David Hayes’s Lindsay Park stable big team

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David Hayes’s Lindsay Park stable big team

THE Lindsay Park stable will launch a three-pronged assault on Saturday’s $1 million Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville as it chases its first win in the Group 1 race in almost 30 years.

The stable has nominated four horses for the Sangster — Catchy, Formality, Tulip and Miss Gunpowder — and co-trainer Ben Hayes said the first three would all be among final acceptors when the field is drawn on Tuesday morning.

“Catchy, Formality and Tulip are definites but Miss Gunpowder is still a maybe at this stage,” Hayes said.

“This is one of the tougher editions of the race that I’ve seen.

“There are so many quality fillies and mares going to it this year.

“I think all three of our horses have shown they’re up to Group 1 level.

“Catchy was impressive last start, Tulip was competitive in The Everest and Formality is a multiple Group winner and we definitely think she’s Group 1 class.

“On their day I think any of them could win but I do think this is an exceptionally strong field.

“It’s going to come down to the draws and luck in running.

“Most likely the horse that gets the best run will win.”

Lindsay Park hasn’t snared the Sangster since the late Colin Hayes trained Leica Western to victory in the 1990 edition of the race, his second success in the feature following Wicked Smile’s win three years earlier.

Catchy, a strong-finishing last-start winner of the Group 2 Arrowfield Sprint at Randwick, is the highest rated of the Lindsay Park runners in Ladbrokes fixed-odds markets for the Robert Sangster Stakes. The three-year-old filly has been marked at $9, while Formality and Tulip are $13 and $15 respectively.

Star SA sprinter Viddora remains the clear-cut favourite at $4.50.

Lindsay Park also has Earth Angel and Pure Scot among nominations for the Group 1 $500,000 Schweppes Oaks (2000m) and Hayes confirmed both fillies would take their place in the field.

“We’ve been really happy with Earth Angel’s past two runs in Adelaide,” he said.

“She’s been hitting the line strongly both times and we think she’ll run out the 2000m.

“If she draws a nice barrier and gets some luck, she can be competitive.

“Pure Scot has always been a promising horse. We’re hoping she can stay and we thought her run last start was good enough to earn a crack at the Oaks.”