Swede who has the right breeding

Kirsten Rausing, one of racing?s top owner-breeders, came out with a quote which may have smacked of arrogance after her brilliant staying filly Alleluia won the Doncaster Cup at the St Leger meeting.

She was asked if the three-year-old would be considered for the Tote Cesarewitch, for which she has a cracking chance off a low weight, but the Swede replied: ?That is a handicap, and I am only into Group races.?

That summed up her dedication to the breeding side of the sport. Rausing owns Alleluia in partnership with Mrs Sonia Rogers, so the decision to run or not in the second leg of the Autumn Double is not entirely up to her.

And the filly?s trainer, Sir Mark Prescott, to whom big handicaps are as attractive as flames to moths, is another factor in the equation.

Prescott said: ?Alleluia is 19 pounds well in for the Cesarewitch. It is a decision for the owners. Do they want the money, or more black type?? The reference to ?black type? is the kudos a horse gets from winning a Group race, making it more attractive to breed from, and thus more attractive to Miss Rausing, who had been thinking about the Group rated Jockey Club Cup, or a similar event in France for Alleluia?s next outing.

Rausing is a very rich woman, but does not flaunt the fact. Her family invented the cartons that hold most of the globe?s milk and liquids. Yet Rausing has made her own way and has risen to the top in the Turf world which fascinated her from an early age.

She started managing her grandfather?s stud in southern Sweden in her teens and widened her education by working for Captain Tim Rogers in Ireland for four years. It led to her buying Lanwades Stud on the edge of Newmarket 20 years ago. It houses the stallions Hernando, who won the French Derby, Selkirk, the European Champion miler for two years in the Nineties and Zilzal. As her operation grew she bought the adjoining St Simon Stud, where she keeps her own mares and boarders. The two studs cover an area of 600 acres. Rausing then purchased Staffordstown Stud in Co Meath ? 260 acres on which weaned foals are grazed.

Rausing?s home-bred mare Alborada is a great advertisement for her work. She calls the grey ?The Pearl?, and the mare certainly has proved a gem of a racehorse. Alborada, also handled by Sir Mark, won the Dubai Champion Stakes in 1998 and landed the Group One highlight again the following year. As a broodmare she is set to be just as good as in her racing days, her first foal being an attractive colt by Danzig.