Stud director

Jake Warren on learning the family business, finessing foal buying, and hitting the Newmarket sales with his university peers’ student loans in his pocket

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We are a family business at Highclere Stud. I’ve learnt how to invest from my father John, who was racing manager to The late Queen and now to King Charles; how to rear from my mother Carolyn, who is an incredible horsewoman; and how to market from my uncle Harry Herbert, chairman of the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing syndicates.

Those people have been the most important in teaching me how to do this job.

For more than 100 years we’ve been cultivating this 300-acre piece of land specifically to rear the thoroughbred as best as we can. We’re growing grass, developing hedgerows and pastureland, and every year we’re investing in the infrastructure of it.

Our year is very cyclical. On New Year’s Day we make the farm ready for the youngstock; between January and May 45–55 mares will foal. We have people who sit up all night with the mares as the first 48 hours are critical.

Things can go downhill fast and a lot of the breeding that takes place here comes with very high investments. We might have mares due to foal to a stallion that’s standing at hundreds of thousands of pounds per cover.