Raymond R. Guest

Infobox Person
name = Raymond R. Guest
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1907|11|25
birth_place = New York, New York, U.S.
death_date = death date|1991|12|31
death_place = Fredericksburg, Virginia, U.S.
occupation = Businessman:
Statesman
Polo player
Racehorse breeder

Raymond Richard Guest (November 25, 1907 – December 31, 1991 was an American businessman, thoroughbred race horse owner and polo player.

He was the son of Freddie Guest, a British Cabinet minister and his American wife, Amy Phipps, daughter of Henry Phipps. During World War II, he served with the United States Navy.

Raymond Guest served as the United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1965 to 1968.

Both he and his brother Winston were outstanding polo players. Raymond Guest twice won the U.S. Open as part of the Templeton team, and was posthumously inducted into the polo Hall of Fame in 2006. [ [http://www.saratogapolo.com/polomuseum/inductees.htm Polo Hall of Fame] ]

He married Elizabeth (Lily) Polk of Dark Harbor, Maine.

Thoroughbred racing

Raymond Guest owned racehorses in both Ireland and the United States. In Ireland his flat racehorses were trained by Vincent O'Brien and his National Hunt horses by Dan Moore. His racing colours were chocolate, pale blue hoops and cap. Guest is one of only three owners to win both the Epsom Derby and the Grand National, the others being King Edward VII when Prince of Wales and Dorothy Paget.

The British flat racing Champion Owner in 1968, among Guest's successful horses in flat racing were Larkspur, winner of the 1962 Epsom Derby; Sir Ivor, winner of the 1968 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and the Washington, D.C. International.

Raymond Guest also owned steeplechase racers. His most outstanding was L'Escargot, a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee who was voted the 1969 U.S. Steeplechase Horse of the Year and who then raced in England where he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971 and the Grand National in 1975.

In the United States, Raymond Guest was voted President of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association in 1958. The best horse to carry his Powhatan Stable colours in American flat racing was Tom Rolfe, winner of the 1965 Preakness Stakes who earned American Champion 3-Year-Old Male Horse honors.

References