The Hayden Story

Frankie Ferocious. Photo by Dan Costello.

THE innovation and tweaking continues with Queensland’s thriving Constellations Carnival.

Fresh from its first running last year, The Hayden – named after Queensland cricket legend Matthew Hayden, will return with a few enhancements and be run at Albion Park on July 20.

Exclusively for QBRED three and four-year-olds and run over 2138m, The Hayden is Racing Queensland’s qualifying race for which horse fills its slot in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Club Menangle.

Some of the early big names eligible for The Hayden include Jason Grimson’s recent stable addition and equal pre-post TAB Eureka favourite Frankie Ferocious, the talented For Real Life, and classy mare Jewel Melody.

A slot auction with a difference will be held on February 11. All ten barrier draw positions for The Hayden will be up for grabs, and the money raised will contribute to the overall prize money for the race.

The purse will be a base of $100,000 plus contributions from the auction to bolster the pool further.

As it was last year, the auction will be run as part of the Sunshine Stars Yearling Sale, to be held this year at Albion Park.

Where the auction is different, you “buy” a barrier and then negotiate with owners of horses for a representative to race from your barrier.

Importantly, with the winner of The Hayden advancing to the TAB Eureka, Racing Queensland will donate 10 per cent of all prize money earned in the TAB Eureka to Shoreline to assist in funding its educational programs.

In addition, a minimum of $10,000 will be donated to “The Hayden Way” to generate funds for Shoreline, which has provided education and employment opportunities for Indigenous students since 2009.

This year, the distribution of prize money for The Hayden has been tweaked so that horses finishing sixth to last receive $2000, along with two per cent of the auction proceeds.

RQ EGM Adam Wallish is thrilled to see The Hayden back in 2024.

“Last year, we saw the Shannon Price-trained Speak The Truth take out the inaugural running of Queensland’s newest slot race, with prize money of $231,000 following some solid bidding for slots,” he said.

“Echoing Matthew Hayden’s staunch Queensland pride, it is fantastic that The Hayden remains as a race for QBRED-only pacers while also maintaining its spot in the successful Queensland Constellations.”