He sold a majority interest in his J.O. Hambro Investment Management to Credit Suisse Group for $124 million in 2000, before the worst of the bear market, and Charlemagne, a long-short fund that he and his firm backed in 1999, has benefited from hedge funds’ recent popularity.
Okay, so how did he miss out on one of the greatest investment returns of his career -- one he’d had years to evaluate?
The answer: Hambro happened to be out of town when one of his horses, Beechy Bank, recently came home first at Warwick racecourse at the unheard-of odds of 200-to-1 -- the longest long shot to win a British flat race since 1822.
“I didn’t have a penny on,” Hambro laments. “Not a penny.”
While Beechy Bank, trained in the Cotswolds by Hambro’s wife, Mary, outran her rivals on the homestretch, Hambro was off in Marrakech overseeing Charlemagne’s AGM.
Hambro, who serves as the senior steward at the queen’s own racecourse, Ascot, isn’t likely to see odds like that again on Beechy Bank. Britain’s racing handicapper, red-faced at Beechy’s unprecedented victory, has ruled the filly will have to port a whopping 34 extra pounds in future races.
