The five finalists for the 2017-18 Fred Hoysted Medal have been released by Racing Victoria (RV), with trainers from Victoria, New South Wales and Ireland in the running to claim the prestigious prize this Monday, 20 August.
The Fred Hoysted Medal, named in honour of the man whose training record remains unsurpassed in Victorian racing, recognises the most outstanding training performance at a race meeting held in Victoria during the 2017-18 season.
The five finalists are Grahame Begg, Kathryn Durden, the Lindsay Park team of David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien and Sydney’s premier trainer Chris Waller.
Of the thousands of contenders from last season, the following five training performances were considered the most notable by the judging panel:
• Grahame Begg, who claimed his first Group 1 success since relocating to Melbourne when precocious juvenile Written By ran away with the Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield;
• Kathryn Durden, whose stable star Wells secured a third win in the 2017 Grand National Steeplechase (4500m) at Ballarat after an epic duel with Over the Yardarm;
• David Hayes, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, for training a Group 1 double on Super Saturday at Flemington, courtesy of sprinter Redkirk Warrior in the Newmarket Handicap (1200m) and weight-for-age performer Harlem in the Australian Cup (2000m);
• Joseph O’Brien, who became the youngest winning trainer in the long history of the Melbourne Cup (3200m) when his Irish raider Rekindling triumphed in ‘the race that stops a nation’ at Flemington; and
• Chris Waller, who oversaw Winx’s historic hat-trick of wins in the Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) at The Valley.
The Fred Hoysted Medal, open to both local and visiting trainers, has been won by some of Australia’s leading horsemen including ‘Cups King’ Bart Cummings, Lee Freedman, Darren Weir and most recently Lindsay Park, who scooped the prize last year for training a Group 1 double on Blue Diamond Stakes Day with Catchy and Sheidel.
A selection committee, comprising members of the Australian Trainers’ Association (ATA) and RV Handicapping Panel, put forward 20 training performances from across the 2017-18 season for the voters’ consideration.
That number was subsequently reduced to five by a panel of 50 voters, made up of members of the racing media.
The Fred Hoysted Medal winner will be unveiled during the Victorian Jockey and Trainer Awards, which will be held at ‘The Park’ in Albert Park this Monday.
Other awards presented during the ceremony include: the Scobie Breasley Medal, which recognises excellence in race riding over the Victorian flat racing season; the Colin Alderson Rising Star Award, open to Victorian trainers aged 40 years or younger and with no more than seven seasons’ experience; the Tommy Corrigan Medal, awarded to the leading jumps jockey in Victoria and South Australia; and two new categories voted for by the jockeys themselves, being the ‘Most Valuable Jockey’ and the ‘One To Watch’.