The 2017 Caulfield Cup could have slipped through David Hayes' hands a few times, but a touch of faith, a decent dash of loyalty and a whole lot of persistence and finally luck combined at Caulfield on Saturday afternoon to deliver the Hall Of Fame trainer his most memorable moment in racing.

There were two pivotal moments for Hayes over the past few months that led him to a third Caulfield Cup win with Boom Time.

Firstly, Hayes stepped in when Boom Time's WA-based owner Kim Loxton rang him in April to tell him he could no longer pay-up for Hayes to train the horse. Hayes understood the horse had suffered a tendon injury and had never quite made it to the big league, but felt the horse could pay his own way and his owner deserved some support.

He knew the owner too would appreciate a cash injection so he stumped up to buy the horse that he also knew would prove impossible to sell on.

"This horse had bowed a tendon and he'd just run a shocker in the Sydney Cup and wasn't very marketable at all," Hayes said. "But I knew the horse had decent ability and I didn't want to see him leave the property so I purchased him.

"He (Loxton) had gotten into a little bit of trouble with the banks. Unfortunately, he had to sell out of everything and shut down.

"But he rings in from time to time. I'll talk to him tonight for sure and I owe him a lot of drinks."

WATCH: Boom Time's win

The next crucial moment came on Tuesday when Hayes was sitting in his trainer's hut at the Euroa property with his sons Ben, JD and Will discussing their two chances for the Cup in the imports Ventura Storm and Harlem.

The call came that Admire Deus had broken down and suddenly the Caulfield Cup was not only a lot more winnable for a horse like Boom Time, but also the horse now had some hope of making the field after being initially well down on the elimination order.

Hayes rang Melbourne stable manager Gary Fennessy immediately.

"I got on the phone and said 'Bim (Fennessy), go and check Boom Time to see how well he is'.

"He said 'He's jumping out of his skin' and that was it. He was running."

Hayes final move was to employ little-known jockey Cory Parish for the task of riding Boom Time. Parish is a stable rider for Lindsay Park. He's one of the first to hop aboard a horse in the morning and he's one of the last to leave.

He travels wherever the team want him to go. It could have been Bendigo on Saturday but instead Hayes gave him the call-up to the big time.

"A lot of jockey selections are political," Hayes said. "Owners have a lot of input into jockeys but I trained it and owned it and so it was easy to put Cory on. He knew the horse.

"He knew he went a bit fast last week and he didn't tumble into that this time."

Indeed he didn't. He settled the horse in an ideal spot about sixth from barrier three and while many of his rivals were looking for clear air, Parish was heading for home.

Hayes had trained two Caulfield Cup winners before in Fraar (1993) and Tawqeet (2006) but both those horses were owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum so Hayes' reward on those occasions was 10 per cent of the prize.

But with Boom Time, he is the sole owner. He gives himself $175,000 as trainer and Parish $85,500 for his split and the rest - about $1.5 million - is all his.

Racing.com