If your business is selling a dream, a little evidence can be persuasive. Harry Herbert had all such material to hand this week, as he launched seven new Highclere Thoroughbred syndicates on the back of an unprecedented three winners at Royal Ascot.
Herbert has managed the prestigious Highclere brand since its inception in 1992 but these are heady days. “We took 50 people into the Ascot winner’s enclosure last week and you can’t buy that experience,” he said.
Plans for the winning horses are taking shape, with Harbinger set to run in the King George, Approve in the Gimcrack and Memory at Newmarket’s July meeting. But Herbert is now selling shares in the yearlings he will seek to buy at the upcoming autumn sales and dispatch to some of the ten trainers on the Highclere roster.
“It’s not easy to keep attracting new owners,” he said. “That’s why success at Ascot was so important. It’s a very public thing — if you have a share in a runner there, all your friends and family will know about it, good or bad.
“We’ve had some amazing times, notably with Lake Coniston and Petrushka. A couple of years ago, we had an Ascot double with Collection and Colony but this year was better.”
Herbert fronts a slick operation that appeals to a surprisingly wide range. “With Highclere, our celebrity element does help. When people see Liz Hurley and Sir Alex Ferguson involved, they might look at us more closely,” he said.
Such inspection reveals that this is not the exclusive enclave of the wealthy that many imagine. Twenty shares in the Masquerade syndicate, which owns Memory and another horse, cost less than £12,000, all training fees included. “We probably created the image ourselves, because we are a luxury goods product,” Herbert admitted. “There are still people who think it’s a private club for the posh but we’re getting over that now. We have a terrific cross-section and horses bond people together.”
Mike Tindall, the England rugby international, has a share in Theology and was on the phone from Australia after his run in the Queen’s Vase at Ascot. “I had to tell him he’d been beaten a nose,” Herbert said. “But he’s keen and calls a lot when he’s away on tour.”
Jeremy Noseda, trainer of Theology, has been chosen to handle a horse in a new Highclere syndicate — 20 shares in a single horse at £6,950 each. Though it is called The Starter syndicate, it is not entirely for newcomers — the name relates to a Spy cartoon hanging in the Jockey Club Rooms, the base for fortnightly Highclere dinners through the spring.
With 19 wins and £369,000 in prize money banked, Highclere are heading for a record season. That would be assured if Harbinger repels Workforce, his Derby-winning stablemate, in the King George. “I’m about to chat it through with Sir Michael Stoute,” Herbert said. “Unless he has a compelling reason not to run, we will go there — it’s the sort of race we are all in this for.”
Source:The Times
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