Lockwood to target Derby with Give Me Space

By Glenn Davis

Larrikin bush trainer Rodney Hay will be several hundred kilometres away saddling runners at Flinton in regional Queensland when he hopes to snare a stakes race as an owner at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Hay, who trains at Chinchilla, owns the Barry Lockwood-trained Give Me Space who resumes in the Listed Daybreak Lover.

While Give Me Space launches his campaign for the Group 1 Queensland Derby, Hay will be busy saddling three runners at Flinton, 400 kilometres from racing headquarters at Eagle Farm.

Give Me Space - a Luke Dempsey mount - hasn’t raced since his lucrative summer carnival campaign where he won the Group 3 Vo Rogue Plate at Eagle Farm in December before finishing second in the Magic Millions Guineas at the Gold Coast in January.

Lockwood and Hay haven’t crossed paths for almost two years since Petronius won the Listed Lightning Handicap at Eagle Farm in 2023.

“Rod and I haven’t seen each other since we had a few beers together just before Petronius won the Lightning Handicap (in 2023),” Lockwood said.

“I’ve still got that trophy to give to him as well as the trophy Give Me Space won in the Vo Rogue.

“Unfortunately, I never made it to the Magic Millions Guineas in January when Give Me Space ran second and that was the day Rodney managed to get there to watch him.”

Lockwood has many black-type features on his resume and is hopeful Give Me Space may be the right horse to give him a Group 1 breakthrough.

But, first, the three-year-old will need to confirm Derby plans when he tackles the Group 2 Queensland Guineas over 1600 metres at Eagle Farm on May 3.

“The Queensland Guineas will tell the tale whether he goes on to the Rough Habit Plate and Queensland Derby,” Lockwood said.

“He won’t be fully wound up for the Daybreak Lover but he’ll improve a lot after it.”

Give Me Space had a jump-out last week to prepare for his Daybreak Lover return.

“He had a jump-out at Eagle Farm last week and there were a few good sprinters in it,” Lockwood said.

“He had a good gallop to finish just behind them and I was very happy with his work.”

While Lockwood is yet to train a winner at the highest level he has trained Group 2 winners in Sydney early in his career.

“I’ve had a few seconds in Group 1s when I was training in Sydney many years ago and I won a few Group 2s down there but I’m yet to win a Group 1,” he said.

“The Vo Rogue was a Group 3 and that’s been my biggest win since I’ve been in Queensland.”