26 1 KIRSTEN RAUSING 40 YEARS THE PIONEER A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE MARTIN STEVENS TALKS TO THE TRAILBLAZING LANWADES STUD OWNER ABOUT BREAKING NEW GROUND, HELPING THE CAUSE OF WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY, AND HOW THE BREEDING LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED IRSTEN RAUSING is now female: these three things were deemed herself – as well as the Yorkshire Oaks such a bastion of the British quite exotic at the time,” she says. runner-up Kiliniski. K breeding establishment that it Rausing is proud to add that the Petoski was bred by Rausing from is easy to forget she was once considered prominence of women in the industry is her Petingo mare Sushila, who had something of an interloper, and caused no longer a source of astonishment, thanks been bought at the Goffs Irish National quite a stir when she bought Lanwades in part to her breaking new ground and Yearling Sale of 1976 and would prove Stud in Newmarket in 1980. then assisting others to climb the ladder. crucial to the survival and then expansion Indeed, Alan Yuill Walker wrote in his “There were some female grooms just of Lanwades Stud in its early years. 1991 book Thoroughbred Studs of Great beginning to come into racing yards in “It was only with substantial help from Britain that “the bloodstock community 1980, but they always looked after fillies,” the bank that I was able to buy Lanwades, was mildly surprised, to say the least, when she says. “There were certainly no women which was then 150 acres and in a pretty Colonel Nat Frieze sold Lanwades Stud in the breeding industry, and in fact I poor state,” explains Rausing. “I could not in Kentford to a striking, but unknown, think I was the first to employ women. afford to buy the main house, which was Swedish girl still in her twenties”. All of that has changed now and I am subdivided from the rest of the property, It is not entirely true that Rausing very pleased to say we represent diversity so I just bought the yard and land. was a woman of mystery, as the astute in all its forms at Lanwades.” “The bank asked what collateral I Captain Tim Rogers had engaged her to Rausing has always done things her had, so I said I’ve got just the thing you manage Baroda Stud and Grangewilliam own way, and has often had to make her need: I’ve brought two mares with me Stud during the preceding three years, own luck. Soon after taking over the reins from Ireland, and you can have them recognising her horsemanship and head of Lanwades Stud she prompted further both. Well, they were very sniffy and told for pedigrees from when she had taken bemusement when the Irish St Leger me in no uncertain terms that I was no mares to be covered at Airlie Stud as a and Prix Royal Oak winner Niniski was longer in Ireland and here in England flying groom earlier in the 1970s. syndicated to stand at the property. Even any type of livestock could not be used as However, the fact that it was often then, stayers were often met with market collateral, as it would soon be dead stock. pointed out while in Ireland that the indifference. “Somehow I managed to convince Swedish native had blown in from Siberia But Niniski made the doubters eat them to let me buy the stud, but in fact does confirm there was something in the their words when his first crop yielded the the whole place was in hock to them for notion that she was regarded by the locals champion two-year-old Kala Dancer and several years.” as rather a curio. King George and Prince of Wales’s Stakes The bank made a mistake, as one of Looking back on her arrival at winner Petoski – both bred by Rausing the mares was Sushila and sales of the foals Lanwades Stud 40 years on, Rausing she produced in the afterglow of Petoski’s remembers how she caused eyebrows to I am very proud to say we exploits more than paid for the stud farm. be raised. The increased revenue generated by “I was younger than almost any other represent diversity in Niniski after he became champion stud owner in Newmarket by a generation first-season sire also helped, of course, or more, I was a foreigner and I was all its forms at Lanwades and all profits were ploughed back racingpost.com/bloodstock KIRSTEN RAUSING 40 YEARS THE PIONEER 1 27 vvKirsten Rausing with Study Of Man (top), Lanwades Stud’s new Time Warp’s breeding exemplifies “I persuaded him to send Kilavea to recruit for 2020. He is a son of Japanese sensation Deep Impact Rausing’s long nurture of prized families, Niniski in his first season, and soon after into acquiring more land and making and reminds us how infrequent – yet she was put in foal she was sold privately improvements. usually judicious – her forays into to Colonel Dick Warden of the Curragh Forty years on, Lanwades Stud has purchasing breeding stock have been. Bloodstock agency on behalf of Sheikh grown from 150 acres to over 1,000 He and his brother Glorious Forever, Mohammed in his first year of entering acres and from five employees to 40, both Hong Kong Cup winners, are out the industry. including Rausing’s yearling operations at of the Stormy Atlantic mare Here To “Sheikh Mohammed bought two Staffordstown in County Meath. Eternity, whose maternal granddam Hot mares that year: one was Kilavea, with the In that time, Rausing has bred Thong was sourced in Brazil as Rausing result of the mating with Niniski being the winners of just under 2,000 races was keen to acquire a mare from a family Kiliniski, and the other was Oh So Fair, worldwide including ten individual horses she had known well for several generations. who was carrying Oh So Sharp.” who struck at Group 1 level – from Kala “Hot Thong’s granddam Puget Sound Rausing’s association with Kilavea Dancer to Time Warp, who got Lanwades’ was foaled at Lanwades, as her dam and her descendants is not confined to ruby anniversary year off to the perfect Kilavea, a Hawaii half-sister to Nureyev, her finding Hot Thong in Brazil, either. start by gaining his third Group 1 victory was owned by a friend of mine, Magnus In the mid-1990s she spotted Kiliniski Pictures: LANWADES STUD LANWADES Pictures: in the Hong Kong Gold Cup in February. Berger,” recounts Rausing. coming up for sale at the Keeneland racingpost.com/bloodstock 28 1 KIRSTEN RAUSING 40 YEARS THE PIONEER January Sale, having produced little of Niniski and Archipenko rank among note for Darley, and managed to buy the four stallions who Rausing identifies as mare for the minimum bid of $2,000. having been pivotal to Lanwades’ success, Kiliniski repaid Rausing’s allegiance along with Selkirk, the source of 17 to the family by producing four fillies in Group 1 winners including Classic scorers succession. One of those was the Listed Kastoria and Wince, and Hernando, winner Kiswahili and another was Robe whose six top-level winners were headed Chinoise, who in turn became the dam by Prix du Jockey Club victors Holding of Rausing’s British Champions Fillies & Court and Sulamani and Oaks heroine Mares Stakes heroine Madame Chiang. Look Here. Madame Chiang and the brothers The other horse central to the fortunes Time Warp and Glorious Forever, all of Lanwades Stud was Alruccaba, owned descended from Kilavea, are also all by by Rausing with Sonia Rogers, and Lanwades Stud’s late stallion Archipenko, particularly Alruccaba’s daughter Alouette, who Rausing speaks of with particular who produced Rausing’s Group 1-winning fondness. sisters Albanova and Alborada. “Next to Niniski the most important The ‘Al’ dynasty has flourished ever horse I ever had here was Archipenko,” since and its most recent star is Albanova’s she says of the son of Kingmambo, whose granddaughter Alpinista, runner-up to dam Bound was a Nijinsky half-sister to Love carrying Rausing’s distinctive white Kilavea and Nureyev. “His early loss was and green silks in the Yorkshire Oaks in a severe blow for Lanwades. He was a 2020. magnificent horse to look at, a very good “I have always been a great admirer racehorse himself, and it would be hard to of the old Aga Khan Studs families and find a better pedigree than his. in particular of that tracing back to the “He was the sire of seven individual legendary Mumtaz Mahal,” says Rausing. Group 1 winners on three continents from, “I was always looking for something from let’s face it, very limited opportunities. He that family and then, to my amazement, stood in Argentina for one year only but Alruccaba came up as a winning sired three Group 1 winners there. two-year-old, but with a tendon, at the “He died aged only 13 from leukemia, December sales of 1985. which is very unusual in horses; losing “Mrs Rogers and I bought her him hit us very hard.” together for 19,000gns, one bid above FAB FOUR STALLIONS RESIDING AT LANWADES STUD Sea The Moon Bobby’s Kitten The 11-length German Derby winner, by Sea The Stars out of a Monsun The top-class sprinter-miler, who took the scalp of No Nay Never when he sister to Classic winners Salve Regina, Samum and Schiaparelli, has won at the Breeders’ Cup, was represented by his first two-year-old runners blossomed into one of Europe’s most exciting and in-demand stallions.