Mount Coote A Standing Dish At Tattersalls

As Tattersalls celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, one of its longest-standing current consignors is Mount Coote Stud.

The farm, based in Kilmallock, County Limerick, consigned its first draft at Tattersalls in 1958 under the direction of Alan Lillingston, a former champion amateur rider who won the 1963 Champion Hurdle and took on the running of Mount Coote at the age of just 23. Lillingston, who died two years ago at the age of 79, has been succeeded at the helm of the stud which has been in the Lillingston family since 1938 by his eldest son Luke, who says, “My grandfather bought the place initially to indulge his passion for hunting. My father just loved the place and he brought us up to love it too.”

Just eight months prior to his father's death, Luke Lillingston oversaw a notable sales result in the stud's history when breaking the record for price for a broodmare in Europe with Immortal Verse (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) who sold for 4.7 million gns to top the December Sale of 2013.

“My father was very ill by that stage, but it meant so much to him and to us all. He was on the telephone before the mare had even been led back to her box,” he recalls.

Immortal Verse was offered on behalf of Charlie Noell and John Moores of Merriebelle Stable and the connection continues through to this October Sale, with the partnership selling a full-brother to the dual Group 1-winning mare as lot 320 “a little cracker and looks like a sprinter,” says Lillingston, who is also consigning six yearlings by Sea The Stars (Ire)–five colts and a filly–on behalf of their and the stallion's breeder Ling Tsui. The sextet includes the first living foal of the G2 Prix Royallieu winner Sea Of Heartbreak (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), lot 302, who was bought by the Tsui family for 550,000gns at Tattersalls in 2012.

“This is the fourth year that Mrs. Tsui has kindly asked us to sell some yearlings for her. She's absolutely passionate about the business and especially when it comes to supporting Sea The Stars. This year, what has been really good, is that he's had two group winners at a mile, which makes him just about everything you'd want, and we have a really nice group of colts in the year that he has really re-established himself.” He adds, “It's quite exciting–this is the biggest group I've ever offered in Book 1. My father had some heady years when he offered probably double the number.”

Among those heady years, Lillingston senior was responsible for selling the first winner to the man who would come to dominate the world bloodstock scene.

His son took up the story, “My father got a call from Dick Warden from the Curragh Bloodstock Agency saying that some people from the UAE were coming to England to buy a racehorse. So they came to Newmarket for a day's racing and we were selling that evening. We had a nice big colt by Busted out of Chieftain Girl and this was the horse that Colonel Warden selected for them to buy for 32,000gns. Then they said, 'Now we want a filly', and they bought the next filly into the ring for 6,200gns. She was by Realm and she had a club foot and was nearly black. The two of them went off to be trained by John Dunlop. The Busted colt was big and backward and was called Shaab (GB) and eventually raced in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan. The filly they named Hatta (GB) and she turned out to be Sheikh Mohammed's first winner and then first group winner.”

It's fair to say that Hatta's victory at Brighton on June 20, 1977, which was swiftly followed by her G3 Molecomb S. triumph at Glorious Goodwood, went a long way to igniting a passion that has changed the face of world racing and breeding. Even if he is not in Newmarket in person this week, Sheikh Mohammed is likely to make his presence felt at Park Paddocks, just as Lillingston hopes to do.

“Book 1 is the best yearling sale in the world,” he said. “My father sold yearlings in Newmarket for 50 consecutive years from 1958 and when we looked back at the catalogue for that year almost all the names have changed. It's a privilege to be here and to still be carrying on in the Mount Coote name.”

Among Tuesday's offerings from the Mount Coote draft is one of the stud's own yearlings in lot 128, an Invincible Spirit (Ire) half-brother to Group 3 winner Queen Catrine (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), as well as a foal pinhook, lot 179, a colt from the first crop of Intello whose dam Marika (GB) (Marju {Ire}) and half-sister Sabratah (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) are both listed winners.

Lillingston, who, along with consigning and managing the “30-odd mares” at his farm in the lush Maigue Valley, also finds time to run two racing syndicates–Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds and Hot To Trot Racing–in tandem with another indefatigable member of the bloodstock community, Sam Hoskins. “I found Sam Hoskins, who is perfect for the job, and Hot To Trot has actually helped Kennet Valley, which we took over from Nick Robinson, as some of the Kennet Valley owners have evolved from Hot To Trot.”

The Kennet Valley members have enjoyed a particularly good season through stalwart Tullius (Ire) (Le Vie Dei Colori {GB}), who notched his 11th victory when landing the G3 Diomed S. on Derby day at Epsom, while sprinter Magical Memory (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}) recorded back-to-back wins in the G3 Abernant S. at Newmarket and G2 Duke Of York S. at the Dante meeting.

Lillingston added with his trademark enthusiasm, “I really wanted to try to do something to help more people enjoy what we all enjoy. We're all so lucky to be involved in this sport and the more people we can encourage to join in, the better.”