Sport of Kings

Charlie Gordon-Watson has one of the best jobs in the world. He's a bloodstock agent. This means, basically, that he buys expensive thoroughbred horses with someone else's money. It's a risky business - the big money is in buying yearlings, and although your choice may walk like a fledging supermodel and be bred like a duke's daughter, who on earth has a clue as to whether it will be able to run any faster than your neighbour's donkey?

'I get paid to do everything I like,' says Charlie. 'I fly around the world talking to people and going racing, and it's something a lot of people do as a hobby.'

Why does he get paid to do it? Because he's very good at it. How do we know he's very good at it? Because he's done the one thing every bloodstock agent wants to do. He's bought a Derby winner.

Everyone who's ever had a fiver on a horse knows that to win the Epsom Derby is the pinnacle, racing's K2, for the owner, trainer, jockey - and horse, of course, although they don't get quite so excited about it.

It's also the top of the tree for a bloodstock agent - to buy a yearling in a sale ring for one of your regular clients and then watch it romp home in Europe's most important race as a three-year-old. Charlie Gordon-Watson bought Kris Kin, the 2003 Derby winner, for owner Saeed Suhail. Kris Kin cost £180,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2001, the day before 9/11.

'It's always been my ambition, right from when I started, to buy a Derby winner.'

Gordon-Watson, 43, was born into the racing world. His family bred and raced horses, his cousin is a trainer, and his sister, Mary, is a member of the Jockey Club and a former Olympic gold medallist and world three-day event champion.

'I wanted to be a trainer myself, and worked for trainers before I decided it was too risky,' he says. He had the rough edges knocked off him working for the legendarily irascible and eccentric Capt Ryan Price at Findon, and then became assistant to Fulke Johnson Houghton, who handled superstar horses such as Ile De Bourbon and Habitat.

His move into the high-rolling bloodstock world came in his early twenties with a job at Robert Sangster's stud on the Isle of Man. At the time Sangster, who died earlier this year, was the biggest owner of racehorses in the world, buying the best yearlings, winning the biggest races, standing the best stallions at stud and breeding more of the best yearlings.

But the young Charlie's enthusiasm and confidence somewhat overran his experience.

'The chap in charge was an American, and we instantly clashed. After a year I went to see Robert Sangster and said: 'Either he goes or I do.''
Charlie was put on the next boat home.

'But it taught me everything - a real fast track experience.'

A short spell selling advertising for the racing magazine Pacemaker taught him about the commercial side of the bloodstock game, and then, at the precocious age of 25, he set up Charles Gordon-Watson Bloodstock. In a world where reputation is everything - to make it, you need to be buying for the big hitters. To buy for them, you need to have proved yourself and earned their respect - this was a bold move.

'But you need to be at that age, probably to have the balls and the energy to do it,' he says, 'You need luck, but you make your own, I think. To do this job, you need tolerance, patience, and understanding of finance - and the skin of a rhino.'

His luck certainly kicked in fairly quickly. Among his earliest successes was Snurge, trained by Paul Cole to win three Group Ones - the highest level of race - including the last Classic of the year, the St Leger.'

'Snurge, who I bought for £36,000 and won £1,200,000 and Culture Vulture, a fantastic filly who won the French 1000 Guineas, were key moments in my career,' he says, 'They kicked me further up the ladder.'

Although huge sums of money can - and often are - involved in buying a piece of a dream, it's not always a one-way street. One of his most eye-catching successes was Desert Prince, whom Charlie bought for £62,000. The horse won £510,000 on the racetrack, collecting three Group Ones, became World and European champion three- year-old and was sold to stand at stud for £3,250,000. Quite a nice profit.

He's bought 22 individual winners of 34 Group One races, and has made something of a speciality out of Royal Ascot, having bought 16 winners at the Royal meeting since 1996.

The life of a bloodstock agent is somewhat peripatetic.

He says, 'I go hunting in January and February (he is a master of the Cottesmore hunt), and spend March travelling about seeing clients in places like Dubai and Hong Kong. The two-year-old sales take up April, and then I go racing from May to July. This is when I find new clients and sell horses privately, mostly to Hong Kong.
Then the sales season starts, and for three months it's absolute hell. I go to Deauville, America, Newmarket…this is when I make the money to carry me through the rest of the year. It's exciting but very hard work.'

What does he look for in a yearling?

'Athleticism and the conformation to stay sound,' he says, 'I have to balance the budget with the horse's pedigree and its conformation, so that the client gets the best value deal.'

Charlie's main clients on the breeding side - away from the glitterball feeding frenzy of the yearling sales - are Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber, for whose Watership Down stud he bought Crystal Spray, mother of Crystal Music who won the Group One Fillies Mile at Ascot.

It has, he says, got harder to buy good horses. The superpowers - Sheikh Mohammed, John Magnier, the Aga Khan, Khalid Abdullah - get stronger and stronger, and very few really top-class horses are up for sale. Classic winners these days are homebreds, never coming on the market.

This makes his achievement in buying a Derby winner all the more remarkable. But having done that, what comes next?

'Buying the next one, of course,' he says, sounding surprised.