The Hawkes stable is a closely knit team, with father, John, sharing the load with sons, Wayne and Michael; they have a proven partnership and are getting results.

At Moonee Valley, on Saturday, John stood back at the media briefing, allowing Wayne to do all the talking after the win of Headwater in the Cactus Imaging Plate.

It wasn’t hard to be impressed by the colt’s win, there is plenty of upside to him, he looks the perfect racehorse with an interesting time ahead of him.

He will be eased now with the autumn riches firmly implanted on the agenda, with the main targets, the Blue Diamond Stakes and the Golden Slipper Stakes, they look logical races over the autumn.

His opened at $1.45 and it never altered, it was a case of odds on, and look on, there was no serious betting against him.

It was an excellent ride by James Winks, whilst running second for most of the way he allowed the colt plenty of time to balance up before asking for much.

Once the straight was entered Winks still had a lap of horse, it was then just a matter of how far.

Headwater has a great pedigree, he cost $500,000 as a yearling, he is by Exceed And Excel, Darley’s perennial money spinner, from River Dove, she won the Group1 Oakleigh Plate and she is line bred to Bletchingly 3X3, with three distinct lines to Star Kingdom.

The big studs in the Hunter Valley will be monitoring his progress closely as a future sire, the managing owner is the Vinery Stud Syndicate.

Headwater returning to scale under James Winks