Heart Of The South Racing: 25 Years In Business

If you’ve been a regular at racecourses in West Sussex over the last quarter of a century, you’ll have likely seen the dark green, with blue diamond silks of Heart Of The South Racing.

Starting from humble beginnings, the organisation is about to celebrate 25 years in operation.

Eloise Adamski, racing manager, explained how business is faring during the UK industry shutdown. And more about a hobby – turned into a successful small business - specialising in horse racing syndicates.

Everybody is facing similar issues during this uncertain period, and after a brief chat about the difficulties facing families – with schools closing, work and home commitments to juggle and the uncertainty which lies ahead of us all – Adamski spoke about the challenges that are affecting the horse racing industry, and Heart Of The South.

“It is a really scary time.

“We were in shock when we first heard racing was going to be postponed until the end of April. Our main focus was looking after our owners and making sure they knew what was going on.

“A couple of our National-Hunt horses, ones that would have no chance of running in May, have already gone on an early holiday – they’ll finish early but start back earlier. We have such a good working relationship with the four trainers we use - so, although the National-Hunt horses have gone on breaks early, they will return early – to make up for that.”

They are now one of the longest standing syndicates in racing – but started from small beginnings.

“My dad, John Penny, ran a telecoms company and sold that around 25 years ago – then retired, wanted a hobby and loved horses.

“He wanted to get involved with syndicates and ownership, and there was nothing really available at that time – so he thought ‘I’m going to set up my own little syndicate’ and that’s how it started. As a hobby for a number of years - for my dad, some friends and old work associates.

“As the syndicates grew, dad found it was becoming unmanageable as a hobby and decided we could turn it into a small business. I’ve been manager for about 12 years. We now have about 16 syndicates. Each Syndicate has between 10 and 20 owners.”

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The syndicates have been a huge success over the years, with horses taking them to the likes of Cheltenham and Ascot. Over the years, the way they source their horses has changed – but success continues.

“We used to have a couple of mares at home – so we’ve had a couple home-bred. And South Cape, who was one of our best flat horses – winning 11 races and over £100,000 prizemoney in his career - was bred at home. Good Luck Charm, who is Gary’s oldest flat horse in training – at 11 - is home-bred too.

“Now, we tend to buy them in association with the trainers, as they have bloodstock agents they use. We’ve recently bought one in France, using Gary’s connection over there. Some we buy as foals – but the majority we buy with trainers, on advice of their bloodstock agents.”

Heart Of The South is a great name for a business whose ethos is to work with the industry in the South as much as possible. Local racing is at the heart of the operation.

“It’s really important to us. We try and predominantly run our horses in the South of England. I’m Sussex born and bred, we’ve been here for so many years, so wherever possible we try to run our horses in the South-East and the local area - and that’s how we intend it to stay.”

Over the years, there have been plenty of horses carrying the syndicate’s colours, and it turns out that one of their most famous has strong links to Fontwell Park.

“Fruity O’Rooney was amazing. Philip Hide was riding out for Peter Winkworth, and when Peter retired, Philip said there was a horse that he’d ridden and schooled - and ‘he could be a good syndicate horse for you’. He was the definition of the perfect syndicate horse – gutsy, always tried and never had an injury.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get another horse like him.

“He should have won the SkyBet Chase, but his saddle slipped. He carried on jumping with his saddle stuck behind. In typical Jamie Moore fashion, he didn’t let it phase him, and they still finished third. He should have won at the Cheltenham Festival, but was caught on the line. I still haven’t got over that.”

25 years have passed – with the business going from strength-to-strength. Hopefully the season, and the syndicates, can get up and running soon and continue to be one of the few long-standing businesses in the industry.