Kingston Town’s owner and Melbourne-based billionaire, David Hains, has died.
Hains, 92, was famous in the corporate world for being a canny and innovative investor over a lifetime in business as founder of Portland House, long one of the nation’s most successful investment houses.
In an interview with The Australian in October last year, an intensely private Hains reflected on the three consecutive Cox Plate wins of Kingston Town in 1980, 1981 and 1982.
Hains scored 35 Group 1 wins (some horse owners spend tens of millions of dollars never to win a top-level Group 1), including the 1990 Melbourne Cup with Kingston Rule, three Cox Plates and plenty of other famous trophies.
His horses carried the iconic yellow and red silks.
“It was a complete surprise,” Hains said in the interview of Kingston Town.
“To get a horse like that who was such an outstanding horse, you can talk about bloodlines and breeding, but you’ve got to be lucky. And we were very lucky.”
Hains’ remarkable business career spanned manufacturing in the 1950s, retailing, various takeovers, turning around a US steel business, running Indian factories, property developing and hedge fund investing in global equities, currencies, fixed income and other assets at Portland House, run by three of his sons.
According to Forbes, Hains had a personal net-worth of an estimated $2.89 billion making him Australia’s 18th richest person.
In the late 1960s he quit work for seven years to improve his golf game.
He was married to Helen and had five children — Cathy, Stephen, Richard, Michael and Paul.
Helen Hains died on August 24, 2017.
HAINS’ BEST RACEHORSES
Kingston Town
Career: 41:30-5-2
17 G1s
Timeform rating of 137
3 Cox Plates
Spirit Of Kingston
Career: 25:6-3-7
3 G1s including Rosehill, Canterbury Guineas and VRC Oaks
G1-winning broodmare
Rose Of Kingston
Australian horse of the year (1982)
3 G1s
23 starts for 10 wins and nine placings
Kingston Rule
1990 Melbourne Cup in record time (still stands today)
Career: 18:4-4-2
Originally published as Kingston Town’s billionaire owner David Hains dies, aged 92
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