In the right place at the right time

Mar 23 2009 By Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

Another area where luck can be almost as helpful as judgment is racing and Graham Wylie runs a stable of racehorses with his wife Andrea. Their light and dark chocolate silks are now a familiar sight at Britain’s racecourses, particularly on the northern tracks. The couple have 20 Flat horses and 90 National Hunt horses in training with J Howard Johnson in County Durham.

"Just now we’re among the top owners in the country," he says. "There’s JP McManus, Trevor Hemmings, David Johnson, Sir Robert Ogden and us. It was my wife Andrea who got me started. She used to ride when she was younger and persuaded me to get my first horse. Eventually, we went to White Lea Farm in Durham – a friend had horses there (trained by Howard Johnson) and there were two to look at. Andrea said, ‘I hope one’s grey, I like grey horses’, so out come two into the yard, both grey.

"Now what do I do? As we left, two magpies flew across the car. I said, ‘That’s a lucky omen – one for sorrow, two for joy – Andrea, I’m going to buy one of those horses’. The one I bought was Lord Transcend and he won his first five races – and that was me hooked.

"I retired from Sage in 2003 and decided to start afresh and, rather than going out to play golf, I bought a few more horses, one of which was Inglis Drever."

Inglis Drever had a career record of 17 wins from 35 starts and won the World Hurdle at Cheltenham three times. His appetite for a battle made him hugely popular with punters. He was famous too for hitting a "flat spot" in a race when he appeared to be in trouble, only to run on strongly in the closing stages.

Graham says: "He’s retired now, up at my place in the Tyne Valley and I see him every morning. He’s just getting over his leg injury. He loved Cheltenham, loved it. You’d see him off the bridle at the back of the field and think, ‘He’s not going to do it today’ but then at the top of the hill he absolutely powered home.

"Howard is a great horse man, he’s got a great eye, whether it’s for a sheep, a horse, a dog or a cat – he knows the right conformation.

"I go to the sales with him and watch tons and tons of horses going through the ring. He’s a great trainer, which has been proved by the great success we’ve had. It’s important I keep my horses in training in the North East. I live here and I get great pleasure in not just going to the racecourse but to the training yards. When you’re on the gallops at 7 o’clock in the morning then you see 20 or 30 horses coming through the mist, it’s fantastic.

"I walk the yard with Howard and listen, then go to the racecourse and see everything fulfilled. I can’t do that if the horses aren’t in the North East."

But it’s certainly not a life of leisure for the tycoon. On retiring from Sage, netting an estimated £195m for his stake in the business, Graham set up a direct rival, Technology Services Group (TSG) although he admits horse racing takes up most of his time.

He says: "Howard Johnson runs my diary – where horses are running dictates my day. If I have no runners, I’ll go and do some business. TSG has taken five years to get to where we are now. We bought 25 businesses and put them together as one so there have been a lot of ups and downs, but now it’s starting to motor with some good people running it for me. I also have quite a large commercial property portfolio – all office blocks with high quality tenants on long leases."

Graham recently spent a day advising a young entrepreneur on how to take his fledgling business forward.

John Bartlett, who runs Washington software outfit OnePoint Systems, won the chance to gain valuable advice, thanks to a competition in the business pages of The Journal.

But the meeting of minds was far from a mere PR stunt, they spent most of the day in a small office crunching numbers, analysing business plans and coming up with a strategy to help OnePoint Systems follow in Sage’s footsteps.

The Graham Wylie intention is to give something back to the region, its academic system and to local business – but he has always learned from others. Like Howard Johnson he has a great eye and like Inglis Drever he can fairly power home.