Kirsten Rausing

Sons And Lovers Provides Tonic For The Morrisses

Study Of Man (Ire) is making a growing impression with his first crop of runners, not least through his son Deepone (Ire), winner of the G2 Beresford S. for Vimal Khosla and Paddy Twomey. His latest winner, however, is perhaps the most special to Kirsten Rausing, the owner of Lanwades Stud where the son of Deep Impact (Jpn) stands. On Saturday at Newmarket, the newcomer Sons And Lovers (GB) got up on the line to win the seven-furlong juvenile maiden. Rausing, who bred the colt from the Smart Strike mare...

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Sir Percy, Derby Winner and 'Absolute Obsession' For His Owners, Retires at 20

Cast your mind back to the spring and summer of 2006. In many ways not much was different then to now. Aidan O'Brien had won the 2,000 Guineas with George Washington (Ire) (Danehill) and the Oaks with Alexandrova (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). It was the year in which Galileo (Ire) first came to prominence as a sire when his first-crop daughter Nightime (Ire) won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and his sons, led by Sixties Icon (GB), filled the first three places in the St Leger, though remarkably none of this quartet...

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'I've Never Given Myself a Chance to Fail': Luke Morris on High Days and Hard Work

There can have been no finer example of reward for effort than the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victory of Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}). Not only for the mare herself, slogging through the Longchamp mud with five Group 1 wins already to her name, but for her trainer Sir Mark Prescott and owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing, who have collectively a century of experience in this great sport between them. Then there was her jockey, Luke Morris. Not the most fashionable member of the British weighing-room, but certainly the most worthy, for...

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Twelve Questions: Kirsten Rausing

First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Mucking out boxes, raking gravel at Simontorp Stud in Sweden. Biggest influence on your career? Captain A.D.D. 'Tim' Rogers of Airlie Stud, Lucan, Co Dublin; he single-handedly invented the European bloodstock industry. Favourite racehorse of all time, and why? Nijinsky - superb athlete; strong and correct with a most beautiful head; probably the last-ever Triple Crown winner...and sire of Niniski (without whom, no Lanwades Stud today). Who will be champion first-season sire in 2023? I would of course hope for Study Of Man, but...

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Rausing Hails 'Exceptional' Alpinista as Arc Winner Retires

The six-time Group 1 winner and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}--Alwilda {GB}, by Hernando {Fr}) has been retired from racing after a "slight setback" and will not contest the G1 Japan Cup at the end of the month. The 5-year-old, bred and owned by Kirsten Rausing and trained by Sir Mark Prescott, recorded her six top-level wins in consecutive starts in Germany, England and France in the last two seasons, taking her unbeaten stretch to eight races in 16 months. In total, she ran...

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Shadwell's Baaeed Crowned Cartier Horse Of The Year

Shadwell homebred Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was named the Cartier Horse of the Year and Cartier Older Horse at the 32nd Cartier Racing Awards at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Wednesday evening. The first Shadwell colourbearer to earn the Horse of the Year accolade, the William Haggas trainee added another four Group 1 victories to his pair earned in 2021, posting wins in the Lockinge S., Queen Anne S., Sussex S., and International S. in succession. His only loss in an 11-start career was a fourth-place finish...

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Alpinista to Dubawi? Rausing Drops Hint at Star Mare's Stud Plans

Kirsten Rausing has dropped a firm hint that her Arc heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) could visit Dubawi (Ire) in her first season at stud next year. Though not confirming or naming Darley's 20-year-old stallion, who looks on course to be champion sire for the first time this year, the breeder told the Nick Luck Daily podcast on Tuesday, "Obviously there are a few horses she could visit, and one in particular who is not getting any younger, but nothing is written in stone yet so therefore I can't really...

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Letter to the Editor: Kirsten Rausing

Winning the best race in the world, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, represents the pinnacle of most Thoroughbred breeders' ambitions. Achieving that unrealistic objective was beyond my wildest dreams when I set out on the path of breeding racehorses, now more than 50 years ago. Now that my wonderful Alpinista (homebred at Lanwades for four generations) has triumphed on the world stage, scoring her tenth win, ninth stakes win and sixth Group 1 win on Sunday, I find myself overwhelmed by innumerable kind messages of congratulations from friends and colleagues all over...

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Kirsten Rausing on Alpinista: 'There Were a Lot of Tears Shed'

On Sunday, Kirsten Rausing and Sir Mark Prescott achieved the impossible in uniting racing's participants in joy at the victory of Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. For Prescott, Newmarket's longest-serving trainer now in his 53rd season with a licence, it was a moment that brought a tear to his eye as the witty one-liners for which he is famous gave way to pure emotion. For Rausing, too, who has painstakingly developed a broodmare band of significant international note over more than four decades at...

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Arc Glory For Frankel's Alpinista

Carried out in driving rain and accompanying gloom, Sunday's G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe went to Kirsten Rausing's Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) who with her ever-whitening coat and mud-dappled white silks navigated what resembled a ploughed field like a trail of luminescence at ParisLongchamp. Taking the eye throughout as she made easy work of the swiftly-deteriorating conditions under Luke Morris, who had been in action on the all-weather at Wolverhampton the night before, the 10-3 favourite waited with all the learned patience of such a beautifully-nurtured 5-year-old for...

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Cameras At The Ready As Flash Offers Blackbeard's Sister

By Brian Sheerin and Emma Berry KILDARE, Ireland--Blackbeard (Ire) has blazed a trail on the track this season and, less than a week after doubling his Group 1 tally when running out an impressive winner of the Middle Park S. at Newmarket, his little sister will go under the hammer at the Orby Sale on Tuesday, which gets underway at 9.30am. The No Nay Never filly will be sold by Flash Conroy of Glenvale Stud and is one of the most important lots of the entire sale given the exploits...

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Seven Days: Overwhelming

Where to begin? The past week has been so wrought with emotion that by the time Sunday arrived with its 15 group races in England, Ireland and France only the dourest of stayers made it through to Doncaster's Mallard Handicap. This is a racing publication, of course, but before we reflect on the action on the racecourse, it would be remiss not to mention the heartbreaking human loss which was so intrinsically entwined with the sport.  Grief engulfed two nations. Wednesday brought the indelibly sad image of Henry de Bromhead...

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