By Emma Berry
One of the most popular winners of Royal Ascot will undoubtedly be Heartache (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), who is owned by 76 members of the Hot To Trot racing syndicate, the brainchild of Luke Lillingston and Sam Hoskins.
On a day when it was too hot even to break out of a walk, the Clive Cox-trained filly had her joyful owners sprinting for the winner's enclosure after her victory over favourite Happy Like A Fool (Distorted Humor) in the G2 Queen Mary S. on Wednesday.
“When we set this syndicate up six years ago, the whole idea was to get people into racing horses who wouldn't normally do so and perhaps couldn't afford to do so on their own but loved racing and loved going racing,” said Lillingston. “I know the team behind Merriebelle Stable pretty well and I know that they came here full of confidence with Happy Like A Fool. Frankly, I thought that the best we could hope for was second, but two furlongs out I started to think it just might be our day. Clive [Cox] has always thought that she just might be special but he had measured our expectations very well from the start.”
Doubtless cheering every bit as heartily as the Hot To Trot members were the filly's breeders, Chris, Nicky and Ed Harper of Whitsbury Manor Stud, who currently lease two fillies to the club.
“Whitsbury Manor Stud have leased us fillies right from the very start which has been a huge help to us as it's not always easy to lease horses that you want to lease,” Lillingston added, explaining that all seven of the club's horses in training are leased from breeders. “We started this year thinking that this was the best group we'd ever had but none of that could make us imagine what has happened today. We've had some very loyal owners over the years and our share of winners but today puts the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. Fifty-two members of the syndicate were at Ascot so it was quite a thrill for us all.”
For Ed Harper, now director of the Hampshire stud which has become synonymous with breeding classy sprinters, the leasing arrangement works well. He said, “We've leased five fillies to Hot To Trot in total and all of them have won as 2-year-olds. We're proud of that record and the pressure is on to keep it up as Sam and I are good friends.”
“The system works for us as we get the fillies back as future broodmares,” he added. “We try to put up fillies with nice pedigrees that we think could be good and we're already thinking about what we might have for next year.”
A first foal, Heartache remains unbeaten in her two starts to date and her family has served the Harpers well for several generations. Heartache's dam Place In My Heart (GB), by the Whitsbury Manor stalwart Compton Place (GB), won a five-furlong listed race for Clive Cox in Chris Harper's colours, while grandam Lonely Heart (GB) (Midyan) was a dual winner and listed-placed for David Elsworth, who also trained the great grandam, four-time winner Take Heart (GB) (Electric {GB}), for the Harpers.
“It is a family that has really helped dad over many decades–Take Heart broke the track record for a mile at Salisbury,” recalled Harper, who noted that Place In My Heart has two fillies on the ground–a yearling by Whitsbury Manor's current flagship stallion Showcasing (GB) and a foal by Iffraaj (GB). The 8-year-old mare is now in foal to the farm's new sire Adaay (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}).
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