Heartache growing stronger
Queen Mary winner returns in Paris race Owners Hot To Trot excited by her progress
Heartache, the Queen Mary winner owned by the 75-member Hot To Trot syndicate, will have her next start in the Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-laffitte on Sunday.
The two-year-old’s 2½-length victory over Happy Like A Fool, and celebrations in which most of her owners crammed into Ascot’s tight winner’s enclosure, were among the highlights of this year’s Royal meeting.
On Sunday, 30 of the owners – that should just about double the crowd – will be heading to Paris by train, plane and automobile for what will be only her third race and, with Adam Kirby unable to make the weight, she will be ridden by trainer Clive Cox’s old ally, the veteran Frenchman Gerald Mosse.
“She’s been very good since,” said Sam Hoskins, Hot To Trot’s manager. “We had a terrific homecoming parade and drinks at Clive’s and he thinks she’s grown and come on. You’d hope that, only having run twice, she is still improving.”
All Hot To Trot’s seven horses are leased. “We’ve had four from Whitsbury Stud before and they’ve all won,” he said. “So, we had a look at her in May last year and pencilled her in. The deal is that, good or bad, we pay the training fees during their two and three-year-old season and, at the end, the stud owner gets them back to join their broodmare band or sells them.
“Because the prize money is so poor, it is usually a pretty good deal for the breeder. Over two years, it probably saves them £50,000 in training fees. They get the horse back at the end of it and we keep the prize money. They can’t sell it from under your feet if it wins a maiden first time out.”
Having had five generations of the same family, Whitsbury were always going to be keen to get Heartache back. “They have a yearling half-sister, by Showcasing,” added Hoskins. “I suggested we might lease her too! But it’s a commercial operation and she’s going to the sales.”
Last year, Hot To Trot’s first winner did not come until October. But Golden Salute, the third of their two-year-olds to run this season, won at Windsor on Monday night.