t going as well.
“That’s when he’s the most positive, giving everyone a lift to keep pushing.”
Dabernig has surrounded himself with an accomplished team, headed by Ben Hayes.
“Ben is a really good, natural horse person and we’re both lucky to have some really good, experienced people around us,” he said.
They include Gary Fennessy, Bill Papazaharoudakis, Darren Bell, and Rayan (correct) Moore.
“They all play a big role in what we do and they complement each other,” Dabernig said.
“The succession plan from David to now has been excellent, similar to what it was previously from CS to David and Peter.
“Ben and I have a good working relationship and we’re excited about the future.”
With his two grandsons leading the team — and two others JD and Will also involved — David Hayes says ‘CS’, a visionary renowned for long-range planning, would have a smile on his face.
“I think he’d be very proud,” Dabernig agreed.
“He knew that I had a passion for horse racing and he got a kick out of that.”
Twenty-one years on, the stopwatch inscription resonates louder than ever.
Originally published as Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes ready to lead Lindsay Park into a new era