kirsten rausing Photography courtesy of Lanwades
Annus Mirabalis
After a record-breaking year enjoyed in 2021, Martin Stevens chats to Kirsten Rausing about the amazing times she has enjoyed as a racehorse breeder and the leading pedigrees she has developed with such care at Lanwades Stud
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IRSTEN RAUSING enjoyed a simply outstanding year of achievement in 2021. She bred no fewer than 112 winners and stakes-placed runners worldwide, close to her previous high of 116 first achieved in 2015 and equalled in 2018. What stood out last year in particular, though, was the stunning rate of success of those horses who carried Rausing’s own distinctive white and green silks. There were 26 such winners in Britain – all fillies except Aleas, who couldn’t be sold as a yearling due to an injury – plus four in Ireland, three in Germany and two in France, making a total of 35. That is, by some distance, a record annual tally in Rausing’s long involvement in racing. And many of those horses were no “ordinary winners”. Alpinista (Frankel) was the highlight in 2021, as the Sir Mark Prescott-trained filly was unbeaten in five starts, scoring in the Listed Daisy Warwick Stakes and Lancashire Oaks (G2) before emulating her granddam Albanova’s feat of winning three German Group 1 races in a single season. Albaflora (Muhaarar), in the care of trainer Ralph Beckett, won the Listed Buckhounds Stakes and ran second in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1) and British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1), being beaten just a short head by Eshaada in the latter race, while her stablemate Aleas (Archipenko), who is also a son of Albaflora’s Group 3-winning half-sister Alea Iacta, took
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...many of those horses who contributed to Rausing’s wonderful year in 2021 are by Lanwades sires, and all hail from families she has meticulously nurtured for many generations the Glasgow Stakes (L). Another relative, Alerta Roja (Golden Horn), won three handicaps and found only Stradivarius too good in the Doncaster Cup (G2). Oriental Mystique (Kingman), a daughter of Rausing’s British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes winner Madame Chiang, notched a deserved first black-type win in the Prix Luth Enchantee (L) for David Simcock, while Sandrine (Bobby’s Kitten) took high rank among the two-year-old fillies, being saddled by Andrew Balding to win the Group 3 Albany Stakes and Duchess of Cambridge Stakes (G2) and to finish second in the Lowther Stakes (G2) and third
in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Kawida (Sir Percy), of the same age and sex, scored in the Montrose Fillies’ Stakes (L) for trainer Ed Walker at the end of the season. There were plenty of other exciting juvenile talents for Rausing, too. Ching Shih (Lope De Vega), the halfsister to Oriental Mystique, won a Newbury novice stakes by 4l for Simcock; Heat Of The Moment (Bobby’s Kitten) was an impressive winner at Yarmouth on debut for Jane Chapple-Hyam; Melodramatica (Bobby’s Kitten) scored in a Lingfield novice stakes in good fashion for Rae Guest; Allada (Sea The Moon) was sent out by rookie trainer Tim Donworth to win a Deauville maiden by 3l; and Alizarine (Sea The Moon) and Sablonne (Dark Angel) both won maidens before running with promise in black-type company for Jessica Harrington in Ireland. Horses bred and sold by Rausing were also to the fore on the international scene. Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux) became the new darling of Australian racing after Group 1 triumphs in the Doomben Cup (G1), Underwood Stakes (G1) and Mackinnon Stakes (G1), while Le Don De Vie (Leroidesanimaux) and Pondus (Sea The Moon) also ran with credit Down Under. Time Warp (Archipenko), a former triple Group 1 winner at Sha Tin, was still competing in top-level racing in Hong Kong, too.
Melodramatic: sixth generation Lanwades
To put the icing on the cake, many of those horses who contributed to Rausing’s
