Lady O'Reilly: gracious and cosmopolitan host whose love for horses was genuine and rooted in a lifelong passion

Chryss O'Reilly, who died on Wednesday at the age of 73, was a leading figure in the Irish racing and breeding industries for three decades, while also having extensive bloodstock interests in France since the 1970s.

Styled as Lady O'Reilly since 2001, when her husband, the former Irish rugby international, industrialist and media magnate Tony O'Reilly, accepted a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, she bred many top-class colts including the 1996 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Helissio, 2007 Prix du Jockey Club winner Lawman and other top-level winners such as Highest Honor, Priolo, Ectot and Dubai Mile.

O'Reilly usually retained the fillies to race, of whom the best known were the Dermot Weld-trained 2010 Pretty Polly winner Chinese White and Rebelline, who won the same race for Kevin Prendergast in 2001 when it had Group 2 status, before achieving Group 1 honours in the 2002 Tattersalls Gold Cup. 

Lady O'Reilly with Chris Hayes at the Curragh in September 2013 after Voleuse De Coeurs won the Irish St LegerCredit: CAROLINE NORRIS

Lightening Pearl, a Group 1 winner for Ger Lyons in the Cheveley Park in 2011, and Aidan O'Brien's 2019 Mackinnon Stakes winner Magic Wand were sold by O'Reilly as yearlings, while her Weld-trained 2013 Irish St Leger winner Voleuse De Coeurs was bred by the Irish National Stud.

Based at Castlemartin Stud, near Kilcullen, she immersed herself quickly in the Irish bloodstock world following her marriage to O'Reilly in 1991 and was appointed to the board of the Irish National Stud in 1993. She became its chair in 1998 and occupied the role until 2012.

In private, O'Reilly was a gracious and cosmopolitan host at her homes in Ireland, the Bahamas, France, and the United States. However, her love for horses and racing was thoroughly genuine and rooted in a down-to-earth lifelong passion for the sport. Energetic and practical, she worked assiduously to protect and advance the interests of her fellow breeders and never shirked from confronting difficult issues.

In the late 1990s, in her capacity as the leader of a self-styled 'Industry Committee', she became embroiled in the politics of Irish racing. At one stage during a period of bitter and divisive wrangling, she led a protest march to the Turf Club headquarters at the Curragh, before the group stood itself down as negotiations progressed, ultimately leading to the establishment of Horse Racing Ireland in succession to the Irish Horseracing Authority.

Her background made her an unlikely rebel on the Irish racing scene. Born in the US in June 1950, she was the daughter of John and Maria Goulandris, the product of a marriage that unified two major Greek shipping dynasties, her mother being a member of the Lemos family.

O'Reilly became involved in racing and breeding in her 20s, and in 1978 inherited Haras de la Louviere in Normandy from an uncle. She enjoyed initial big-race success with horses trained by Francois Boutin in France, notably with three-time Group 1 winner Priolo, and continued to send horses to a range of top French trainers over the succeeding decades.

Lady O'Reilly (right): inherited Haras de la Louviere in Normandy from an uncle in 1978Credit: Patrick McCann

In Ireland, in addition to many stakes-race victories obtained with fillies trained by Prendergast and Weld, she had horses with John Oxx, who was responsible for her Ribblesdale Stakes winner Sahara Slew, and Eddie Lynam, who trained Soffia to win seven of her 15 races including the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes in 2019.

O'Brien trained her 1999 Blandford Stakes winner Chiang Mai, who became the dam of Chinese White. Jim Bolger and Paul Deegan were among others to provide her with stakes winners. Moss Vale, Peace Offering and Sovereign Debt were Pattern winners trained for her in Britain by the late David Nicholls.

For many years O'Reilly was active in the fundraising activities of The Ireland Funds, a global philanthropic network, using her personal charm and powerful business connections to swell the coffers of the charitable body that her husband helped to found in 1976 during his time at the helm of H J Heinz in Pittsburgh. 

She bore the ignominious collapse of her husband's over-extended business empire with exceptional dignity. In the last days of her life, she was still active in the industry that was her passion, and to which she contributed so much.

Read this next:

'She'll be sadly missed' - death of leading owner-breeder Lady O'Reilly aged 73