David Hayes relives Almaarad’s 1989 Cox Plate win for Colin Hayes

Almaarad arrived and departed in a matter of months but his 1989 Cox Plate win will always be special to David Hayes and Lindsay Park.

Colin Hayes and his last Cox Plate winner, the 1989 champion Almaarad.

Seven weeks. Four starts. A Cox Plate win – then it was over.

Almaarad was Australian Racing Hall of Fame Legend Colin Hayes’ last superstar.

Hayes was the patriarch of the Lindsay Park dynasty, starting his training career in 1947, opening his own stables in 1950, beginning a 43-year career that produced the winners of more than 5300 races.

“CS”, as he was known, won two Melbourne Cups, a Caulfield Cup, three Cox Plates and more than $119m in prizemoney when stakes were much lower than today’s levels.

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Hayes was also a breeder at Lindsay Park, breeding 3461 winners of 12,162 races.

Hayes was also Adelaide’s premier trainer 26 times and won the Melbourne trainers’ premiership in 13 straight seasons between 1978 and 1990.

Almaarad was Hayes’ curtain call. The import won the Cox Plate 12 hours after Colin Hayes announced his retirement as a trainer at the end of the 1989/90 season, handing the reins to his son David.

“It was a big thrill because he announced his retirement the night before the Cox Plate at the Cox Plate Eve ball,” David Hayes said.

“Dad was the leading trainer for the last five years but it was only his health that caused him to retire.

“I’m sure had there been partnerships, he would have hung on a bit longer, but there no partnerships in those days and it was just too much for him to be the nominated trainer.

“But Almaarad made his last year very satisfying.”

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum combined with Hayes to win the 1986 Melbourne Cup with At Talaq, sparking a surge of imported gallopers and Australian-bred stock carrying his Shadwell colours.

Almaarad raced in the care of John Dunlop, winning a Group 1 race in Germany and Group 2 races in France and England before heading to Australia.

Almaarad’s Australian career started on the worst possible note but ended with an amazing win in the 1989 Cox Plate.

“He came out for the Tancred (Stakes) when it was an international race but got injured and didn’t run,” David Hayes, who was assistant trainer at the time, said.

“We gave him a break and got him back for the spring and he was just the dominant horse in Australia for that short time.”

Almaarad could have retired unbeaten in Australia had the bob of the heads gone his way when narrowly beaten at his local debut in the Group 2 Craiglee (now Makybe Diva) Stakes at Flemington in September 1989.

From that point, Almaarad showed himself to be a grinding machine, winning the Underwood Stakes and Caulfield Stakes

But the chestnut saved his greatest performance for his final start.

Almaarad had to go to the limit to run down three-year-old Stylish Century, who went on to easily win the Victoria Derby the next Saturday, despite giving the younger horse 10.5kg.

Jockey Michael Clarke lifted Almaarad over the line to beat a quality field that also included the likes of Vo Rogue, Zabeel, Courtza, The Phantom and Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose.

Almaarad (right) defeated Vitalic in the 1989 Caulfield Stakes. Almaarad won the Cox Plate at his next and final start.

Hayes said Almaarad showed the magnitude of his Cox Plate win after he cooled down.

“Unfortunately the horse bowed a tendon in the Cox Plate and was retired,” Hayes said.

“He was even money for the Melbourne Cup and he ruptured his tendon, he didn’t just bow it.

“He did an incredible job to win.”

Almaarad quickly came and went, possibly before Australian racegoers saw the best of the Irish-bred stallion.

Hayes said the short span of Almaarad’s time on Melbourne racetracks might have caused him to be forgotten in Cox Plate annals.

“He dominated that spring and that was a spring with Super Impose and there were superstars around,” Hayes said.

“If you look at the horses he was racing, they were incredible like Vo Rouge and all those horses.

“The reason he doesn’t get mentioned is that he was only around six months.”

Originally published as David Hayes relives Almaarad’s 1989 Cox Plate win for Colin Hayes