Hall Of Fame trainer David Hayes has spoken of the horrific scenes at Lindsay Park in Euroa due to the Longwood bushfire.
Hayes flew back from Hong Kong to Melbourne last week and arrived at Euroa when the property had been evacuated. He then helped his family fight the fire before landing back in Hong Kong on Sunday morning.
After a few sleepless nights, Hayes said he slept better back at his apartment in Sha Tin on Sunday night following a few days that were “as bad as you could imagine”.
“When it gets catastrophic, the staff all have to leave and basically, we were to allowed to be there because we own the place, but you couldn’t ask your staff to be there,” Hayes said on Monday morning.
“There was only (wife) Prue and I and the twins (Will and JD) on the property with two wonderful maintenance men who wouldn’t leave. Thank God they were there because the water…the pipes would melt and then all of a sudden, the water was shooting in the air, not getting to the stable.
“Prue and I and the twins had to feed the whole stable and we got the water back on, so we didn’t have to water them.”
While the main stable at Euroa was protected and therefore escaped the damage, most of the property unfortunately didn’t fare so well. Hayes noted that his son Ben’s house on the farm was wiped out by the fire, as was all the fencing of the 1500 acres.
“It was tragic to watch,” Hayes said.
“We were putting out spot fires for days, nonstop spot fires, even after the fire had gone through, the trees were flaming and the embers were going everywhere but we just didn’t want a burning ember going through to the main stable.
“Then the next problem was, with all the fencing down, all the spelling horses were loose, so we were taking it in turn catching horses and trying to put them into safe areas.
“That was, in the dark, quite harrowing, in amongst the fire storm.”
Sadly, seven horses at Lindsay Park lost their lives due to the fire, but the family were able to save 320 of the thoroughbreds on their property.
“It was sad that we lost seven, but there were 327 on the property, and only seven passed away,” Hayes said.
“It’s tragic they did but I think it was a pretty incredible effort to get through.”
The Melbourne Cup winning trainer spoke of his gratitude for the support that he and his family have received during the most challenging of times.
“Once the road opened, Troy Corstens had organized a flotilla of volunteers, who came in and were able to get the horses to Inglis, who were so kind to let us get all the spelling horses there,” Hayes said.
“They literally got them there in two hours.”