Hatch Hopes For Winning Swan Song

Toowoomba trainer Lindsay Hatch is confident he can bow out a winner at Cluden Park on Tuesday as he winds up his satellite stable in Townsville.

Hatch has operated stables in Townsville principally for John Horan’s Ares Racing operation for the past three years but the pair have decided to close their Wulguru stables.

He’s confident he can go out a winner with a number of strong chances in the Ares colours.

“I’ll be up there for my last meeting on Tuesday, but I’ll continue to train horses for John down here,” Hatch said from his Toowoomba base.

“He’s going to sell the house and stables, some horses will go to Tom Button in Bowen and a few young ones and the Lightning winner Russian Mint will come to me in Toowoomba.

“So it’s good we’ll continue that association.

“We’re still keen to tackle the carnivals. If he’s got anything that I think will be suited up there they can go up to Tom or we can take them up there ourselves.

“It was strictly a business decision, it’s tough to keep an operation like that going. 

“But we’ve been pretty successful in our time there I think over more than three years and I’m hoping we can get a winner or two on our last day.”

Hatch will saddle up five runners for Ares - Solar Apex and Blazerro+ in the Ladbrokes Open Hcp (1609m), Northern On Tap in the Great Northern Brewing Co. BM65 Hcp (1000m) and Fall Guy and Jungle Juice in the BM55 Hcp (1200m).

He gives the whole team strong chances including Solar Apex and Blazerro who ran second in a G2 Sandown Guineas as a three-year-old.

“Solar Apex raced well in the Cairns Cup to finish sixth - it was one of his better runs. He’s got crook feet and we thought we’d be up against it from the get go with the firmer tracks when we sent him up.

“But his last run was good and he’d be a chance in a race like that.

“The other horse Blazerro will be hard to place in North Queensland because he probably wants 1800m to 2000m.

“He won well at Mackay two starts back over 2000m and then dropped in trip and ran fourth over 1500m in Cairns. 

“He’ll go good at the mile. He’ll stay with Tom Button after Tuesday but I’m not sure what will be around for him after that. He may end up coming back down here.

“They’re both very well placed.

“I also think Northern On Tap’s very well suited.

“He goes great at the track and distance and he’s drawn to get a lovely run.

“Fall Guy with the claim is well weighted and we’ll probably run Jungle Juice in the BM 55 because he’s drawn better.

“He’s got ability but he has struggled on the hard tracks.”

Horan said Ares would continue to support racing in Townsville and under the new arrangement would have the benefit of a leading trainer in Hatch in the south-east and Button in the north.

“It was just getting too hard with my work to also run the stables,” Horan said.

“Lindsay’s going to keep coming back for the carnivals which is great and we’re fortunate that we’ll have Tom come on line for us for our horses up here.”