Owner of the Year

THE NOMINATIONS

BY IAN CARNABY

KENNY ALEXANDER

When Kenny Alexander’s Honeysuckle surged up the Cheltenham hill to claim the 2021 Unibet Champion Hurdle she was serving notice that Rachael Blackmore might well be on the verge of making it a truly memorable Cheltenham Festival.

The mare’s success meant everything to her owner, whose relentless drive towards the summit of the on-line betting industry meant that he was eventually able to walk away and indulge his life-long passion for National Hunt racing. He is also intent upon adding to the band of broodmares at his Ayrshire stud.

A brief resume of Alexander’s business career is difficult but, as a qualified accountant with an abiding interest in betting, he was simply unstoppable. Some twenty years ago he applied to become a sports trader with Sportingbet and ended up as head of European operations. He then joined GVC and, as CEO, turned it from a £26m minnow to a £4.5bn shark in fiercely competitive waters. The £3.6bn acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral followed in 2018.

It would be inaccurate to describe him as a gambler (even if he once considered becoming a poker professional) but he embraces risk and likes a glass or two.

“A few drinks helps you forget how much things cost!” he grins. “I don’t remember all that much about buying Honeysuckle but we were at Punchestown and Goffs and I just felt I’d end up with her. Henry de Bromhead has been brilliant. I’ve had horses with David Pipe and Lucinda Russell but most of them are trained in Ireland.”

At GVC, Alexander visited centres where people with gambling addictions were being treated. A shark with crocodile tears? No, just a self-made millionaire examining what caused the harm. Maybe a quieter life was beckoning anyway. If so, the racecourse and the mares will provide it. Except on the days they look like emulating Honeysuckle, of course.

EMMA BANKS

Emma Banks has a wry, self-deprecatory sense of humour. As cohead of the London office of the Creative Arts Agency she also has Katy Perry, Florence and the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Olly Murs, to name but four, on her books. Even so, she will happily acknowledge that racing folk more readily identify her as the owner of Lady Bowthorpe.

A hugely popular mare, Lady Bowthorpe triumphed in the Group 1 Qatar Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood (to the delight of trainer William Jarvis’s small army of friends and supporters) and also won the Group 2 Betfair Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in the spring. Placed efforts in the Lockinge and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes sent her total earnings well beyond the £600,000 mark.

Banks bought her first thoroughbred as recently as 2014, adding to her racing knowledge from years before. At Reading University her main interests were drama, debating and horses. Later, her rapid progress in the music business meant more time for racing and she was soon successful, Mrs Gallagher winning Listed races at Bath and Naas under Josie Gordon.

Banks is direct but not aggressive. She understands and handles the difference between artists performing before 3,000 people at Shepherd’s Bush and those with fame (and the tabloids) on their doorstep. She still manages time for other interests, the orange in her racing silks a nod towards Luton Town, the team she follows home and away whenever possible.

Perhaps surprisingly, she does not see live music coming to racing’s assistance. “The sport has to help itself. It has to look at what puts people off - euthanasia, abattoirs, Panorama. The whip, even the word ‘whip’ itself, is unacceptable to many.”

“Even on Newmarket Heath, people know who she is,” Jarvis says of Lady Bowthorpe. The way things are going, her owner (who named the mare after her great-grandmother) will soon enjoy similar recognition.

KIRSTEN RAUSING

It has been a splendid year for Kirsten Rausing, with winners across the board including one in Ireland. This was Alizarine, trained by Jessie Harrington and successful in a September juvenile maiden at, of all places, Punchestown - a line no one would have written until very recently.

As an owner-breeder, the victory must have given Ms Rausing great satisfaction. Alizarine is by the very talented but lightly-raced German sire Sea The Moon out of her mare Alea Iacta, who raced (and won twice) for Andre Fabre in France. Alizarine’s half-sister Aleas won at Hamilton in July and the family’s exploits nearly took pride of place here. But Sandrine won three times for Andrew Balding and David Probert before winding up with a highly creditable third in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket and, of course, there is still the little matter of Alpinista. Brought along with typical patience by Sir Mark Prescott, Frankel’s daughter was always going to shine at four but few would have predicted five straight victories. A Listed success at Goodwood was followed by the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock and then the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, where she beat subsequent Arc winner Torquator Tasso quite comfortably.

Would she have beaten him at Longchamp? Impossible to say, especially as she had never raced on heavy ground. But she followed Berlin with Group 1 wins at Cologne and Munich and looked every inch a star.

As Rausing’s Swedish grandfather was responsible for the multibillion pound packaging company Tetra Pak, some will say she can do whatever she wants. Others very sensibly admire her Alborada Trust, with funding for medical and veterinary causes, research, animal welfare and relief for the disaster areas of the world.

She lives in the UK, breeds horses at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, and owns Staffordstown Stud in Co Meath. If the form book is any guide, things seem to be going pretty well.

JEFF SMITH

There is a murmur of approval around the unsaddling enclosure whenever Jeff Smith has a prestigious success.

It probably has something to do with his bearing. No one celebrates more quietly or with greater dignity. He allows himself a broad smile with a word of thanks and congratulation for the winning trainer and jockey. These days the trainer may well be Andrew Balding. Smith, you feel, is the most loyal of patrons. When Alcohol Free won the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in 2020, it brought back memories of Lochangel, trained by Andrew’s father Ian, landing the Nunthorpe at York in 1998. Lochangel’s half-sister was the brilliant, charismatic and occasionally wilful filly Lochsong, also trained by I A Balding. But it was Smith who kept the faith and returned her to Kingsclere following a spell at his Littleton Stud when many doubted that she would ever make the racecourse at all. She won three Group 1 races in all. Goodwood Cup hero Persian Punch was nearly as popular, while 50-1 shot Arabian Queen, bred at Littleton, upset 4-9 chance Golden Horn in the Juddmonte International in 2015.

With Alcohol Free going on to beat the colts in the Sussex Stakes in July, Smith was highly likely to become a contender for today’s award. But he would be no 33-1 shot if a bauble for longevity were offered, as well. It is 37 years since his Chief Singer found only the great El Gran Senor too good in the 2000 Guineas and 45 since he raced his first horse, Rush Bond.

A calm, analytical approach helped him become Executive Chairman of AIM Aviation Ltd, while racing has acknowledged his talents, electing him to the Jockey Club and welcoming his chairmanship of Salisbury racecourse.

But it’s the sport itself, and every aspect of it, that fascinates him most. “I still love the game,” he says. “And I’d much rather do this than be sat on a yacht in the middle of the Caribbean.”

S U P P O R T E D B Y

Almost 50 HWPA members took part in this year’s Tipping Competition, kindly supported by Sky Bet, with faces old and new among the field and an impressive 20 showing a profit after their worst score of eight rounds was deducted.

There could only be one overall winner, and he remained in pole position for almost the entire event. Ed Prosser, formerly of Racenews and now a journalist as well as representative for Keeneland sales, is a long-standing competition entrant and turned it into a procession after coming up with 66-1 Aintree hero Ahoy Senor.

Prosser maintained the gallop throughout, despite stiff competition in particular from eventual runner-up Julian Armfield, Sue Russell - who was very unlucky not to have scooped one of the individual round prizes - and top tipster Paul Jones.

Plenty had their moment in the spotlight, with some spectacular tipping from the BBC’s Frank Keogh wrapping up the Cheltenham Festival round by the end of day one. Finding the Derby winner proved the key to the Classic round at Newmarket and Epsom, with Nigel Spencer, who napped Adayar, taking the honours. Five days of Royal Ascot tipping proved a stiff test for most competitors but it was a breeze to

The Guardian’s Greg Wood, who showed a profit each day and came home eased down. A similar marathon at Glorious Goodwood was taken by an inspired Keith McHugh, while after a few close shaves Richard Williams got his reward in the Ebor meeting thanks to his inspired nap of 33-1 chance The Flying Ginger. The combined Eclipse and July meeting round went the way of Neil Clark.

As the winning line at Doncaster came into sight, no-one finished better than Richard O’Brien with a slew of winners. The competition will return for next year, where we hope plenty more will be inspired to have a go. Overall scores (positives only) *Ed Prosser (£121.16 - £1,000 first prize) *Julian Armfield (£82.42 - £300 second prize) Sue Russell (£80.64) Paul Jones (£72.18) Emma Berry (£65.64) Richard O’Brien (£63.04) Frank Keogh (£48.02) Richard Williams (£43.56) Neil Clark (£39.16) Daragh Ó Conchúir (£33.08) John Henwood (£29.69) Jason Heavey (£27.61) Jeff Garlick (£17.07) Pat Jupp (£14.70) Jack Millan (£11.14) Angus Loughran (£10.29) Jimmy Clark (£10.22) Nigel Spencer (£5.44) Matt Brocklebank (£3.78) David Cleary (£3.30)

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