Sport: Breeders, Place Your Bets

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All these angles, and a good many more, have long been apparent to an Englishman named Robert Sangster, 46, the buyer of the $4.25 million yearling at Keeneland, who last week purchased two fillies and partial interests in two colts at Saratoga for a total of $667,000. More than any other person, Sangster has been the critical player in the current horse fever. Heir to a Liverpool-based soccer betting operation, Sangster has used his winning touch at breeding to go from riches to phenomenal riches. In provident exile on the bucolic Isle of Man, a tax haven in the Irish Sea, he now runs a multimillion-dollar equine empire, Swettenham Stud, from a 100-room mansion called the Nunnery. Though a reticent man in public, he is hardly that at home. His two trophies from the French Arc de Triomphe wins are the centerpieces on twin dining-room tables. The walls of the bright, airy living room are covered with photos of Sangster, his vivacious second wife Susan (former wife of onetime Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock) and, of course, horses. Out across the 90 acres of manicured lawn and woods, however, the real thing is missing. He keeps none there. "Don't like riding," mumbles the great breeder. "Don't know why."

Even so, Sangster has a unique way with horses, one that combines sporting instinct with clerkish fussiness on a corporate scale. He describes it as "horribly businesslike." At the core of his operation is a first-rate staff. Irish Trainer Vincent O'Brien, 65, for instance, is one of those souls who commune with Thoroughbreds somewhere beyond speech. O'Brien's canny ways brought the team its first big season in 1977: the $200,000 stallion The Minstrel won four major European races and was syndicated at $9 million. Pat Hogan is Sangster's "salt of the peat" conformation expert, which means he specializes in assessing the look of a horse. The instinctual Hogan once told Sangster to spend $200,000 on an undistinguished-seeming foal he had spotted in a field. Sangster did, and the filly won three of her first six races. Says Sangster: "The big difference between me and amateur breeders is that I listen. They are retired businessmen used to telling everyone what to do. On my team we listen. It works."

It does indeed, helped considerably by scrupulous attention to detail. Before settling on the still unnamed $4.25 million colt at Keeneland, for instance, Buying Agent Tom Cooper scrutinized the yearling carefully during his spring tour of U.S. farms. O'Brien then spent eight hours alone with the youngster, watching his mannerisms, his sweating cycle, whether he was bothered by crowds. Three vets, including a heart specialist, performed a physical, with full X rays. "Leg Man" Bob Griffin examined a race horse's most important assets. And because the colt's most important assets will change after his racing days. Sangster's wily genealogist, John Magnier, also had to approve. Says Magnier: "It all follows the semen. If you don't have the semen, you don't have the industry."