The Lindsay Park team of Ben, Will and J D Hayes believe their three-year-old runner in the Cox Plate is more than just making up the numbers.
Evaporate joins his more highly-credentialled stablemate Mr Brightside in the Group 1 weight-for-age contest over 2040m at Moonee Valley on Saturday, coming off a last start third in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 12.
Considered one of the outsiders in latest Cox Plate betting at $21, Evaporate is unbeaten in three starts at Moonee Valley, while in two meetings with Godolphin colt Broadsiding, Evaporate has beaten him home on both occasions.
Broadsiding is a $6 chance in betting which has Japanese visitor Prognosis as the $3.60 betting sites favourite.
The Lindsay Park trainers had a change of heart earlier in the week after originally intending to start Evaporate in the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday week.
“He came through the Caulfield Guineas in fantastic order,” Ben Hayes said.
“If you take a line through James Cummings’ horse, Broadsiding, who was just behind us, we ran just as good as him.
“The opportunity, with his record at The Valley, where he’s three from three, he’s going to have 49-½ kilos, we’ve got a good international jockey coming, Karis Teetan, it’s something you can’t take lightly.
“He’s drawn great in barrier six and is a horse that loves galloping room and with that light weight, we expect that he’ll be thereabouts.”
Evaporate will attempt to do what Octagonal (1995) and Shamus Award (2013) did and win the Cox Plate after finishing third in the Guineas.
“Three-year-olds do have a great record in the race and if you go back through the Guineas, he hit the line well, and did everything correct,” Hayes said.
“He’s a horse, with his stride, that will get 2000 metres, no problem and he’s not in the race just to go around.”
While Evaporate is lining up for his first shot at the Cox Plate, stablemate Mr Brightside is lining up for the third time, looking to overcome the agony of last year’s narrow defeat at the hands of Romantic Warrior.
Victory by one of their two stable runners would see the ‘boys’ join their father David Hayes and grandfather Colin Hayes as Cox Plate winning trainers.
“It’s a race we would really like to win,” Hayes said.
“We were so close last year, and it just makes you more hungry, so if we could do, it would be a proud moment for Will, J D and I, our father and the whole team at Lindsay Park.
“It’s probably the number one weight-for-age race that you want to win in Australia.
“It’s an international race, it gives you bragging rights.”
