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?
Simple: He was out of town when one of his horses, Beechy Bank, came home first at Warwick racecourse at odds of 200-to-1 -- the longest long shot to win a British flat race since 1822. While Beechy Bank, trained by Hambro’s wife, Mary, outran her rivals, Hambro was in Marrakech overseeing Charlemagne’s annual meeting. “I didn’t have a penny on,” Hambro laments. “Not a penny.”
Hambro, who serves as the senior steward at the queen’s own racecourse, Ascot, won’t see odds like that again. 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.
