Betty Hayes will be remembered as a kind and caring woman and an integral part of the famous Lindsay Park racing dynasty.
The wife of legendary trainer Colin (CS) Hayes and mother of Peter, who died in a 2001 plane crash, David and daughters Jan and Kerry, she died overnight at the age of 87.
While son David has moved on from Lindsay Park at Angaston in South Australia to set up a new base at Euroa in northeast Victoria, Betty Hayes stayed on at Lindsay Park where she had resided for 40 years before dying in a local hospital.
“It’s very sad,” long-time Lindsay Park employee Tony McEvoy told Sky Sports Radio in Sydney on Friday.
“Betty Hayes was a great lady. The old saying that behind every great man is a great woman, well no truer words are spoken about Betty.”
McEvoy, who won the 2003 Cox Plate with Fields Of Omagh as head trainer for Lindsay Park, currently trains in his own right on a section of the property now known as Kildalton Park.
“It (Lindsay Park) was her life,” McEvoy said.
“Behind the scenes she was just incredibly supportive (of Colin Hayes) and what made it work really.
“She held the family together, she was always there for all the staff. It was a big staff in those days, we had a staff of 30.
“Betty was always there making sure the kids that were away from home were OK and happy.”
McEvoy, 55, worked for the Hayes family for 35 years, firstly as an apprentice jockey and later as a stable foreman and was head trainer between 2000 and 2005.
“I do remember when Betty and Colin picked me up from the bus stop,” he said.
“I was 14 when I came over from the west coast and we were driving back to Lindsay Park from the bus stop and Colin turned left to take me into the quarters with the apprentices and the other staff.
“And Betty said, `Colin, we can’t put this young fellow in with those. He’s just come from Streaky Bay. He will have to live with us for a few days’.
“She showed her great kindness and it shows through in her children. All the Hayes kids are great kids.
“She will be sadly missed.”
Colin Hayes, who died aged 75 in 1999, trained 5333 winners including 524 individual Group or Listed winners and won 28 Adelaide and 13 Melbourne trainers’ premierships.
He prepared two Melbourne Cup winners, Beldale Ball (1980) and At Talaq (1986), won three Cox Plates with So Called (1978), Dulcify (1979), Almaarad (1989) and a Caulfield Cup with How Now (1976) and Golden Slipper with Rory’s Jester (1985).
