Born: Angaston, South Australia, April 19, 1976.

Wife: Cassi.

Children: Hugo, Teddy and George.

Parents: Arthur and Jan.

Sibling: Jayne.

Education: Primary school in the Barossa Valley before going to Pembroke College in South Australia as a school boarder.

Sporting Highlight: Being involved with horse racing all my life.

Tom, can you please give me the background as to why you and your family have made the move from Euroa, where you trained in partnership with David and Ben Hayes, to set up your own training operation in Warrnambool?

My late grandfather Colin Hayes lived by the motto that "the future belongs to those who plan for it", and that's exactly what my wife Cassi and I are doing for our three boys.

I enjoyed a great working relationship with Colin, David, Ben and my late uncle Peter Hayes, but it was time to plan for the future.

Cassi and I thought it was an ideal time to set up our own training operation in Warrnambool.

Our boys will get their chance to be involved, but they will also be given the chance to pursue other interests they may like.

I grew up on a rural property at Lindsay Park Angaston, which comprised of 2500 acres.

We had a lot of horses on the property because my grandfather Colin Hayes was one of the leading trainers in Australia.

I was very lucky to have been very close to Colin when I was growing up.

I was the only grandchild at that stage and Colin encouraged me to learn about horses.

Colin was a workaholic. I was always asking questions about horses, but Colin always found the time to explain things to me.

I travelled overseas to places like England and Ireland in my early 20s and saw how trainers trained their horses over there before coming back home to Lindsay Park.

The trip overseas was a wonderful learning curve for me.

Colin's son, my late uncle Peter, took a more active part in the training operation as Colin was getting older.

I got more involved in the every day happenings at Lindsey Park, like liaising with clients and staff.

I took over as the foreman at Lindsay Park, and who started work as an apprentice jockey was Ciaron Maher.

There was also Steven Pateman working for us at the time.

What are your memories of Ciaron in those early years, as he's gone on to be a very successful trainer?

Ciaron was just a natural with horses.

I've watched his career very closely over the years and I've admired what he's been able to achieve.

He's definitely got a gift to train horses.

Let's go for a moment to Peter Hayes. Peter unfortunately died in a plane crash in 2001. What are your memories of that tragedy?

I was very close to Peter. He was the leading trainer in Victoria and South Australia for three of the five years after he took over the training operation from Colin while David was over in Hong Kong.

Peter was not a flamboyant type of person.

He preferred to be in the background and just got things done quietly.

Peter had a very good record training fillies.

I suppose his training highlight was winning the group one VRC Derby with Blackfriars in 1999, but he did train 13 group one winners in his time in charge at Lindsey Park.

I can still remember the day of the plane crash.

I was at the Euroa property with my dad Arthur and my grandmother Betty was there.

It was a distressing time, because there was nothing we could do.

Betty was a very strong person. She was very resilient and had an amazing attitude.

She was the backbone of the Hayes family.

The crash happened late in the afternoon and Betty couldn't get a plane out of Melbourne back to Adelaide until the next morning.

Who do you think you've based your training styles on the most - Colin, David or Peter?

I would say Peter. Colin and David worked the horses harder than what Peter would, and I believe I've followed in Peter's footsteps.

The funny thing is I've got a good record training fillies just like Peter.

It was through my uncle Peter that we got to met Warrnambool's Bill and Karen Wilde, and then their son Symon. Symon had a stint working with us at Lindsay Park.

He's around the same age as me and we have found that we have got a lot in common.

I've watched Symon's training career and seen how successful he's been as a trainer.

I had always had an ambition to train near a beach, because that's where my late grandfather started his training career at Semaphore in South Australia.

Symon has been a great help in discussing different training techniques at the beach.

Tom, are you pleased with the developments at the Warrnambool racecourse as your new on-course stables are just starting to get built?

Yes, things are going along well.

COVID has not helped many things, but everyone is in the same boat.

Cassi and the boys moved to Warrnambool last week.

We felt Warrnambool has a lot to offer as a place to live and we're confident that was the right decision.

Warrnambool ticks a lot of boxes - hospitals, education, beaches and a great lifestyle are all here.

We've always know the stables would not be finished until late December or early January.

We hoping to have around 40 to 50 horses in work in Warrnambool.

A lot of our horses are young horses and they are going to take time to mature and develop.

I was very lucky that I was involved with the developments at Euroa that David Hayes started 13 years ago.

It was a massive project and is now a wonderful property.

I'm sure working on that project will help me with the new on-course stables at Warrnambool - even though they are a lot smaller in size to what has happened at Euroa.