Owner of the Month for September has been awarded to Sam Hayes for Name the Day and Northern Lass.

Sam needs little introduction to racing people being a member of the iconic Hayes family. His grandfather Colin started the Lindsay Park tradition at Angaston, his father Peter was a successful trainer in his own right and his uncle David is well known for his training exploits both here and in Hong Kong. With David moving his training operation to Euroa and retaining the Lindsay Park name, the Angaston property was split with Sam taking over the breeding side under the new name of Cornerstone Stud.

In doing so Sam has revitalised the stud’s stallion pool firstly standing Good Journey and then buying Hussonet from Arrowfield. A further coup came when the Aga Khan agreed to Dalakhani standing three seasons in Australia as a shuttle stallion.

Unfortunately, Hussonet passed away earlier this year and Dalakhani has been withdrawn from stud duties but Good Journey goes on strong. Last year he was joined by champion European two-year-old sire Zebedee who has returned to Cornerstone again this year. Zebedee’s first Australian bred foals are on the ground this season and now Cornerstone have obtained the services of classy European Group One winner, Free Eagle, a further feather in the cap for Sam and his staff.

Cornerstone also stands Ambidexter, Valentia and Super Kid which, from a service fee perspective, allows them to operate across a range of price points hat appeal to a broad group of breeders.

As a stud manager Sam sometimes finds himself retaining shares in horses he breeds and sells. In September Sam had wins with two of these, Name the Day and Northern Lass.

Name the Day (Host – Thorpedo by Thunder Gulch) is trained in Victoria by Ciaron Maher (of Caulfield Cup winner Jameka fame). He won two races at Morphettville in September. These wins took Name the Day’s record to 6 wins 4 seconds and a third and winnings of almost $160,000. Thorpedo has also produced Speedy Rossa (stakes wins of almost $300,000), a successful brood mare. Name the Day shows promise as a middle distance horse and more wins would not be a surprise.

Sam also retained a share in Northern Lass, a filly by Blue Diamond winner Reann out of Real Jester mare North Bound and she has raced eight times for 2 wins, 3 seconds and 2 thirds and winnings of $43,610. She is trained  by Tony McEvoy at Kildalton Park which is located at Angaston on the site of the previous training complex section of the old Lindsay Park.

North Bound, the dam of Northern Lass, was unraced, and has so far produced only two other progeny, her mother Princess Plume has left a stakes winner of two listed races in Visual Displays. Princess Plume (who as the name suggests is by Military Plume) also left Kaleido (11 wins for $250,000), and Clarify – winner of over $100,000.

We wish Sam the very best of luck with all his equine pursuits.