William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon, LVO (born 30 January 1948), is an English hereditary peer and former racehorse trainer to Queen Elizabeth II.
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He was a member of the House of Lords from 1990 to 1999. [1]
William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon, LVO (born 30 January 1948), is an English hereditary peer and former racehorse trainer to Queen Elizabeth II.
He was a member of the House of Lords from 1990 to 1999. [1]
Hastings-Bass was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is from an equestrian family: his father Peter Hastings-Bass and grandfather Aubrey Hastings were horse trainers; his mother, Priscilla Hastings, was also a racehorse owner and among the first women admitted as members of the Jockey Club.
He started in horse training as an assistant to Noel Murless and later worked in Australia with Bart Cummings and Colin Hayes. [2]
He gained his trainer’s licence in 1976. Outside the world of racing, he took part in charitable work, driving a lorryload of supplies to Bosnia and taking part in a bicycle ride across Borneo and a safari in the Australian outback. [2]
In August 1990, the 16th Earl of Huntingdon died without a son. Hastings-Bass, a great-grandson of the 14th Earl, inherited his peerages and joined the House of Lords. [3]
From 1988 to 1998, Huntingdon ran his yard at West Ilsley, Berkshire, having taken over from Dick Hern. Horses he trained include Ascot Gold Cup winners Indian Queen and Drum Taps. He retired from horse training in 1998, citing financial problems. [4]
After retiring as the Queen’s racehorse trainer, Huntingdon was appointed as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (L.V.O.). [2]
Huntingdon was married to Susan Warner from 1989 to 2001 and is the maternal uncle of racehorse trainer Andrew Balding and TV personality Clare Balding. [3]
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title was associated with the ruling house of Scotland.
Mill Reef was an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a three-year career from 1970 to 1972, he won twelve of fourteen races and finished second in the other two. The horse was an outstanding two-year-old in 1970 but proved even better at three, winning the Epsom Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He won both his starts as a four-year-old before his racing career was ended by injury. Mill Reef is considered one of the greatest horses to run in Europe since WWII.
Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of racehorse training in England, and is home to a rehabilitation centre for injured jockeys, an equine hospital, and several leading jockeys and trainers. To the north of the village are the prehistoric Seven Barrows and the nearby long barrow. In 2004 the Crow Down Hoard was found close to the village.
Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in Hampshire, England.
Clare Victoria Balding is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4 and BT Sport and formerly presented the religious programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2. Balding was appointed as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League, serving a two-year term until December 2022.
William Richard Hern was an English Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and winner of sixteen British Classic Races between 1962 and 1995, and was Champion Trainer on four occasions.
Edward Richard William Stanley, 19th Earl of Derby, is a British hereditary peer and landowner.
Indian Queen was a British thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the Ascot Gold Cup on her final racecourse appearance.
Sir William Arthur Hamar Bass, 2nd Baronet was a British racehorse owner and a significant contributor to the racing industry. He also provided support for the British film industry in its early days.
Martin Charles Pipe, is an English former racehorse trainer credited with professionalising the British racehorse training industry, and as of 2021 the most successful trainer in British jump racing.
Ian Balding is a retired British horse trainer. He is the son of the polo player and racehorse trainer Gerald Matthews Balding and the younger brother of trainer Toby Balding. Ian Balding was born in the US, but his family returned to the UK in 1945. He was educated at Marlborough College and Millfield school in Somerset. He went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1959 to read Rural Estate Management, where he played Rugby for the university team, gaining his Blue in 1961 at full back. He started training in 1964. Kingsclere became his home at the age of 26 and it is here that earned his reputation as an internationally respected trainer.
Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, styled Viscount Hastings until 1939, was a British artist, academic, and later a Labour parliamentarian.
Gerald Barnard Balding Jr. OBE, known as Toby Balding, was a British racehorse trainer, one of the few to have won the "big three" British jump races—the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle.
Andrew Matthews Balding is a British racehorse trainer based at Park House Stables, Kingsclere, near Newbury, Berkshire.
Peter Robin Hood Hastings-Bass was a British racehorse trainer.
Priscilla Victoria Hastings was a British racehorse owner and trainer. She was one of the first three women to be elected as a member of the Jockey Club in December 1977, alongside her half-sister Ruth Wood, Countess of Halifax and Helen Johnson Houghton.
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Selkirk was an American-bred Thoroughbred race horse and sire who raced mainly in Europe. Bred in Pennsylvania and owned by American philanthropist businessman George W. Strawbridge Jr., he was trained by Ian Balding. At the end of 1991, his third year, he had a record of 3-1-2 out of seven starts. In total, he had won six of his 15 starts. He retired from racing in 1993 and began his stud career at Kirsten Rausing's Lanwades stud farm in Newmarket, England, where he sired 92 stakes winners from 987 foals. He died on January 3, 2013, at the age of 25.
Anne Elizabeth Cowdrey, 14th Lady Herries of Terregles, Baroness Cowdrey of Tonbridge was a British racehorse trainer and peeress.
