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SUNDAY, 14 MARCH 2021 In fact, initial opposition to her working in the world in which BALLET DANCER TO she had been immersed since birth came from within her own family. NORTHERN DANCER: Her father, Colonel Adrian Scrope, the revered manager of Lord Derby's studs, regularly took on students keen to learn the SCROPE=S LIFE LESS business but was reluctant for his own daughter to follow this path. ORDINARY "There were no professional women on the studs when I started; my father wouldn't take me," says Scrope. "Even Elisabeth Couturie, although she ran her own stud, never considered it was a role for a girl." Scrope's own pedigree is as impressive as those of the horses she has devoted her life to studying and, as with Thoroughbreds, the dam line played a significant role. Her mother's family owned Sledmere Stud in Yorkshire, which at that time was the leading commercial stud in the country. The important position of the Sykes family's stud in the history of Thoroughbred breeding is guaranteed, Sledmere being the birthplace of the incredibly influential foundation mare Mumtaz Mahal, and of 1873 Derby winner Doncaster, whose male line extends through Phalaris. In 1927, at the age of 21, Scrope's father was appointed manager at Sledmere and a year later married Lady Sykes's daughter, Everilda, having set his heart on his future bride when first glimpsing her at his job interview. Alex Scrope | Trevor Jones/racingfotos.com Cont. p2 By Emma Berry This week started with International Women's Day and, while IN TDN AMERICA TODAY it could be argued that there's more to be done when it comes CONCERT TOUR ROLLS IN OAKLAWN'S REBEL to equal opportunities, in many ways women today have it Concert Tour gives trainer Bob Baffert a record eighth win in relatively easy when it comes to finding employment in racing. Oaklawn's GII Rebel S. Saturday. Click or tap here to go straight This was not the case when Alex Scrope began her career in to TDN America. bloodstock. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 14 MARCH 2021 Scrope=s Life Less Ordinary cont. from p1 It was a role that transpired literally to be a flying start to one Within a decade the couple had moved to Newmarket when of the most diverse careers in the stud business. From assisting Colonel Scrope was appointed to run Lord Derby's Stanley House veterinary surgeon James Roberts, best known as the man who and associated studs not long after Hyperion took up stud saved Mill Reef for a stud career, to working for a range of duties. leading farms, Scrope's CV reads like a who's who of some of the "Pa went to Lord Derby in 1936 or '37 and he had Hyperion most significant owner/breeders of the 20th and 21st centuries. virtually all his life as a stallion," recalls Scrope, who attended Stints in Normandy with Paola Ciechanowska and in Bolgheri at nursery school with the twins Henry and David Cecil. the Tuscan breeding wing of Tesio's partner Marchese Mario Were it not for a back injury, Incisa Della Rochetta expanded however, her encyclopaedic the international element of knowledge of pedigrees might Scrope's thorough grounding in have been lost to the breeding the business, which has been world as, realising the lack of largely rooted in Newmarket opportunities for women in with regular foreign forays. bloodstock at that time, she "The person who really gave initially steered a different me a leg up was Peter Burrell, course. when he was still at the National "I started life as a dancer, that Stud," she says. "Marcos Lemos was what I really wanted to do," was looking for someone to she says. "I trained with manage Warren Hill Stud and Rambert in London and then Peter put me up for it. That was went to Paris, but I had a bone my first independent stud role, problem in my back. I absolutely and then I went to Wyld Court, adored it, but of course, I always Alex Scrope aboard the first jet flight for horses which then belonged to Peter de rode and I always came home. in Europe circa 1967 | Photo courtesy Alex Scrope Savary and was managed by And while I was in Paris, I was offered a job with Hipavia. Dave Dick. I suspect that in the two years that I was there I got in "I wasn't a huge success in the office," admits Scrope, whose very nearly a lifetime's laughter. I don't think I've ever come days with the equine transport company led to her across anyone as funny as Dave." accompanying mares on the first jet flight for horses in Europe. Over the years, she has worked the sales for various trainers, "In those days, rather like now, horses used to have a lot of such as Harry Thomson 'Tom' Jones in the era in which Sheikh paperwork, so I had an attache case with the paperwork for the Hamdan was first introduced to British racing, Henry Cecil and day's flights and I would fly with the horses and look after the Guy Harwood. On the stud side, Scrope's clients have included customs. I absolutely loved it and I continued to travel for years the 'big three' of Coolmore, Darley and Juddmonte, along with after that as they didn't have that many people who had Car Colston Hall, Fittocks and Brookdale studs, as well as her experience of flying with the horses. I would work through the long-term association with Gerald Leigh. stud season getting yearlings ready for the sales, but then I had Cont. p3 to have work to take me through to the next season." TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 14 MARCH 2021 "When James Delahooke went to Juddmonte, I got the job buying yearlings for Guy Harwood," says Scrope, who also worked for Prince Khalid Abdullah for five years. "When I worked for Guy, I would go over to Kentucky every March because I used to do the selection in Europe for Keeneland for the July Sale, and so I used to do 10 days with their selection team there so I could see what the crop was like. While I was Senior Vice President Gary King there I used to go to look at the yearlings at Juddmonte as well. Twitter: @garykingTDN Jeremy Tree always got the first 30 yearlings, Guy got the [email protected] second 30, and any leftovers were handed around." + 1.732.320.0975 One of Prince Khalid's most significant purchases in the early years of Juddmonte was Dancing Brave who was bought for him International Editor at Fasig-Tipton by Delahooke. Though the son of Lyphard ended Kelsey Riley his career with the highest rating ever awarded to a horse at Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN that time, his recruitment to the Harwood stable was less [email protected] auspicious, as Scrope recalls vividly. European Editor Emma Berry Twitter: @collingsberry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen Twitter: @AlaynaCullen [email protected] Contributing Editors Alan Carasso Christina Bossinakis Dancing Brave winning the 2000 Guineas | racingfotos.com Cafe Racing She says, "He wasn't a magnificent horse to look at because he Sean Cronin had that ugly head and terrible parrot mouth. Jeremy had taken Tom Frary his 30 yearlings and Guy had picked 29 and needed one more. [email protected] The horses that came over from America were with Anthony Webber at Newbury, so Guy and I went down to look, and we'd Irish Correspondent narrowed it down to three that we were interested in. There Daithi Harvey was a Best Turn, an Alleged, and a Lyphard. I always used to work out the odds for these horses on how many foals they'd Regular Columnists Chris McGrath | John Berry | Kevin Blake had--I'd assume that 50% were fillies and 50% were colts and Amy Lynam | Melissa Steele would work out the odds of a horse getting a group-class colt and the odds of getting a group-class filly. We decided that we would go 10/1 or better on colts and 12/1 or better on fillies, so IN TDN AUS/NZ TODAY I would work out all the stallions to the percentages." MUGATOO TAKES THE ALL-STAR MILE Irish-bred Mugatoo takes advantage of the rain-softened turf to take the world's richest turf race at a mile in Moonee Valley's All-Star Mile. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Aus/NZ. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • 14 MARCH 2021 She says, "My Pa said that of all the students he ever had, Henry was the most talented. Henry was a walking stud book. I remember a filly coming in and I said, 'when I saw that filly, I thought she looked just likeY' and straight away he said the name of one of Hollingsworth's. In those days the pedigree really mattered so much. AI can remember standing on the side of the gallop at Chantilly with Francois Boutin one day and he had a filly who was out of the Relance family. She came up the canter and he said, 'Did you know Relance?' When I said I didn't, he said, 'Well you're looking at her', and it was a grand-daughter. But he and Henry, they just knew those horses.