When crisis after crisis hit Lindsay Park in 2021, David Hayes was stranded on the other side of the equator. But four years on, he and his sons know that moment has proven the making of their current run of success.
David Hayes once stood on a sharp ravine overlooking his lavish Euroa training farm and proclaimed to a reporter: “All of this is for the kids, you know.”
The breathtaking property was both an irresistible and risky legacy project.
It was around 2010 and the kids – three boys, including twins, and a daughter – were either at school or university. The twins, JD and Will, were promising footballers.
Creating the second Lindsay Park at Creighton’s Creek just south of Euroa had come at a scary cost of over $10 million. Hayes had never cut corners, so the bills kept piling up.
It had all the tools. In fact it was far more flash and functional than the first Lindsay Park, in the Barossa Valley. So distilled was the water in the horse pool that during a particular media day, Hayes dipped a cup in it and drank from it.
But despite the trappings, the horses weren’t performing. Would the kids want to inherit this?
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