Robert Edmund Sangster was a British businessman, thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder.
21 Facts About Robert Sangster
1.
2.
Robert Sangster was British flat racing Champion Owner five times.
3.
Robert Sangster was the son of Vernon Robert Sangster, who founded the Vernons Pools business in 1926, and his wife Peggy Smith.
4.
Robert Sangster was born in Liverpool and educated at Repton School, where he played cricket and boxed.
5.
Robert Sangster did National service with the Cheshire Regiment, winning a brigade heavyweight boxing championship in Berlin.
6.
Robert Sangster was introduced to thoroughbred racing through a friend, Nick Robinson, who recommended a bet on Chalk Stream, a horse owned by his grandfather, Sir Foster Robinson, in the 1960 Lincoln Handicap.
7.
Chalk Stream finished unplaced, but Robert Sangster bought the horse as a wedding present for his fiancee and sent him to be trained by Eric Cousins.
8.
Robert Sangster started buying successful fillies with the aim of breeding his own horses and had his first win in a major flat race with Brief Star in the 1969 Ayr Gold Cup.
9.
In October 1971 at Haydock Park, where he was sponsoring the Vernons Sprint Cup, Robert Sangster was introduced to John Magnier, a stud farmer from County Cork who was then aged 23.
10.
Robert Sangster entered into partnership with Magnier and the legendary Irish trainer Vincent O'Brien, investing in the Coolmore Stud in County Tipperary.
11.
Robert Sangster continued to invest in yearlings in partnership with associates that included Danny Schwartz, who had made a fortune as a builder in California, and, from 1979, Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping tycoon and sometime rival of Robert Sangster at the sales.
12.
Robert Sangster's thoroughbred racing and breeding empire included interests in England, Australia, Venezuela, the United States, Ireland, France and New Zealand.
13.
Robert Sangster first installed Michael Dickinson as the trainer but replaced him with Barry Hills, then Peter Chapple-Hyam and, latterly, John Gosden.
14.
Robert Sangster largely withdrew from buying at the yearling sales, instead selling horses bred at his own studs.
15.
Robert Sangster won his final English Classic with Las Meninas in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1994, but saw horses he had bred win major races for other owners, including Dr Devious, who won the Derby in 1992, Balanchine, which won the Oaks and the Irish Derby in 1994, and Carnegie, which won the Arc in the same year.
16.
In 1993 Robert Sangster sold his interest in Coolmore, although he retained breeding rights to a number of stallions, notably Sadler's Wells and Danehill.
17.
Robert Sangster enjoyed a lively social life, entertaining lavishly in his box at Royal Ascot.
18.
Barry Hills, who trained more than 30 Group-race winners for Robert Sangster, said, "We celebrated when we won, and usually celebrated when we lost".
19.
That marriage did not last, with Robert Sangster having well-publicised affairs with Jerry Hall and Susan Lilley.
20.
Robert Sangster went into tax exile from the United Kingdom in 1975 and moved to the Isle of Man.
21.
Robert Sangster died of pancreatic cancer in London, on 7 April 2004, aged 67.