Run The Numbers – Lindsay Park rules the juvenile roost again

With seven Blue Diamond victories, one Golden Slipper success and two other juvenile Group 1 wins since 1991, Lindsay Park has long been regarded as one of the country’s leading two-year-old stables.

But in terms of the number of two-year-old winners, it has often had to play second fiddle to other major stables, especially in recent times, with the dominance of Gai Waterhouse, James Cummings and Ciaron Maher.

Godolphin’s departure from its private training model and Cummings’ move to Hong Kong have created greater opportunities for other trainers. Godolphin has had 11 Australian two-year-old winners so far this season, across six different stables. Among those has been Lindsay Park itself.

It was clear from early in the season that the Lindsay Park team of Ben, Will and JD Hayes was well-poised to make a mark with its youngest racing stock, with the first two juvenile stakes winners in Victoria: Eurocanto in the Maribyrnong Trial and Torture in the Debutant Stakes.

That success has continued to flow and data compiled by The Straight reveals that with three weeks of the season remaining, Lindsay Park is the leading trainer of two-year-olds in Australia, with 19 individual juvenile winners this season, three more than Chris Waller. 

The training combination has had 23 two-year-old wins this season and those winning horses have earned just over $2 million in prize money between them.

Among that list of 19 horses are stakes winners Gin Twist, Rich On Bubbles, Medicinal and Hard Kick as well as the pair mentioned earlier, Torture and Eurocanto.

Those 19 horses have been by 14 different sires, with three winners by Home Affairs, and two apiece by Capitalist, Brazen Beau and Exceedance.

Waller has the most two-year-old wins this season, with 23, from 16 individual horses.  

That collection includes Group 1-winning trio Fireball, Tron Bolt and Campione D’Italia as well as stakes winners St Gotthard, Diameter and Hidrix.

Waller’s close connection with Coolmore is reflected in the fact that four of his 16 winners have been by Wootton Bassett, while three have been by Home Affairs. There have also been three Snitzel two-year-old winners for Waller.

They are three of the eight sires represented in Waller’s two-year-olds, with Extreme Choice also represented twice. 

The ownership list of Waller’s horses also reflects his standing among the country’s best resourced connections and includes Hermitage, James Harron, Yulong, Newgate, Resolute Racing, Coolmore, Richie’s Racing, Ingham Racing and Godolphin.

Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have had 12 individual two-year-old winners this season, combining for 13 wins in total, with those horses banking $2.2 million.

That’s a small number of juvenile winners for the stable, who had just two two-year-old stakes winners for the season, Shiki and Agrarian Girl.

There is a strong spread of 11 sires represented among those dozen Tulloch Lodge horses, with Farnan the only multiple winner-producing sire. There is also a good spread of influential owners, with Harron and Darby Racing the only multiple representatives in the ownership group.

Ciaron Maher has had 11 individual juvenile winners, by 10 different sires, with Harry Angel the only sire to double up. Those horses have won 15 races between them.

Tony and Calvin McEvoy have also had 11 juvenile winners. Significantly, three of them have been owned by Godolphin, with that pair the equal most successful two-year-old stable for the blue army along with Michael Freedman.

The McEvoys also have two two-year-old winners in the green colours of Yulong, which has had 11 two-year-old winners so far this season, three by their own sires. Those winners have been prepared by eight different stables.

The other stable with double-figure two-year-old winners in Australia is Annabel and Rob Archibald with 10. Those winners are raced by 10 different ownership groups and are by 10 different sires.

Taken in their entirety, the 405 two-year-old winners in Australia this season have been prepared by 171 different trainers. Those horses are represented by 139 different sires.

We were also able to establish yearling prices for 315 of the 405 horses. Included in that collection are six horses which cost $1 million or more, while 27 cost $10,000 or less.

The average price for this collection of 315 horses was just under $170,000 and combined they cost $53.4 million.

Collectively, those 315 horses have earned $43.5 million in prize money, an average of just over $138,000 per runner. That leaves them almost $10 million short of recouping their combined purchase price, illustrating the financial challenge of getting horses to pay their way, even with early success.