Team Hawkes ups tempo

THEY are training winner after winner. Just like the good old days.

It almost seems like they have never been away.

But the past three years have been a maelstrom for Team Hawkes, the training partnership of Hall of Famer John Hawkes and his sons Michael and Wayne.

They have had to change stables, build a business from scratch, endure times when runners and winners were few and far between, and watch as some clients took their horses elsewhere.

"Some people had us dead and buried, they probably thought we had lost it," John Hawkes said. "But it was always going to be hard for us when you start from scratch. We didn't even have a bridle when we set up here at Rosehill three years ago.

"We are working our way back slowly. We do have some great supporters, some very loyal owners like Nick Moraitis, who has been a mainstay of our stable, and Michael Crismale [part-owner of Mentality].

"There have been some people who have dropped off as well but that's life, you just have to move on."

One of the few constants for Team Hawkes during this period of change has been Mentality.

The giant chestnut has been part of the furniture at the Hawkes stable for more than five years and at Royal Randwick tomorrow he lines up for his 50th start in the Group Two $175,000 Inglis Villiers Stakes (1600m).

The chunky chestnut has already won eight races and more than $2 million with his three biggest wins coming over the famous Randwick mile -- 2006 Champagne Stakes, 2007 Randwick Guineas and 2008 George Main Stakes.

"Mentality has been a great horse for the stable and his owners," John Hawkes continued. "If every horse you have can achieve what he has, then you would be very happy indeed."

However, Mentality hasn't won a race "outright" since the George Main, although he dead-heated with Kroner in the Premiere Stakes nearly 18 months ago, and Hawkes is the first to admit the gelding's best racing days are behind him.

"Yes, he's not the horse he was but he can't be.

"He's getting older. Racehorses can't get better as they get older, neither can jockeys. It's a physical thing.

"Trainers are the opposite. Look at Bart Cummings. He went through a quiet period for five years or so but look at him now, he is right back at the top at 83. Mentality is a seven-year-old and his days of winning a Group One might be over but he's still very competitive in the right race."

Team Hawkes believes the Villiers is that "right race". Mentality has shown some glimpses of his best form this preparation, although he has been hampered by wet tracks and wide barriers.

Unfortunately, the veteran sprinter/miler has to start out of the extreme outside barrier in the 18-horse Villiers field but Michael Hawkes said that, provided the Royal Randwick racing surface is firm, he expects the gelding to prove hard to beat.

"We wouldn't keep racing this horse unless we thought there were still good wins left in him," he said.

"He's probably one of the soundest horses we've had in the stable and when he came back in at the start of this preparation, he looked awesome. He's had his ups and downs but the thing with him is he needs a good track to show his best."

In a sense, Mentality epitomises the roller-coaster ride the Hawkes stable has had since their association with the Inghams ended in November 2007.

There have been moments of triumph -- Mentality's George Main and Fiumicino's win in the 2009 The BMW -- but also lean periods where the critics had opportunity to sharpen their knives.

But it was during the quiet times when Hawkes and his sons relied on the three qualities they are renowned for -- hard work, determination and patience.

"You are only as good as your last winner and we have learnt that the hard way in the last two years," Wayne Hawkes said. "Plenty of people jumped ship but we stuck together because we knew we were doing the right things and it was just a matter of clicking for us.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

And how the stable fortunes have turned around. Their strike-rate of winners-to-runners this season is the best of any stable on the eastern seaboard, and the winners have continued to flow from the likes of Maluckyday, Love Conquers All, Gopana, Moshe and Rainbow Styling.

It will surprise many that their success has been achieved from comparatively small numbers -- the Hawkes stable has only 20 horses in work at Rosehill and 18 at their Flemington stables.

"People still think we have 300 horses in work," Wayne added. "But we only have the small teams now.

"If we were given the opportunity to train a big stable again, like we had with the Inghams, we wouldn't do it. We don't want to get too big."

Michael Hawkes said these days the stable is "not about numbers, it's about quality".

Maluckyday, arguably the nation's most exciting stayer who during the spring won the City Tattersalls Cup, Lexus Stakes and a superb second to Americain in the Melbourne Cup, returned to pre-training earlier this week, joining Emirates Stakes runner-up Dao Dao. Love Conquers All is back in work Monday, while Moshe, the unbeaten brother to champion mare Black Caviar, is still out in the spelling paddock.

The final word to Michael Hawkes, who says the secret to the stable's growing success is simple: "Family, there is nothing like family. That's our biggest advantage -- there is three of us."

Story: Ray Thomas Daily Telegraph