Robert Sangster, at 67; top racehorse owner in Europe
LONDON -- Robert Sangster, an owner and breeder whose impact on horse racing extended around the world, died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at his home. He was 67.
Mr. Sangster's horses won 27 European Classics, including the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe three times. He also owned the 1984 Breeders Cup Mile winner Royal Heroine and 1980 Melbourne Cup winner Beldale Ball. It was Mr. Sangster who helped persuade Steve Cauthen to ride in Britain after the American jockey guided Affirmed to the 1978 Triple Crown.
"He was a great guy to work with and to work for," Cauthen said. "He enjoyed the people in racing and loved the game."
Mr. Sangster, who inherited an estimated $166 million from the Vernon soccer betting pools from his father, dominated European racing in the days before the oil-rich Maktoum family from Dubai came along.
He owned the Collingrove Stud in Victoria, Australia, along with his sons Guy, Ben, and Adam, and the Swettenham stud farm in southern England.
The interests of Mr. Sangster, a Liverpool native, reached to the United States, England, France, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Mr. Sangster teamed with trainer Vincent O'Brien and stud farm owner John Magnier in the early 1970s to set up the forerunner of the Coolmore operation in Ireland. He had strong connections with Australia through his racing empire and marriage to socialite Susan Peacock.
Under Mr. Sangster's green, blue and white colors, the owner won the Epsom Derby twice, with The Minstrel in 1977 and Golden Fleece in 1982. Both were trained by O'Brien.
With 125 Group One winners, Mr. Sangster was the leading owner in Britain five times from 1977 to 1984. Among thoroughbreds associated with Mr. Sangster was the Kentucky-bred Sadlers Wells, an Irish classic winner who is among the world's top sires. Mr. Sangster also prospered by selling successful colts back to the United States for stud purposes.
"Robert was a true visionary whose large-scale investment in the best American-bred yearlings in the '70s was one of the principal factors in establishing Ireland and Coolmore as major forces in the bloodstock world," O'Brien said.
