The Royal Ascot winners’ enclosure is no longer the exclusive preserve of Kings, Queens and millionaires.
This year’s meeting proved it’s possible for anyone to taste glory at the world’s most famous Flat racing festival through syndicates and shared ownership.
Rogue Diplomat gave his owners in the Rogues Gallery syndicate a day they could only dream about when winning the Royal Hunt Cup.
ITV Racing presenter Rishi Persad was among the delighted owners.
He said: “I never dreamt I’d be able to share in owning a horse good enough to win at Royal Ascot. It was something very special.
“It was quite surreal. I wasn’t expecting him to win like he did – I was blown away by it. Most of my reaction was – and I think I must have said it 20 or 30 times – was to keep repeating ‘I can’t believe it’. People probably wanted to slap me across the face.”
The syndicate was set up by Tony Elliott to give owners an enjoyable experience, while offering value for money. He is very keen to foster a team atmosphere among all their horses’ owners.
Tony said: “It’s something that touches my heart – I really, really enjoy it. It’s very hard to explain.
“I do it because it brings so much happiness to everybody. It’s phenomenal. We’ve got a lot of happy, happy people – I enjoy making good people happy.
“Most racing syndicates are businesses. We’ve created something different – we’re not in it to make money. It’s a unique boutique syndicate – whatever the horse costs, that’s what we charge.
“It’s very special to me. This is something we’ve created to give everybody a fair crack of the whip and we get people from all different walks of life. There’s around 30 or 40 people in Rogue Diplomat.”
His win gave trainer James Owen and jockey Harry Davies their first victories at Royal Ascot but the Rogues Gallery had been there before.
The syndicate first tasted success at the Royal meeting when Rogue Millennium won the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes in 2023.
She cost just £35,000 and was subsequently sold for £1.75million, handing her owners potentially life-changing returns.
Tony added: “I sat in my office sorting out giving people the money. Some of them were then paying off their mortgages. I enjoyed that as much as the race – we were over the moon.
“People really enjoy themselves. We had a hundred people at Ed Bethell’s for an owners day just after Royal Ascot – we’ve only got a total of three or four hundred in the syndicate.”
Kizlyar’s win in the Ascot Stakes was another victory for shared ownership.
He landed Royal Ascot’s biggest handicap for stayers in the white-and-pink colours of the HOS Syndicate when leading home a one-two for Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien.
Margaret Heffernan set up the syndicate – successful with Ethical Diamond at last year’s Breeders’ Cup – for her grandchildren.
She said: “I lost my husband Andrew 12 weeks ago and this was his week. The idea of the syndicate with the grandchildren was really his – he believed in it.
“We’ve had some great luck. I’ve been in horses all my life but never had the luck like we’ve had since the syndicate started.
“It is an amazing syndicate. I have two groups of grandchildren – older
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