Competing at the highest level in sport is beyond the imaginations of many. However, Highclere Racing is making it a reality in the sport of kings. The British-based business has a rich history and a bright future — part of which it hopes will include Melbourne Cup success.

“Little did I know
I’d be talking to 1200
inebriated Aussie men!”

The Honourable Harry Herbert’s first hands-on experience with Australian racing could well have seen him run the other way. Walking into a room to give an after-dinner speech during the 2003 Melbourne Cup Carnival, he expected to be speaking with a small group of sporting enthusiasts at the Carbine Club. “Little did I know I’d be talking to 1200 inebriated Aussie men! Really scary, but a fun experience nonetheless!” he laughs. Harry explains that the Cup carnival and its extraordinary build-up were unlike anything he’d ever seen before. There’s no doubt that an Aussie day at the races has its points of difference to racing at Royal Ascot. Harry loved what he saw, and he knew from that moment that his British-based business, Highclere Racing, had to get involved in “the race that stops a nation”.

Harry started Highclere Racing in 1992, following a lengthy stint in Kentucky. After working for various different technology companies involved in the racing industry, as well as the management side of turf festivals, he met a guy by the name of Clarke Campbell, who was running a racehorse syndication company unlike any Harry had come across before. “Syndicate was a really dodgy word back then; everything that was unprofessional was done via syndicates!” he explains. Harry observed that there was another way to go about it — and decided to bring that back to Europe.

Right from the beginning, Harry viewed Highclere Racing as a luxury goods business. “The brand was very important to me,” he explains. This meant that everything — from the silks to the email updates sent to owners — was coordinated and polished from the outset. Even though syndicates typically involved up to 20 shareholders, the emphasis was always on providing a “sole ownership” feel. “I never want to lose that personal touch,” says Harry. The company’s high profile has meant that over the years it has attracted involvement from a number of celebrities, including British actor Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey fame, British actress Liz Hurley and Australian cricket legend Shane Warne, and also British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. Of course, a business cannot survive on great branding alone; in the racing world, you need good jockeys, trainers and of course good horses. Fortunately for Harry, his family harbours a strong connection to the latter.

“I’m very lucky, as my sister married a guy called John Warren, who is a brilliant horseman and great buyer of yearlings. And so it was a no-brainer to go to him to acquire the horses.” The next step was to place them with the best trainers. Of course, anyone involved in racing knows that it then comes down to a certain amount of luck; fortunately for Highclere Racing, that was on their side as well.

“We got very fortunate; in one of the first syndicates we put together we had a horse called Lake Coniston that we had bought for 22,000 guineas. He ended up winning a number of big races — including the Abernant Stakes, Duke of York Stakes and July Cup as a four-year-old in 1995 — and was sold to Coolmore Stud for £2.4 million!” This early success gave Highclere the boost they needed to grow. “Of course, a lot of people said we’d used up our luck early, but we actually got another good one very quickly, because we had a horse called Tamarisk who was named European Champion Sprinter in 1998 and sold for £3.5 million to Coolmore.”

 “Many are likely to recognise
the distinctive castle from the
television series, Downton Abbey.”

Highclere also raced a number of other champions, including the filly Petrushka, who won the Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and Prix de l’Opera back in 2000; the colt Motivator, who won The Derby (one of five British Classics for three-year-olds alongside the 2,000 Guineas, the 1,000 Guineas, The Oaks, and the St Leger) in 2005; and the colt Harbinger, who topped the World Thoroughbred Rankings in 2010.

STEEPED IN HISTORY

Highclere Racing has a rich history, with the company borrowing its name from Highclere Castle — an estate that dates back to 749, when it was granted to the Bishops of Winchester by the Anglo-Saxon King. Bishop William of Wykeham built a beautiful medieval palace and gardens, which was then rebuilt as Highclere Place House in 1679 when it was purchased by Sir Robert Sawyer — a direct ancestor of the current Earl of Carnarvon. The estate has remained in the family ever since. In 1842, Sir Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament, transformed Highclere House into the present day Highclere Castle. The estate, situated just over 100km west of London, has some interesting history, being converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers during the First World War, and later a home for children evacuated from London during the Second World War. However, today many are likely to recognise the distinctive castle from the long running television series, Downton Abbey.

Based on the castle’s estate, Highclere Stud was established in 1902 by Harry’s great grandfather, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon who notably commissioned Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The stud was later run by Harry’s grandfather and then father, with the latter also looking after the Queen’s horses for many years.

“These days, my sister Carolyn and brother in-law John Warren, and now my nephew Jake Warren, own and run Highclere Stud,” explains Harry. “They’re breeding very, very good horses.” Carolyn is often amongst the top three vendors of yearlings at Tattersalls (the prestigious yearling sales at Newmarket) every year. These days, John is also the Queen’s bloodstock manager.

Although Highclere Racing and Highclere Stud are two separate businesses, they enjoy a close relationship, with the stud accommodating syndicate horses in need of spelling, and also playing host to yearly open days for syndicate shareholders.

 “It really began
this love affair with
Australian racing.”

AN AUSTRALIAN VENTURE

When Harry gave his speech to the Carbine Club in 2003, it set the wheels in motion for a new venture. “I came back home and I had a horse that could potentially be directed the following year into the Melbourne Cup,” explains Harry.

That horse was Distinction, and despite a very credible sixth place, things didn’t quite go to plan. “Three races before the Cup, Distinction’s jockey Darren Beadman, whacked his head in the starting stalls quite badly. He sat out the remaining rides until the Cup. To be fair to Darren, I think there was a touch of concussion lurking, and it looked like he wasn’t having the easiest of times aboard Distinction. He finished sixth, and we were thrilled he ran so well, but I think if you ran the race again in different circumstances, he could have finished closer.” However, Harry is quick to point out that it’s unlikely they ever would have won — after all, 2004 was in the midst of the Makybe Diva era!

The whole Melbourne Cup experience was enamouring for Harry and Distinction’s shareholders alike. “It was fantastically exciting and it really began this love affair with Australian racing,” says Harry, who explains that the prizemoney on offer here is also a big drawcard. Shortly after, Highclere Australia was born with Godolphin Flying Start Program graduate Dan Robertson at the helm.

So far, their biggest success in Australia has been with Libran, who took out the New South Wales Champion Stayer title for the 2015/16 season after a hat trick of wins at the Sydney Autumn Carnival, followed by a second placing in the Group 1 Sydney Cup.

At present, Highclere Racing has nearly a dozen horses in training in Australia, including potential Melbourne Cup runner Lord Belvedere. “He is our star of the moment, as he has won his last three races at Flemington, and heads to The Bart Cummings over 2500m on 3 October, which is a ‘win and you’re in’ for the Melbourne Cup!”

Harry explains that when choosing horses for Australian racing, Highclere looks for horses that show speed. “We really want horses that have shown enough speed. Just to have a plodder that has won over two miles in the UK, and to say ‘now we’re going to win the Melbourne Cup because that’s also a two-mile race’… those horses tend to be too slow.

“We need to find really decent, progressive young staying horses and middle distance horses in the UK that we feel would suit Australian racing and hopefully update down there into prospective Melbourne Cup candidates. It’s a different style of training in Australia. Sometimes I think horses can have the speed trained out of them here in the UK, while the Australian system can train that speed back into them. They start running over shorter distances and it can really suit them.

“I love the fact that a horse is going to be trained differently. And that will bring out something different in the horse and improve the natural pace and rhythm of that animal.” Harry explains that it took some getting used to early on, when he’d see their stayers starting in 1200m and 1400m races at the beginning of a campaign — however, he believes it works.

While Lord Belvedere is their Aussie star for 2020, Harry says they have a few other horses worth keeping an eye on for 2021 — including Bartholomeu Dias, Global Gift and Dursten. Another talented horse now on his way to Australia is Great House. Born on December 28, he was a “disaster” for Coolmore with 1 January being the official birthday for northern hemisphere racehorses. The timing meant that Great House would always be a year behind physically in terms of age-based races and therefore wasn’t going to be winning any lucrative Group 1 races early on.

“Nothing is more fun than
having a good horse in another
country that’s running
in a big race!”

However, that wasn’t about to deter Harry and the team at Highclere: “He is the most beautiful horse. I mean, the best pedigree you could imagine,” says Harry, who jumped at the chance to secure the horse. More recently, the company also purchased a couple of horses via the Magic Millions sales, and these will be the first Australian-bred Highclere horses to race here.

A SOCIAL AFFAIR

At present, Highclere Australia syndicates are often a mix of Aussie and British owners, and Harry says there is always a great sense of camaraderie. “It’s nice when you get everyone together and you get a good horse and you get some great banter going on,” says Harry. Often shareholders factor international race meetings into their holiday plans, and there is a lot of fun to be had. “Having a syndicate team travelling is just fantastic — nothing is more fun than having a good horse in another country that’s running in a big race!”

Harry believes that a big drawcard for shareholders is the social aspect, from watching their horses train together on the Newmarket Heath to attending major race days: “All the barriers come down. I’ve noticed over the years with syndicates, you honestly could put anyone together… this joint ownership and involvement with the horse knocks down all sorts of crazy social barriers and people are just natural and have fun. It’s fabulous to watch actually — it is so fantastically social.” Of course, watching horses train in Australia is a little different than at Newmarket. “That part is more difficult in Australia, when your horses are trained in the pitch dark at two in the morning. That is something that’s very different in Australia, and it does make life difficult for syndicate managers!”

Of course, Covid-19 has meant that international travel and attending race meetings have been put on hold for 2020. Unlike Australia, where racing has continued even throughout Melbourne’s tough lockdowns, the UK actually put a halt to racing completely for some time earlier this year. “Australia actually led the way and proved that closed doors racing is safe,” says Harry, “and the UK have since picked it up.” With race meeting attendance off the cards for some time, Harry and the team have been busy keeping owners updated and engaged via technology, sending regular updates and videos.

While 2020 has certainly been a challenging year, Harry is excited to have arguably their best team on Australian soil to date. Whether Lord Belvedere makes the Melbourne Cup field or not, there is little doubt that Highclere Racing will play a part in “the race that stops a nation” in the coming years — stay tuned! EQ

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:

All eyes on the Prize (In this issue)