Madhmoon's physical improvement giving Chris Hayes cause for optimism

Classic-winning rider Chris Hayes said the prospect of renewing his partnership with last season's Investec Derby second Madhmoon gives him plenty to be optimistic about through a time of great uncertainty in horseracing.

Kevin Prendergast's four-year-old, who went unbeaten as juvenile, landed the Group 3 Desmond Stakes at Leopardstown last season but his fourth from an unpromising draw in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas and narrow Epsom defeat to Anthony Van Dyck showcased his real potential for Group 1 success.

The Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh, scheduled for May 4 (subject to racing going ahead), has been mooted as a potential starting point before a crack at the top-level Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 24.

Hayes is delighted at how the high-class Hamdan Al Maktoum-owned performer has developed over the winter.

Madhmoon: achieved a rating of 117 through his efforts last seasonCredit: Patrick McCann

"I've sat on him three or four times since he came back in and he looks a million dollars," said the Limerick native. "I think at this stage of the year he looks physically better and has filled out nicely.

"Obviously we won't know if he's improved until we're racing but to the eye, he seems to have done well. In his swinging canters he's given me a good feel."

He added of Madhmoon's potential Curragh comeback: "Hopefully for everyone's sake we're back racing by then. In these difficult times, he's almost a ray of light to look forward to at the end of the tunnel – you need a flagship horse like him as a rider."

Hayes, who enjoyed by far his strongest ever season in terms of prize money in Ireland last year, registered a double on the opening day of the Flat season at Naas last Monday – the fourth time he has done so in the last five years.

Madhmoon: has the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup as an early-season aimCredit: Patrick McCann

His victory on the same day aboard In From The Cold was also his fourth win in the last five runnings of the valuable Madrid Handicap, also second in the 2019 event.

"I seem to come out of the traps blazing for one reason or another and I don't know why," he said of his blistering start to the campaign.

"Other years I'd have been abroad and coming back from a busy winter but this year I wasn't."

He added: "I was lucky enough to land on a couple of nice winners for outside stables. I'm delighted that hopefully Ger Lyons [trainer of Lemista, who Hayes won the Group 3 Park Express Stakes aboard last week] might keep me in mind for some of the lighter weights that his riders can't do."

The man who partnered Awtaad to success in the 2016 Irish 2,000 Guineas is keeping himself busy at home during racing's shutdown period but is relishing the chance to return to the saddle.

Chris Hayes weighs in after winning the Lodge Park Stud Irish EBF Park Express Stakes (Group 3) for Ger Lyons last weekCredit: Caroline Norris

"We've got to keep positive and I have broodmares to keep me occupied but you'd obviously much rather be back riding.

"Even at Naas on the opening day of the season it was a strange feeling, almost like an anticlimax because we didn't know if we'd be racing again the next day."

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