Newbury News
“Blood, Sweat, Tears… And a good gut feeling” by Robbie Stelling
Transcript:
As Highclere Thoroughbred Racing celebrates its 30th year, the recipe for their outstanding success is clear. ROBBIE STELLING explains
In the racing world, reputations are built on the track. Success can be defined by a split second, a short head, an inch of turf. But to the team at Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, that one winning moment requires thousands of hours of work, hundreds of sleepless nights and a whole lot of luck. For even the world’s best, those perfect conditions come together only a handful of times. Perhaps even fewer.
Thus when Harry Herbert founded Highclere Thoroughbred Racing 30 years ago, he cannot have imagined he was about to establish one of racing’s most successful organisations. His team have produced some of the Queen’s finest winners and some of the sport’s most memorable moments – Motivator winning the Derby in 2005, Harbinger winning the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2010 and Cachet winning the 1000 Guineas this May.
Three decades on and Herbert still feels the same buzz as he did as a fresh-faced apprentice from Berkshire learning his trade in Kentucky, the home of US racing, in the early 1980s. Warm, affable and gregarious, he admits he could hardly contain his excitement when Durston won the Group One Caulfield Cup in Australia in October this year, a win worth around £2,800,000 to its syndicate. It was just the day before the annual Yearling Parade that month at the stud in West Woodhay where young horses are giving their first showing to existing owners and potential investors. “It’s brilliant that we’re able to welcome everyone here having had such a fantastic time in Australia,” said Herbert. “I was watching the race downstairs on the sofa and trying to keep quiet because my wife was asleep. “I managed a few stifled screams and ran around the living room, I couldn’t help myself.”
With its 300 mile expanse of rolling hills, Highclere has a quintessentially British feel to it. The Berkshire and North Hampshire countryside has been the home of national institutions like The Great British Bake Off, Downton Abbey and, of course, British racing. On a crisp, sun-kissed autumn morning in October, Herbert and his team prepared to welcome hundreds of potential investors to Yearling Parade. The two days were the chance for Herbert, his brother-in-law John Warren and his nephew Jake Warren, to show off their proud purchases in the hope that their guests will have enough faith to invest.
Racing is nothing if not unpredictable – not all the investors will see returns, not all the horses will be winners, but all are about to embark upon a tantalising journey. “The day’s all about showing off our new yearlings that we’ve just completed buying,” Herbert said when I spoke to him at the parade. “It’s a long and challenging process in what’s been a red hot market. We’re welcoming a lot of people that have invested before and some that are here for the first time, we’re hoping we’ve found some superstars for them. “Every horse has a story, each one is unique, that’s what makes it so exciting.” There are countless considerations when picking and purchasing the perfect racehorse – from teeth to temperament, coronet to cannon bone but Herbert prizes one above all, instinct. He said: “We bought a horse once even though he was way in excess of our budget and my brother-in-law John (Warren, the royal family’s renowned bloodstock adviser) told me we couldn’t afford him. “So I looked at him and said ‘John, this one’s my decision’ and he turned out to be Harbinger, a world champion who we sold for over £5m. “After we’d made the purchase we took him to Newmarket and out on the gallops and he did a piece of work with the great French jockey Olivier Peslier. “It was the first time Peslier had ever sat on him and he turned to me and said ‘Harry, this horse will win the King George, he might be the best I’ve ever sat on’.”
“That’s a success story, but there’s a lot of not so good ones. “People are here to see the horses for the first time in a stunning setting. For a lot of them the decision to invest is based on a gut feeling. “It’s about getting close to the horse, understanding why we bought the horse and hopefully, crucially, believing in the horse. “You never quite know if you’re going to get Pegasus or Dobbin, we certainly hope we’re going to get Pegasus. “But we do know that some of these horses are going to be racing and winning at the top level – this is the start of that.”
Since its foundation, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing has consistently remained at the sport’s top table. Newcomers and upstarts might challenge and replicate Highclere’s success, but West Berkshire’s downs and gallops dominate when it comes to that Highclere Stud most prestigious of all qualities, history. Herbert said: “My great-grandfather, the Earl of Carnarvon, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, founded the stud in the late 1800s. It’s passed down through the generations and some of the greatest horses in the world have stood here.
“We’ve kept the same team for 30 years. The only thing that’s changed is that we’ve probably got a bit more competitive. “We had a European champion with our very first syndicate and everyone kept telling me we’d never have another horse like that. Well, look what happened, we’ve had seven European champions.” Herbert stresses that owning a racehorse is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle.
On arrival, prospective owners were greeted with sausage and bacon rolls, fresh orange juice and Bloody Mary cocktails while discussion and debate bubbled away about who might be about to invest in racing’s next big winner. After the parade, Herbert’s wife – TV chef Clodagh McKenna – and her team prepared a two-course lunch for the 250 guests in attendance in a marquee adorned with seasonal autumnal décor. Following a Champagne reception visitors sat down to chocolate beef chilli made from McKenna’s sustainable Broadspear beef, reared in Highclere Park. For dessert, guests feasted on apple, blackberry and oat crumble with Longley double cream, before Herbert and then renowned trainer William Haggas, who won this year’s Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, regaled guests with stories and memories from the past 30 years. If this is a lifestyle, then it’s a pretty good one.
As the sun set on this year’s parade, Herbert and McKenna prepared to do it all again the following day and Highclere’s founder reflected on one of their most successful seasons to date. “There are always new challenges but we’ve had a great year. This event coincides with the end of the Flat season but also represents the beginning of new ventures ahead of the next one,” he said. “I have the best trainers, the best team and I’m always positive and optimistic, that’s absolutely essential. We’ve historically proven we can deliver year on year, and that’s exactly what we intend to continue to do.” With stomachs filled, wallets emptied, expectations, hopes and dreams at their zenith, guests headed for all corners of the UK to await news of the next generation of racehorses and their development. It is no wonder visitors leave in high spirits. Highclere boasts some of the most exciting racehorses in the world, superlative stallions, the best breeders and trainers and the finest food and wine – now that’s a winning combination.