Luke Lillingston

This is a story about young friends: some who have become a little less young, but who have kept themselves from growing too old, too soon, by supporting and mentoring the next generation. Poignantly, however, it starts with a man who was himself cruelly denied his share in that gratifying, repeating cycle among horses and horsemen. Because it was his lamented friend Alex Scott who, hearing that Luke Lillingston was off to New York, made an introduction that proved critical to his career. "This was, what, 38 years ago now,"...

It is not just the horses who move fast in the world of racing. The winds of fashion, especially when it comes to stallions, are ever changing. All the while the years gallop on, and a filly you can still picture in the heat haze of an Ascot summer is suddenly the third dam of this year's champion. Drive in through the gates of Mount Coote Stud, however, and it feels as though time is standing still. Set in the famed Maigue Valley where a rich seam of Limerick limestone...

A New Bay filly (lot 644) caught the eye of Philipp Stauffenberg and he duly shelled out €650,000 to acquire the half-sister to Group 1 winner Dreamloper (Lope De Vega) during the third session of the Goffs November Foal Sale on Wednesday. Also a half-sister to G2 Park Hill Stakes heroine and G1 Prix de Royallieu second Santorini Star (Golden Horn), the April foal was bred by Y. Y. Fill. Ed Sackville was the underbidder. Said Stauffenberg, "If you look into it, there are very few foals of that quality...

Luke Lillingston will not want 2025 to end. The magical year for Mount Coote Stud has consisted of 42 individual winners, including headline acts like Santorini Star and Laurelin, who is one of the poster girls for the Goffs Orby Sale.  And rightly so. Under the care of Graham Motion, the Orby graduate has won all five of her starts in America and is understood to be on course for the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland next month. "You never want to toot the horn too...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Purveyors of Twitter will have noticed that Luke Lillingston has made his way onto timelines on an almost daily basis in recent weeks but the Mount Coote Stud operator had his name pegged into lights on Saturday when dear old Sir Busker (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), a horse he bought for just €25,000 in 2017, bagged the G2 Sky Bet York S.  Whether it's buying or breeding winners, Lillingston has enjoyed a year to remember and, not only did he source Sir Busker on behalf of Kennet Valley, but he...

As it heads into his third year of existence, the stallion nomination trading website Buyanom.com has a new look, and a few new perks for its users. Ahead of the 2022 breeding season, the Buyanom website has been redone, and now includes the capability for its users to sign contracts online. "It's very user- friendly and very quick," said Luke Lillingston, who operates Buyanom alongside fellow respected horseman Ted Voute. "We're very pleased with the way the website is working." Another new aspect of the site designed to improve the...

The stakes-producing Talent (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), winner of the 2013 G1 Investec Oaks, foaled a colt foal by Too Darn Hot (GB) at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning at Luke Lillingston's Mount Coote Stud in Co. Limerick, Ireland. Bred by Ashbrittle Stud and Mark Dixon, he is the first foal of the season at Mount Coote. "He is very nice," Lillingston told the TDN. "He looks like a strong foal. He was only born at 5 a.m. this morning but he's good-looking and strong, and I can say both...

Whether contemplating the travails of society at large, or just the viability of our own walk of sporting life, these are certainly days that demand the long view. And few will be bringing a perspective on the October Sale to match that of Luke Lillingston of Mount Coote Stud. Next week Lillingston will be bringing yearlings to Tattersalls for a 20th consecutive year. And, while there was some overlap, his late father Alan clocked up an unbroken half-century selling there after establishing one of the most fertile Thoroughbred nurseries in...