In the Hot Seat: Luke Lillingston

Breeder, agent and syndicate manager Luke Lillingston of Mount Coote Stud is next in line to face the questions.

What are your goals for 2024?

Trying to figure out opportunities that will arise from the downturn in the bloodstock market, while trying to keep our heads above water.

Give us a horse to follow…

Dragon Leader (Ire) (El Kabeir) did us proud in 2023 winning over £300,000 as a two-year-old and should give his Kennet Valley owners plenty more fun.

And a young person in the industry to keep an eye on…

Charlie Dee works with me in Lillingston Bloodstock and is steadily building a good reputation both at home and around the world which will stand him in good stead for a bright future.

Who do you think will be champion first-season sire in 2024?

Hello Youmzain (Fr).

And the best value stallion in Ireland, England, and France?

Naval Crown (GB), Mostahdaf (Ire) and Vadeni (Fr).

Your best buy/sale of 2023?

I was excited to buy True Scarlet (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) at the Tattersalls December sales as her half-sister Shuwari (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) was second in the G1 Fillies' Mile and could be a contender for the 1,000 Guineas.  On the yearling front I couldn't pick one but I think the group of five yearlings we bought for Kennett Valley are the most exciting ever.

The best yearling/weanling you saw at the 2023 sales (that someone else bought)?

The St Mark's Basilica (Fr) filly out of Talent (GB), bought by Jill Lamb, was a deserving sale-topper at Tattersalls, and I believe still good value at 575,000gns.

Who is or was the perfect Thoroughbred?

We have been and are all very lucky to witness the almighty Frankel (GB).

Biggest professional regret?

Not taking the opportunity to buy and bring back Sir Prancealot (Ire) from America to Ireland. He would have been an excellent sire for small breeders looking to afford a proven stallion.

If you could be someone else in the industry for a day who would it be, and why?

Nick Luck, but I might need four days to get through what he regularly achieves in one. His work rate is quite extraordinary.

 

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Wednesday Insights: Foreign-Flavored Firsters at Churchill

4th-CD, $120k, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16mT, 2:15 p.m. ET
LE LEVRE (Le Havre {Ire}) makes her first trip to the races for the sneaky debut barn of Al Stall, Jr. and is a half-sister to four winners from as many to race out of Sunny Again (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}), whose notable produce include Italian highweight and Group 3 winner Elisa Again (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}); Berkshire Rocco (Fr) (Sir Percy {GB}), a winner at listed level in England and narrowly beaten in the 2020 G1 Pertemps St Leger; and Group 1-placed Sunset Shiraz (Ire) (Time Test {GB}). Bred by Luke Lillingston's Mount Coote Estates and sold for 125,000gns from that operation's draft at Tattersalls October in 2021, the chestnut filly is also kin to a now-juvenile colt by Sea The Stars (Ire) that fetched 550,000gns from Godolphin at TATOCT last fall. La Voie (Quality Road) lands the deepest draw in the field of 12 and brings a million-dollar pedigree to the table. A May-foaled daughter of Debonnaire (GB) (Anabaa), she is a half-sister to Hartnell (GB) (Authorized {Ire}), a Group 3 winner in England before adding four Group 1 tests once sent to continue his career in Australia. She capped her worktab with a best-of-51 half-mile from the gate in :47 3/5 at Keeneland Apr. 27.

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12 Questions: With George Boughey

First job in the Thoroughbred industry?

Working for Tom Goff and Luke Lillingston doing the yearling sales in the USA and UK.

 

Biggest influence on your career?

Hugo Palmer. Working for six seasons from when he had 30 horses to training Classic winners.

 

Favourite racehorse of all time, and why?

It has to be Cachet, beyond my wildest dreams to train a Classic winner in my third season for Highclere.

 

Who will be champion first-season sire in 2023?

He might not have the most winners but I have a handful by Blue Point who are very hard not to like.

 

Greatest race in the world?

The Derby, but I'd love to win a Breeders' Cup or a Cox Plate.

 

If you could be someone else in the industry for a day who would it be, and why?

Aidan O'Brien.

 

Emerging talent in the industry (human)?

Harry Derham (top man who I've sent a horse!) and Connor Planas (joins us after a stint in Dubai).

 

Name a horse TDN should have made a Rising Star, and didn't?

Proverb (Harry Angel) when he won his novice at Hamilton by seven lengths.

 

Under-the-radar stallion?

Mayson.

 

Friday night treat?

Deliveroo.

 

Guilty pleasure outside racing?

Outside of racing?!?!

 

Race I wish I'd been there for…

Gold Trip winning the Melbourne Cup for great friend David Eustace.

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Owner-Breeder Predicts Dreamloper To Bow Out With A Bang At Breeders’ Cup

Dreamloper's owner-breeder Olivia Hoare has admitted to being overcome with emotion ahead of a trip of a lifetime to the Breeders' Cup to see her dual Group 1-winning homebred bow out from racing on the biggest stage of all.

Trained by Ed Walker to win two top-flight races at ParisLongchamp this season, Dreamloper (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) is likely to race for the final time in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile given the 5-year-old is entered up in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale next week.

The decision to allow Dreamloper to go under the hammer after Saturday's race, for which she is as short as 6-1 with most firms, was one of the most difficult ones Hoare has ever faced, according to the enthusiastic owner.

However, she will retain a major interest in the family and reports Dreamloper's dam Livia's Dream (Ire) to be in foal to Lope De Vega (Ire), meaning a full-sibling is expected on the ground in the spring.

Hoare, who is in her mid-70s, said, “I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I get very nervous when she races. We watched the draw for the Breeders' Cup Mile the other night and, as the outside stalls had been filled by the time her name was called out, I grew in confidence.”

She added, “It's been incredibly exciting following Dreamloper. The highlights were unquestionably the two races in Paris this summer. I was there with my step grandchildren and step granddaughter and the children could not believe that the adults were jumping up and down and screaming their heads off. They were greatly entertained. That was tremendously exciting.”

The Dreamloper story began in 2010 when Hoare purchased her dam, Livia's Dream, from Luke Lillingston's Mount Coote Stud at Book 1 at Tattersalls for 45,000gns.

Lillingston, who boards many of Hoare's mares and has acted as an agent on behalf of the Roscommon native for over a decade, was not present when she viewed the then diminutive yearling by Teofilo (Ire).

However, Hoare remembers how Lillingston's father provided her with some inspiration ahead of the sale, and she hasn't looked back since.

She recalled, “Dreamloper always had a remarkable walk. I'm not very good at judging foals but, when she was a yearling, I said, 'you've got your mother's walk and, if you have her gumption, you'll be fine.'

“I love Lope De Vega. I went with Luke, who looks after a lot of my mares, to see a few stallions and thought he was the business down at Ballylinch Stud. With her mother's determination and her father's talent, I expected things from her.”

Hoare added, “Luke is also my agent and I went out of politeness to see his horses at Tattersalls in 2010. He would never tell me anything about the offerings of Mount Coote Stud and is very professional with things like that.

“But when he was on his lunch break, I went to see the horses and, while Luke's father told me that Livia's Dream was very small, he also told me that she was the fastest of the yearlings. I thought, 'well, that's good enough for me.' I got a friend of mine to bid on her while I hid and we got her for 45,000gns.”

Livia's Dream was then sent to Ed Walker who, along with John Murphy in Ireland, trains the majority of Hoare's horses. The filly was talented, winning four times, including at listed level but Dreamloper has exceeded all expectations.

Hoare explained, “Livia's Dream was one of the first outside horses Ed trained. It was the first year he was training. Ed is a wonderful communicator and is an awfully nice young man.

“I own her outright now. I leased her to my son for a couple of years and that lease ran out last month. I share her with my sister but I am the major owner.

“The dam is in foal to Lope De Vega so I am hoping, please God, to have a full-sibling next year. It was a heartbreaking decision to offer Dreamloper for sale at Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale but there will potentially be a lot of money on offer and things can go wrong in this game.”

She added, “I've had my share of ups and downs with horses and risking not getting her in foal or missing a year is too much for me right now. She has become too valuable. I took this on as a hobby but it has turned into a business. My business brain tells me that now is a good time to get out and concentrate on the rest of the family. Livia's Dream is still quite young at 13 and I am hoping that she can deliver a few more for us.”

Before then, there is that trip of a lifetime to the Breeders' Cup negotiate, and Hoare is predicting her star filly to bow out with a bang.

“Ed is very positive. We are all very positive, I'm delighted to say. We were all on the phone together last night and we think stall three should be perfect for her. I think she's in with a good chance. Let's hope she can be bang there.”

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