Where Are They Now: Hey Yo

In this new series we look back on former racemares — not necessarily the headline stars, but the tough, honest performers who gave their connections thrills on the track and now shape the broodmare bands of tomorrow. These are mares remembered not just for what they did in silks, but for the stories they continue to write long after racing.

Some horses leave their mark not only through their race record but also through the way they shape the people around them. Hey Yo (Revenue – Toomuch To Do) was one of those mares. Bought for just $4,000 off a harness racing listing page, she was a daughter of the tough open-class trotter Toomuch To Do (Britewell), who famously won the 2005 Canterbury Park Trotting Cup and, sitting three wide the trip, lowered the national mares’ record over 1700m while defeating the mighty Lyell Creek in an Interdominion heat at Alexandra Park. Her dam’s breeding record had been modest, but Hey Yo lifted the family’s profile to a new level.

Hey Yo won eight races, placed another 16 times, and quickly became a favourite around the barn. For a young trainer starting out, she was the perfect flagbearer. “She was pretty much like the perfect horse really… if you had anyone that needed to learn to drive, or you wanted to give someone a thrill around the track, she was the horse to put them on. Perfect natured, perfect gaited, she’d just work with you, never against you,” recalls co-owner and trainer Jack Harrington. She won on debut — Harrington’s first victory as a trainer — and in the space of ten starts graduated from an average C1 trotter to open class. She made her way to Australia where, under Anthony Butt and Sonya Smith, she twice placed at Group One level including the Great Southern Star Final, and collected other Group placings across the Tasman. “It was new territory for both her and I… it was a massive thrill,” Harrington says.

With her own résumé and the rising star of her half-brother Bolt For Brilliance (Muscle Hill), excitement was high to breed from Hey Yo. But breeding can be as cruel as racing, and Harrington and his family have endured setback after setback. Her first foal by Father Patrick was a correct, good-looking colt who died suddenly at three months of age from acute kidney failure. The following year she slipped, and the year after that tragedy struck again when she ruptured during foaling, losing a massive colt and nearly her own life. “That was pretty rough… Becky Sartorious worked some magic just to keep her alive. From that point the vets said she’d only be embryo transfer from then on,” Harrington explains.

After two years off, Harrington turned to Bitamuscle and the guidance of Paul Nairn. “I caught wind that Paul was doing services with Bitamuscle. Obviously he’s from a great family, like every horse in that family’s won a Group One almost. Being a Muscle Hill out of a Love You mare, I just thought getting a bit of Muscle Hill blood in there was the way to go — a bit like Bolt For Brilliance. Paul said good as gold, and we went ahead,” Harrington recalls. The embryo transfer was successful, with surrogate mare Tattinger Rose — herself a half-sister to Spankem — now carrying Hey Yo’s long-awaited foal, due within weeks.
“We’re checking the paddock every day now, just making sure nothing goes wrong. Hopefully we finally get the result. They say the breeding game’s a long game… but it’s been a bit longer than I thought it would be with this mare,” he says with a wry laugh.

For those who followed her racing days, Hey Yo was more than a consistent performer. She was a personality, a horse that people remembered. Harrington still recalls the running jokes at the workouts as fellow horsemen would call out “Hey Yo!” as he jogged her past, and the pride among his friends that he had landed such a good horse early in his career. “She was a bit of a cult hero for us younger guys coming through. Having a good horse that early in my career, and mates who were rapt for me, that was pretty cool,” he reflects.

Now 14 and still yet to produce a foal, Hey Yo is the definition of perseverance. For Harrington and his family, the hope is simple: that after six years of heartbreak, the mare who gave them so much on the track can at last give them a foal in the paddock.