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THE GREAT OWNER/BREEDERS By JEREMY EARLY
ERIC AND ‘BUDGIE’ MOLLER
GEORGE SELWYN
Wartime purchase sparked brothers’ peacetime pursuit of excellence
Eric Moller, seen here at White Lodge Stud in 1985, had bought the farm in 1944 when Budgie was still a prisoner of the Japanese
T
he success of horses bred at White Lodge Stud by Eric and Ralph ‘Budgie’ Moller from the 1950s to the 1980s set the brothers apart from most of their fellow breeders in Newmarket or anywhere else. The list of what their private stud book called, with considerable understatement, ‘useful winners’ included Classic scorers Teenoso (Derby), Full Dress II (1,000 Guineas) and Lacquer and Favoletta (both Irish 1,000 Guineas). Then there were such as Moulton (Benson & Hedges Gold Cup), Kirtling (Gran Premio d’Italia), Most Welcome (Lockinge Stakes), Sovereign (champion juvenile filly, Coronation Stakes), Cheveley Princess (Nassau Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes), and Popkins
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and Topsy (both Sun Chariot Stakes). The Mollers possessed immense wealth from shipping and insurance interests originating in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and had a long-standing connection with horses, including Eric’s riding the Shanghai Grand National winner in 1940. Yet even with such enthusiasm and resources to back their racing and breeding activities, the eventual success the brothers achieved must have seemed but a dream in 1944. That was the year when Eric – Budgie was a prisoner of the Japanese – bought White Lodge Stud near Cheveley and shelled out 2,100gns on a yearling filly by Panorama from an unraced mare. Horama, as she was called, was a sprinter and, judged on her portrait in Best Horses of
1946, a most attractive one. Successful in four races over five furlongs, showing smart form, she perhaps looked to have questionable credentials as a foundation broodmare with so much speed in evidence. However, there have been a number of instances of fast mares forging first-rate nonsprinting dynasties – the Aga Khan III’s Mumtaz Mahal is another – and this may confirm the theory that by judicious mating it is easier to work stamina into a speedy family than to work pace into one containing staying power. The Mollers brought in a few mares from other families, notably Mitraille, grandam of Full Dress II, but Horama was the principal source of success. Of the 33 mares in the White Lodge Stud book for 1983, the year of Teenoso’s Derby THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER