2015 saw Heart of the South Racing’s 20th anniversary of running successful syndicates and to celebrate the occasion, 150 of our owners join us for race day hospitality at Fontwell Park during their Southern National Meeting on Sunday 15th November.
We reflected on all of our winners over the last 20 years and the enjoyable days at the races that our much loved horses have provided us with. Our first ever winner came from Captain Coe who won in 1996 at Ludlow, trained by Roger Curtis. Since then we have gone from strength to strength as has our reputation. We now have a string 17 syndicate horses, both on the flat over jumps and our current trainers are Gary Moore, Marco Botti, Robert Cowell and Philip Hide.
During our event we discussed the likes of Zambeasy, Good Luck Charm, Sir Robert Cheval etc who have been successful in the last 12 months and won beautiful memento trophies for their owners. We distributed these during the event and we hope they will take a proud place on your mantelpieces!
One horse discussed in great detail was the legendary Fruity O’Rooney who lined up in the Southern National that day. Things didn’t quite go to plan for him and he was pulled up and saved for another day. This was in fact a great call from jockey Jamie Moore as just 5 days later Fruity O’Rooney won his ninth career race in such a fantastic style at Ascot – see the race here! Fruity has been our flagship horse for many years now; winning 9 races, up to £145,000 in prize money and taking his owners to some of the top National Hunt meeting such as the Cheltenham Festival, the Hennessey Gold Cup and the Scottish Grand National in Ayr. This is likely to be Fruity’s last season of racing but his spirit and attitude will be greatly missed when retirement finally comes.
Our day at Fontwell Park also included a brief of the runners and riders from Desert Orchid’s ex jockey Colin Brown and jump jockey Jamie Moore, a delicious carvery lunch, our popular champion tipster competition and we also sponsored a race at Fontwell “The Fruity O’Rooney Heart of a Lion Maiden Hurdle race” where the horse we chose as the best turned out to go on and win the race. Not so lucky afterall!
Overall it was a very special day and the feedback we have had since the event has been lovely (see below) and we would like to thank owners for their kind words. We are so pleased to hear that all of hundreds of owners, old and new, are thoroughly enjoying their time with Heart of the South Racing and we hope our formula means we can continue to thrive for another 20 years. All we need now is that big Group winner to really put us on the map! Fingers crossed 2016 is the year.
Just a quick thank you for organising the event today – Ade and I had a good day (though not much money won !! ) and then went to see Onehelluvatouch at Philips – he was absolutely brilliant – he bought her out to show us and then took time taking us round all the other yearlings and 2 year olds etc in the yard – well worth the visit!
– Helen & Adrian, OnehelluvatouchMany thanks for a great day yesterday. Extremely well organised with lovely details such as the Heart of south colours on the topiary! It was a huge amount of work which is much appreciated. Congratulations on your first twenty years and than you for allowing us to be part of it all.
– Ann & Rodney, Fruity O’RooneyJust a quick email to ask say thanks for inviting us to the lunch at Fontwell yesterday. It was a most enjoyable afternoon with a great lunch and so nice to meet other members of Heart of the South. So glad to be part of such a successful racing syndicate and best wishes for continued success in 2016. Well done to you all for organizing the event and it certainly brightened up our weekend.
– Lindsay & Derek, Onehelluvatouch and Royal BattalionMany thanks for arranging such a good day. This is the best Corporate arranged day I have ever attended and have been to many at different racecourses.Congratulations to you both for getting it so correct.
– Tim, Oh So Fruity and Lucky Leyf
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