May's Training Return Proving A Masterstroke

WHEN budding superstar Hay Fergus tragically broke down at Maitland in 2015, trainer Brett May swore to himself he'd never train another dog.

"I said to myself that day that was it … it really knocked us around," reflected May.

Running outrageous times to win his first four racetrack appearances at Bulli, Hay Fergus, a fashionably bred son of Brett Lee and May's National Futurity winner Daydream, had the greyhound racing world at his feet.

"He could have been absolutely anything … I say that while he's laying here at my feet right now," May added.

What time Hay Fergus would have run that day at Maitland will never be known.

But it was going to be fast. Extremely fast.

"He was already two lengths clear when he broke down and the winner won in 24.96 so I can't imagine what he was going to run," May said.

"We're very proud with what he's done at stud so far from limited opportunities. He's thrown plenty of winners and some fast dogs and while we are very appreciative to the breeders that have supported him, it's fair to say he hasn't had the top level broods to get him going."

Involved in one of the most successful breeding lines to ever grace Australian racetracks, Brett and Deborah May are responsible for breeding some seriously fast animals, including their 2010 Group 1 National Futurity winner Daydream.

"We only lost Daydream and her sister Bit Stressed to old age in the last year or so," May said.

"They were outstanding race bitches and went on to be great producers as well. Daydream's progeny won 250 races and $750,000 in prize money and Bit Stressed's 65 races and over $300,000."

Included in that progeny is former group performers Ultimate Magic and Shoulders, trained for the Caves Beach couple during their careers by Anthony Azzopardi, the man responsible for getting May back into training recently with unbeaten youngster Legendary Lass.

"We really started to miss being involved in the middle of last year after being away for about four years," May said.

"I gave Anthony a call last November and asked if he might have anything we could have a go with. He said he was breaking in four Collision's out of Anastasia which we bred and we could have two of them regardless of how good they broke-in. Deb and I had a cruise booked so we agreed when we got back from that we'd take the two."

The two 21-month old pups race as Legendary Lass and Speed Machine.

Legendary Lass has won both her starts at Ladbrokes Gardens in 29.62 and 29.64, while Speed Machine finished runner-up on debut Saturday night.

"When I gave them their first trial at The Gardens from the shorts they went 15.80 and I thought gee that's alright," May said.

"I'm really excited about Legendary Lass. I was getting her ready for the Magic Maiden at Wenty before it was cancelled. She'd only had one field trial before her debut so to win both her starts from boxes six and seven is very encouraging. 

"Speed Machine is more of a work in progress. He's very green; I wasn't sure if he was going past them in trials so I put him in Saturday to see where he's at. He didn't go past on Saturday so it's back to the drawing board for now. He'll be okay, he's very immature and will take some time."

Legendary Lass and Speed Machine are littermates to the exciting Legendary Lad and Phantom Call, trained in Victoria by Azzopardi and partner Kylee Osborne.

"Legendary Lad won the Group 3 Maiden on Australian Cup night and Phantom Call has won in fast times as well," May said.

"I said to Anthony the other day that if he wanted me to send them back with the way things are it would be okay and he said no way in hell. He said they're here for as long as we want them to be.

"Things have gone full circle. For years we were sending Anthony dogs to train and now he's sent us a few back!"