David Hayes is aiming to scale a familiar peak when Rubylot lines up in Sunday’s (23 March) HK$26 million 148th BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) at Sha Tin.

Hayes trained 458 winners from 1995/96 to 2004/05 – a period when he was also twice Hong Kong Champion Trainer (1997/98 & 1998/99) in an era against the likes of Ivan Allan, John Moore and Brian Kan, and Hayes also famously won the 2003 Hong Kong Derby with Elegant Fashion – the first filly to land the Classic since Corvette in 1976. 

Returning for his second Hong Kong training stint in 2020/21, Hayes – a proven winner everywhere he has gone – encountered a slower comeback to the city than anticipated, scoring 32 wins (2020/21), 36 (2021/22) and 34 (2022/23) in the seasons that followed.    

The Australian Racing Hall of Famer moved closer to the heights he is accustomed to with 47 wins last campaign – led by Ka Ying Rising (five wins), Tomodachi Kokoroe (four), Samarkand (four), Lucky Encounter (three) and Rubylot (three), who has excelled with three more victories in 2024/25 including this month’s HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m).  

“I’ve got a really good group of horses spread across all grades, and the horses aren’t moving anymore and that’s a huge help,” Hayes said. “When horses move (stables) after they’ve dropped in class it can really slow you up. We’re loving Hong Kong and it has been a good season – maybe there’s a little bit more to come.”

Hayes is on track to eclipse last season’s total. He has 38 wins through 54 of the 88 race meetings, four shy of championship leader John Size (42 wins). Hayes has also netted HK$91.54 million in earnings – the highest in any season he has trained in Hong Kong, primarily from the world’s best sprinter Ka Ying Rising’s three Group 1 triumphs.  

Saddling Rubylot in Sunday’s BMW Hong Kong Derby against 13 rivals, Hayes put the Rubick gelding through a turf gallop on Monday morning (17 March) in preparation, clocking 1m 23.0s (29.7, 29.1, 24.2) under big-race rider Brenton Avdulla.

“Brenton was very happy with him. He’s a fit horse and in great shape. He’s had a perfect preparation and like a lot of them he’s unknown at the distance, but the way he finished the 1800 (metres) off tells me that it won’t be a problem,” Hayes said.

Owned by the HK Football Club Horse Racing Syndicate and rated 100, Rubylot is a six-time winner in Hong Kong, including once at Class 2 level. The trainer is wary of HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) winner My Wish this weekend.

“We couldn’t have asked him to do much more in his four-year-old year. Obviously, Mark Newnham’s horse (My Wish) is a quality horse and he’s shown consistent form through the main lead ups,” Hayes said.

“What you have to weigh up is how much more improvement those progressive Class 3 and Class 2 horses have. It’s the same every year, some years they step up and other years they don’t.”  

Across his first term training in Hong Kong, Hayes enjoyed four 50-plus win seasons, while his career-high 62 came in his championship year of 1997/98 with a 12.4%-win strike rate.

Rapper Dragon (2017) and Golden Sixty (2020) are the only Hong Kong Classic Cup winners over the last 10 years to also capture the BMW Hong Kong Derby.