Chris Wright: how turning down the Maktoums' money led to a lifetime love affair

Music industry veteran Chris Wright, founder of Chrysalis Records, former owner of Queens Park Rangers and Wasps RFC and the man behind Stratford Place Stud, tells Peter Thomas how one stupid decision sparked a lifetime of enjoyment.

I grew up in Lincolnshire and come from a family of farmers but I wasn't a horse person until a friend of mine in the 70s got me into racing. His name was Tony Stratton-Smith, he had a record company called Charisma which used to sponsor the Charisma Gold Cup at Kempton, and he got me involved in a couple of jumps horses with Gay Kindersley, which were useless, and one with Fulke Walwyn, which was a bit better, but I only really became interested when he and a few other people in the music business bought a yard in Lambourn and put trainer Ray Laing in charge.

Tony, Ray and I went to Newmarket yearling sales and 'Strat' picked out a filly for me with a very fast pedigree, and that turned out to be Crime Of Passion, who was second in the 1982 Queen Mary and then won the Cherry Hinton. If you could replicate that now you'd be more than delighted, but I didn't realise at the time how difficult it was.