Our History
The Lindsay Park Stud story started in the late 1950’s when Colin Hayes AM OBE purchased Beaufields Stud on the Gawler River, 60 km’s from Adelaide.
Beaufields first stallions were Confessor and the speed stallion Hawa, a son of Golden Cloud. Hayes initially took in international jockey Ron Hutchinson as a partner but the Beaufields Stud Syndicate soon grew to include Wyndham Hill Smith, Don McKay, Harry Cornell, Jack Allison and Peter Richardson.
The syndicate sought a top-class stallion to import to South Australia. In 1962, Hayes visited leading racing and breeding centres in America, France, England, Ireland and Italy in the quest for a suitable stallion.
Hayes came back with Romantic, the great-grandson of four Derby winners and a top two year old in England in 1962. He later arranged for the purchase of Natural Bid (sire of the dam of Manikato) a brilliant winner in the United States who joined Romantic at Beaufields in 1965.
After selling Hawa to New Zealand the ambitious syndicate decided that Beaufields was becoming too small for their plans and started looking for a larger property.
With the help of Adelaide stock agents Coles Bros. Ltd they acquired Lindsay Park from Sir Keith Angus and the newly named Lindsay Park Stud Syndicate took over from July 1, 1965.
While still in its infancy, Lindsay Park raced from success to success. In 1967 Captain Paddy Hardbord Managing Director of the historic Curragh Bloodstock Agency visited Lindsay Park saying: “This could be the start of a small Kentucky….”
Ruantallan, son of unbeaten Ribot, joined Romantic and Natural Bid in 1966 and Atilla, at the time the most expensive horse to be imported into Australia, stood his first season in 1967. From the 70’s through to the 90’s Lindsay Park was home to some of Australia's best credentialed stallions including Without Fear, Godswalk, Habituate, Arch Sculptor, Scenic, Bluebird, Military Plume and Jeune.
Lindsay Park has also had a major role in shaping Australia’s top broodmare sires such as At Talaq and Rory’s Jester. The dams of racing heavyweights, Manikato and top sire General Nediym, were bred at Lindsay Park; while the dams of Golden Slipper winners, Ha Ha and Belle De Jour, and the Blue Diamond winner, Road to Success, were also trained at the Hayes family base.
Lindsay Park Stud has also led the field with innovations such as stallion syndication and the shuttle stallion concept with horses such as Godswalk, Bluebird and Scenic.
Most recently the return of David Hayes to Australia in 2005 coincided with a significant re-structure at Lindsay Park Stud.
A third generation of the Hayes family took over the management of Lindsay Park Stud. Sam Hayes, the eldest son of David’s older brother Peter became a partner in Lindsay Park Stud and assumed the role of Managing Director.
With a fresh outlook the team at Lindsay Park Stud are busy re-establishing the stud as major player in the Australian thoroughbred breeding industry.
Winning is more than a tradition at Lindsay Park: it’s ingrained in the blood. And that goes for the people as well as the horses.