Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry

Chapter 10: A Global Sport and Industry

153 Chapter 10 A Global Sport and Industry Robert Sangster grew up in suburban Liverpool and was the sole heir to a family fortune that included a quasi-national lottery based on the scores of English soccer matches called Vernons Pools. He was first introduced to horse racing in 1960 when a friend gave him a tip on a horse owned by the friend’s grandfather that was entered in a traditional English early-spring fixture , the Lincolnshire Handicap. Sangster lost a 50-pound bet on the horse named Chalk Stream but became hopelessly hooked on the sport in the process. He then bought Chalk Stream for 1,000 pounds as a gift for his wife, beginning an active involvement with racing that would last the rest of his life. Years later, Sangster would purchase Manton, the training yard and estate where Never Say Die’s trainer Joe Lawson plied his trade for so many years, making it the center of his juggernaut English racing program. But it was Sangster’s relationship with Vincent O’Brien that would make all his subsequent racing success possible and, in the process, forever alter the sport and business of international Thoroughbred racing. Sangster first met O’Brien at the July 1972 Keeneland yearling sales in Lexington, Kentucky, weeks after Roberto’s Derby triumph. The casual but momentous introduction was made by a young Irish horseman named John Magnier. Originally from Never Say Die 154 County Cork, Magnier came from a long line of Thoroughbred breeders and hoped to return the Irish Thoroughbred breeding industry to the place of prominence it had lost. He lamented the fact that Nijinsky had been syndicated and returned to America for stallion duty and hoped that Ireland would someday be able to afford to keep top stallions. He had a plan to realize that vision , but he needed capital. Sangster had money, and O’Brien’s record of getting the best out of top racehorses stood for itself. The three men, who would later be known as the Brethren in racing circles, formed a partnership that became the most formidable the horse industry had ever seen. In 1973 O’Brien and Sangster bought Coolmore Stud in County Tipperary, Ireland, and established Magnier (who would soon become O’Brien’s son-in-law) as manager. The Brethren then planned their strategy to wrest top American bloodlines from the United States via auctions, particularly the July yearling sale at Keeneland. Keeneland’s summer sale had been born out of necessity in the face of travel restrictions during World War II, which made it impossible for many Bluegrass State horsemen to travel to Saratoga, New York, the site of Fasig-Tipton’s annual summer yearling sale. By the 1970s, the Keeneland July sale had become the world’s premier horse sale, and the Brethren were shopping for the world’s best yearlings. Their plan centered around Sangster’s theory that “the only man who can make money out of buying the best and most expensive yearlings is, in the end, the man who buys them all.”1 The market for stallion shares and seasons in America was seriously heating up, as evidenced by the recent syndication of Nijinsky and of Nasrullah’s grandson, American Triple Crown winner Secretariat, for over $6 million.2 That market would grow as promising young stallion prospects such as Seattle Slew, Affirmed , and Spectacular Bid emerged later in the decade.3 Equine superstars on both sides of the Atlantic were keeping horse racing on the front pages of newspapers, helping to spur demand A Global Sport and Industry 155 for young horses. The Brethren saw that it would be cheaper to buy stallion prospects before they had demonstrated their ability on the racetrack, assuming the right ones could be identified early. “Baby stallions, Robert, that’s what we’re after,” Magnier told Sangster. O’Brien agreed with the strategy and had particular notions regarding where those baby stallions could be found. “We must buy all the Northern Dancers,” O’Brien declared. “We must buy them at all costs. And the same goes for yearlings by Nijinsky. I am telling you. We must have them. I am very certain of that.”4 Northern Dancer was a small but extremely talented racehorse that had narrowly missed winning the American Triple Crown in 1964. He won the Kentucky Derby in record time and followed that historic performance...