Exciting times ahead for Heathcote’s pint-sized Startantes

Cover image courtesy of Michael McInally

It was very special indeed, because not only was Heathcote celebrating as a trainer but also as a breeder - a Group 1-winning breeder.

Winning an elite-level race with a filly whose story takes him back a couple of decades into most of his history as a racehorse trainer, the former tour guide, who ran trips for Contiki and Trafalgar Tours, before managing an Austrian ski resort, gained his training licence in 1997.

And just a few years after that a lovely filly called Cantantes (Just Awesome) came into his life, catching Heathcote's eye at the 2000 Magic Millions Superbowl Yearling Sale and secured her for $18,000.

While she won only a couple of races, a Sunshine Coast maiden and a restricted 1500-metre contest at an Eagle Farm Boxing Day meeting, Cantantes was a nice enough type for Heathcote to hold onto and what a pearler in the breeding shed she proved to be.

Eleven live foals, all named and raced - 10 winners; two stakes winners, six metropolitan winners - nearly all trained by Heathcote and raced by people dear to him.

“I don't syndicate the horses I breed," he said, "I just race them with close friends and family which makes it all the more special.

"I don't actually consider myself a breeder. I just have a few mares and it is all part and parcel of my training career."

Cantantes' third foal and first stakes winner was Funtantes (Easy Rocking), a terrifically tough campaigner who raced 50 times - winning 10 races including the G2 BTC Champagne Classic, the Listed Juanmo S. and the Listed Nudgee Quality H.

It was a given that Heathcote would hold onto such a mare and what a journey she has taken the stable on, but her breeding career has been hardly smooth sailing.

Sadly her first foal, a colt by Rothesay (sire of Heathcote's Group 1 winner Rothfire) died after birth and she missed that spring. More luck the third go with Ziemba (Rothesay) a multiple city winner who has amassed over $250,000 in prizemoney.

Slipping to Rothesay the following season, in 2017 Funtantes visited, on the advice of Steve Morley (described by Heathcote as "my go-to man for advice”), Vinery's youngster Star Turn.

Born and raised at Vinery, the filly attracted good reports from early days and Heathcote recalled: "They just kept telling me that she was a nice type."

But Heathcote, busy in Queensland did not lay eyes upon the filly until she made her way to Washpool Lodge to be race educated and a surprise awaited.

"I thought they must've sent the wrong horse up, she was just a pony!” he said.

Hence the nickname - "little Pumpkin" - and how apt it has proven as the filly, officially christened Startantes, has never really gained anything in height though she is strong and tough.

"She may be small," Heathcote laughed, "but she has the heart of a lion!"

Showing from early days that she could really gallop, Startantes was an easy Eagle Farm maiden winner at only her second start, progressing through the grades with the stable happy to pay up a late nomination for her to contest the G1 Golden Rose.

Watch: Startantes (pink and black checks) finishes sixth to In The Congo in the G1 Golden Rose

From a wide gate she ended up a bit too far back but she was strong to the line finishing sixth in what has proven to be a great form race.

Also terrific when earning her first Group 1 placing, in the Flight S., Startantes had to change course in the run home when contesting the G1 Surround S. in which she was a brave second before heading out for a break.

And this campaign has been the rewarding one, Startantes off a close-up G1 Stradbroke H. fifth, charged home from well back on Saturday and was so game when winning the season's final Group 1 race - making for what Heathcote described as "a big, big celebration!

"It was my wife's birthday during the week so we already had a party at home planned so it was a huge night - people dancing in front of the big screen as the replay showed; a helluva party,” he exaplained.

A close call for Funtantes

And there is relief mixed in with the elation because Funtantes was nearly lost last year, requiring two rounds of surgery while she was heavily in foal to Rothesay.

"She was feeling the effects of an old racing injury," Heathcote explained. “She was getting laminitic because of it. She needed screws and plates due to a fusion of the P1 and P2 bones but her body rejected them and everyone thought we'd lose her."

But thanks to the determination and skills of everyone involved, Funtantes was saved, though Heathcote noted that much of her recovery stemmed from her own physical and mental attributes. "Steve Morley was ringing me every week and telling me he had not seen, in thirty years, a tougher mare,” said Heathcote.

Last spring paying a return visit to Star Turn - that foal certainly keenly anticipated - Funtantes has Heathcote "excited" about the others she has coming through with her 2-year-old daughter Ekaterina (Russian Revolution) showing good ability, who Heathcote describes her as the "the spitting image of Startantes", breaking her maiden at just her second start at the Sunshine Coast in mid-May.

Meanwhile, her Spirit Of Boom yearling colt is currently at Washpool Lodge and her Rothesay filly foal have both earned big wraps.

“She is the nicest type on the farm is how the filly has been described," Heathcote enthused.

Heathcote has enjoyed further success with members of the Cantantes clan, her son Excellantes (Falvelon) winning 12 races with five of those successes coming at Listed level. And he breeds with her 2015-born filly, the three-time winner Alle Vongole (Falvelon) served last spring by Star Turn after foaling a Rothesay filly.

And so whilst the family has a Group 1 on the page, there looks to be plenty still to come.

"It’s exciting times," said Heathcote.

HOOFNOTE: There is some interesting history deep within Startantes' pedigree, her 11th dam part of Australian racing folklore as the winner of the 1895 G1 Melbourne Cup.

Auraria (Trenton {NZ}), the outstanding St Albans Stud-bred South Australian mare who the SAJC honour annually with the running of the G3 Auraria S., was some filly. She raced four times that week, running third in the G1 VRC Derby on the Saturday, winning the Cup on the Tuesday, the G1 VRC Oaks on the Thursday and dead-heating with fellow star Wallace (Carbine {NZ}) in what is now the G3 Queen Elizabeth S. (then the C.F Fisher Plate) the following Saturday.

She had some racing heart, and how nice it is to see it passed down through the generations to another Group 1 filly 127 years later!