Lindsay Park’s Ben Hayes knows horses don’t lose their talent, but sometimes racing is a game of patience.
The Hayes brothers have been rightfully excited about Apulia for a couple of years, and he finally returns to the Group 1 level in the Northerly Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
A Victoria Derby runner-up to Riff Rocket at three, Apulia has come back from a tendon injury and is ready to cash in on his talent as a five-year-old.
“A good horse like him is always good, but it just depends if they still want to do it,” Hayes said.
“He had been on the sidelines for a long time with the tendon, but he has always shown us enough to think that he would get back to a race like this.”
“You have to have dreams with a horse like Apulia, and when he started this preparation, we looked at the Northerly and thought it would be a nice place for him.”
”He is still an entire, so a Group 1 win might be worth a lot more.”
There has been plenty of time to dream with Apulia. It had been nearly a year since he last raced, when he won the Gold Star at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate weekend before he took the Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington on Oaks Day.
What a finish 💥
APULIA sweeps the field in the Channel 9 Chester Manifold Stakes for Michael Dee and @lindsayparkrace.
🎥 @wwos | #OaksDay | #MelbCupCarnival pic.twitter.com/YKbiYtVX5K
— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 6, 2025
It made the decision to go to Perth an easy one.
“Everything had to go right for him to be in Perth and it has,” Hayes said. “Our family owns him with the Garretts and if it wasn’t us who were in him, he probably would have been sold because of all his problems.”
“But we were patient, he is showing us what he can do now, like he did as a three-year-old when he ran three weeks straight and won a Group 2 [the Moonee Valley Vase] and was second in the Derby.”
“He just lost form in the autumn, and looking back, he was feeling the tendon, and then it went last spring.”
“We gave him time, and you are seeing the benefit of it now.”
Apulia follows the path by Light Infantry Man, who won a Chester Manifold before heading west for Northerly success last year.
The Group 1 scoreboard stands at 1-all between the Perth horses and visitors after the first two weeks of the Pinnacles carnival.
WA Guineas winner King Of Light is the $2.60 Northerly favourite with Apulia an $11 chance for the 1800m Group 1.
“He is going to like the step to the 1800m because he has been out to that sort of trip since the Derby,” Hayes said.
“We think that will be around his best trip in time. It was just a case of waiting for him to be right again.”
