Wayne Hawkes

For as long as he can remember, Wayne always imagined a career in racing. He never considered any other vocation.

He would spend many hours at his father's Adelaide stables before and after school, learning about and admiring the thoroughbred. When he completed his schooling, his real "education" began in horse racing, learning as much as he could about all facets of the racing industry. He first went to work at the late Colin Hayes' famous Lindsay Park stables in the Barossa Valley before he had stints working for a farrier, equine dentist, veterinarian, float operator, saddle maker and yearling sales company just to learn the ropes.

By the mid 1990s, Wayne had worked his way up to manage his father's Flemington operation for the Inghams' all-powerful Crown Lodge stables. He remains the family's representative at Flemington to this day.

Although the Team Hawkes training partnership was officially sanctioned in 2008, Wayne said the successful training systems that were first put in place 15 years earlier at Crown Lodge remain the blueprint for the stable's continued success.

Wayne is in charge of the stable’s Flemington training base and has launched the race careers of some of Team Hawkes’s best gallopers over the last decade, most notably Chautauqua and All Too Hard.

Team Hawkes is famous for the success it has when sending horses between their Sydney and Melbourne stables. It is a proven formula that is developed early in a horse’s career when it is given exposure to the training set-ups in both states. This leads to the stable’s almost seamless ability to switch a galloper interstate mid-preparation often with immediate results.

Wayne also admits working with family has some advantages and disadvantages. "Sometimes it is not easy working with family, but in tough times you can’t beat family support and strength!"