IT takes years of careful planning, investment and land management—not to mention a large slice of luck—to establish a successful stud farm. This the late Christopher Spence, a former merchant banker, senior steward of the Jockey Club and shrewd owner-breeder, achieved with some style at the stud farm he founded at his home, Chieveley Manor, near Newbury, Berkshire, in the early 1980s. Spence died, aged 84, in September 2021 and was described in his Racing Post obituary as ‘a racing grandee’ and ‘a pivotal figure who transformed the administration of racing’. The first good horse to carry his emerald-green and black colours was Frontier Goddess, who won the Yorkshire Oaks in 1969 and was sold to Texas oil tycoon Nelson Bunker Hunt as a broodmare. A decade later, Spence hit the jackpot with the purchase of Hot Spice, a filly from the same family as Frontier Goddess. She produced several winners, including the quirky stayer, Celeric, who raced for seven seasons, winning the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 1997, as well as two Lonsdale Cups, a Jockey Club Cup, Yorkshire Cup, Sagaro Stakes and Northumberland Plate.
Although no longer run as a stud farm, Chieveley Manor offers much that the most ambitious sporting family might dream of. The immaculate small country estate is now for sale, either as a whole or in two lots, through Ed Sugden of Savills Country Department (020–7409 8885) and Lindsay Cuthill’s Blue Book Agency (07967 555545).
Esta historia es de la edición October 04, 2023 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición October 04, 2023 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning