Lindsay Park’s dominance in Victoria’s early two-year-old ranks continued as the stable added another feature to its resume at Caulfield. After taking out the first juvenile event of the season, the training trio of Ben, Will and JD Hayes secured a quinella in Wednesday’s $200,000 Listed Debutant Stakes, with Torture edging out stablemate Free Flying.
The victory followed the team’s earlier success in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes with Eurocanto, confirming Lindsay Park’s strength among this season’s youngsters. Ben Hayes said it was particularly rewarding to see two well-bred fillies deliver such strong early results.
“It’s nice to run one-two in the race and to get some Black Type with fillies is very important,” Hayes said.
“I thought she won very well. She loomed into it, hit the front and did everything right today, so it’s a big thrill for the whole team.
“Two-year-olds are something that we really enjoy doing and coming out and winning the first two races of the season is a big thrill.”
Torture’s half-length win in the 1000m contest also marked a dream start for first-season sire Sword Of State, with Ethan Brown guiding the filly to victory. Sword Of State, a son of Snitzel standing at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand for NZ$20,000, has only had one other runner to date – State Of Valour, who was unplaced on debut.
Snitzel’s influence was also seen through runner-up Free Flying, a $750,000 Magic Millions purchase and half-sister to Learning To Fly, out of former Lindsay Park mare Ennis Hill.
Third-placed Tornado Valley, a $300,000 son of Too Darn Hot, impressed many after overcoming a slow start and interference to finish just behind the quinella, earning a spot in plenty of blackbooks.
Lindsay Park secured Torture for NZ$250,000 at this year’s Karaka Yearling Sale. The filly is a half-sister to Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes winner Ruthless Dame, and Hayes admitted she had exceeded early expectations.
“She’s a beautiful-looking horse, when you see her come in she’s got so much more improvement to come, which is exciting,” Hayes said.
“For her to come out with a Debutant probably wasn’t, when we bought her, thinking we were going to do that, but she just kept improving, kept showing us that she could get there and her trial was good so we thought, why not?”
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