Tom was the jockey initially asked to ride the filly Regalia in the Goodwood Cup (August 1st 1867). The horse, when ridden by John Norman, had already won the 1865 Oaks, but Tom had ridden it with varying degrees of success in later races and discovered that it ran best if not pulled about or dominated.
Unbeknown to him, Regalia’s owner, Mr Graham, had taken dinner with Isaac Woolcot the evening before. Woolcot was not convinced that Tom was strong enough to do the horse justice, and had begun to approach other jockeys. Tom Chaloner, Henry Custance and Tom French all declined the ride, not wishing to supplant a colleague at the last moment. They all informed Mr Graham that Heartfield, who knew the mare so well, would do more with her than they could. Eventually, John Daley agreed to take the mount but understandably wanted someone else to inform Tom.
Tom Heartfield remained in complete ignorance of the change of plans and - thinking that the rider of a prospective winner of such an important race as the Gold Cup should present himself properly - had acquired a new suit. He had just finished dressing when Henry Woolcot, the trainer of Regalia, entered the room, highly embarrassed. He broke the news to a bitterly disappointed Tom who felt that to be taken off Regalia at the last moment could do a young jockey like himself serious harm, yet there was nothing he could do about it.
He took off his new suit, threw on his ordinary clothes, and made his way to the course. Here, to his eternal gratitude, he received much sympathy from nearly all the other jockeys. Tom Chaloner gave him excellent advice: “Don’t show you’re annoyed – go and help saddle the mare as though you don’t mind.” Chaloner was then at the peak of his powers and challenging for the jockeys’ championship, so his words naturally meant a lot to the youngster. Heartfield immediately went over to help saddle the mare. Woolcot said to him “You know the mare well – tell Daley how best to ride her.”
This was trying Tom’s patience too far. It was also an opportunity of repaying in kind the shabby treatment he had received.
“You know how she pulls and bores with her head down? Take hold of her head, pull the bit through her mouth and be her master” was the chronic advice he gave Daley. The hapless Daley faithfully followed it to the letter – with the inevitable result.
Regalia threw her head up and immediately Daley threw everything at her. The mare fought him furiously, and, declining to gallop a yard, tried to pull herself up. She trailed in, well beaten, a reluctant third.
The blighted youngster had got even.
Tom’s father, James, was, like himself, born in Mitcham, Surrey (1808) where he spent the first 63 years of his life. He then moved to Epsom, where he died shortly after, aged 65. James married Jane (born 1819) and she gave him eleven children: Emily (born 1838), John (1842), Mary Anne (1846), Elizabeth (1848), Thomas (1850), Catherine (1852), Kate (1853), Fredk (1856), Henry (1859), Mary (1842) and Louise (1846). Given the birth dates of Mary and Louise, it is almost certain that Jane was not their mother.
A dapper little man, Thomas became a Bentinck pensioner.
He died in Lambeth in 1926 aged 77.