WHAT a milestone it was on Saturday for Sam Hoskins’ and Luke Lillingston’s Hot To Trot Racing.

Rage Of Bamby’s fine Group 3 win at Newbury in the Hackwood Stakes wasn’t just another victory, it was the syndicate’s 100th success since Hot To Trot Racing was formed. It was a fine win too for Eve Johnson Houghton who is having a good run of form.

Hot To Trot Racing kicked off in 2011 with a somewhat different idea: to create an accessible and affordable syndicate experience by leasing well-bred fillies from some of the most respected breeders. By August 2012, they had their very first winner with Hot Secret. Fast forward nearly 13 years and they have celebrated Royal Ascot glory with Heartache, and been in the group winner’s circle with stars like Kurious, and now with Rage Of Bamby.

When their 100th winner crossed the line, it couldn’t have been more perfect. Hot To Trot race Rage Of Bamby with Kildaragh Stud’s Antoinette Kavanagh, and this five-time winning mare, bought as a yearling in Italy by Marco Bozzi for €35,000, has now earned more than €210,000. She is one of 14 stakes winners, five in 2025, for Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact). Rage Of Bamby is from that classic winner’s first crop, one that also contained Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Victoria Road and fellow pattern winners Lumiere Rock, Greenland, and Moon Ray.

Shock winner

Rage Of Bamby was somewhat of a shock winner on Saturday, having been unplaced on her three previous outings this year.

At two she won twice before finishing third in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes, had a disappointing second season, but bounced back last year to win a listed race at Newmarket. Now, at five, she has upgraded to become a group winner. Rage Of Bamby was catalogued last year for the Tattersalls December Sale, but withdrawn. Her sale prospects have now been enhanced.

Marco Bozzi knows this family, having purchased Rage Of Bamby’s dam Rabiosa Fiore (Sakhee’s Secret) for 4,500gns in Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Sale in 2014. She went on to win five times in Italy, and her 10 placed efforts included a couple in stakes races. Her first four foals are now all winners, and there is a second stakes winner in the shape of Amalaura (Raven’s Pass), and half of her six wins were gained in listed contests.

Champion sprinter

Rabiosa Fiore is the best of three winners from Hamsat El Qamar (Nayef), while that mare and the dual listed winner Ibn Malik (Raven’s Pass) are among seven winners out of the unraced Moon’s Whisper (Storm Cat). Another of those winners was Atab (New Approach). She was bought by De Burgh Equine for €35,000 at Goffs, and shipped to Japan carrying a six-time winner. Atab’s first foal to be conceived there, Lugal (Duramente), won the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes last year and was also voted champion sprinter in Japan.

This is a wonderful Niarchos female line. Rage Of Bamby’s fourth dam, East Of The Moon (Private Account), was a dual classic winner in France, and in 1994 she captured both the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, and the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks. East Of The Moon is grandam through Alpha Lupi (Rahy) of Group 1 winners Alpha Centauri (Mastercraftsman), Alpine Star (Sea The Moon) and Discoveries (Mastercraftsman).

It’s Grade 1 or nothing for Scottish Lassie

JORGE Abreu has trained some 250 winners, but just two stakes winners. One of these is the three-year-old Scottish Lassie, and the daughter of McKinzie (Street Sense) is something a little different.

Bred by Naoya Yoshida and Marie Debeusscher-Yoshida’s Winchester Farm, both of whom have a great affection for Ireland, Scottish Lassie is from the first crop by McKinzie who won four Grade 1 races, from two to four, and went to stud at Gainesway in 2021 at a fee of $30,000. It remained at that price until this season, rocketing to $75,000 after he sired a pair of Grade 1 winners in his first crop.

One of these was Scottish Lassie, and she raced three times as a juvenile. Placed in a maiden special on her debut, she made her second start in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, and won. The filly proved this was no fluke when she ran fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. On her first pair of starts this year, Scottish Lassie was placed, on the second occasion in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes.

CCA Oaks

At the weekend, with one win to her credit, albeit a Grade 1, Scottish Lassie added a second victory on what was just her sixth time to face the starter. The race was the Grade 1 CCA Oaks at Saratoga, and if you thought it was impressive that she won the Frizette by nine lengths, she triumphed on this occasion by more than 15 lengths. It seems to be a case of Grade 1 or bust for Scottish Lassie.

The filly’s dam Bodebabe, a daughter of Winchester Farm graduate Bodemeister (Empire Maker), was a great find by the Yoshida duo, sourced from the claiming ranks at Gulfstream. Winner at three, Bodebabe had been a $140,000 yearling, and her first two foals are multiple winners.

The first, Take Charge Babe (Take Charge Indy), a $45,000 yearling, sold for $200,000 to Runnymede Farm on the back of Scottish Lassie’s arrival on the scene last year. Bodebabe has a two-year-old filly by Tiz The Law (Constitution) who realised $50,000 last year.

With Bodebabe’s first three yearlings averaging a tad under $50,000, it is surely time for Winchester to benefit from their early success, and this year the farm will be selling a yearling half-brother to Scottish Lassie by Corniche (Quality Road).

The colt is from the first crop by that Ashford Stud sire who was the champion juvenile in the USA at two, winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes. Corniche was injured on his only start at three.

Grade 1 producers

Bodebabe is the fourth consecutive dam in her female line to breed a stakes winner, and two of them are Grade 1 producers. Bodebabe is obviously one, but she has a way to go to match the record of her own grandam, Scarlet Tango (French Deputy).

A four-time winner and stakes-placed, Scarlet Tango sold for only $35,000 in 2003, and five years later Stonestreet paid $850,000 for her. This was thanks to her son Visionaire (Grand Slam), a full-brother to Scottish Lassie’s grandam, winning the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga.

Scarlet Tango has gone on to breed a second Grade 1 winner in Tara’s Tango (Unbridled’s Song), successful in the Santa Margarita Stakes and the dam of the 2022 Grade 3 Virginia Derby winner Capensis (Tapit). In addition to a pair of Grade 1 winners, Scarlet Tango is also responsible for three Grade 3 winners.

One of the trio, Scarlet Strike (Smart Strike), was placed three times at Grade 1 level, and the best of her runners is Toro Strike (Toronado), victorious in Goodwood’s Group 3 Supreme Stakes.