Obituary: successful businessman who became a leading owner of top-class horses

Sir Robert Ogden, who has died aged 86, was an industrialist and Docklands property tycoon who became champion owner of jumpers three times.

One of the richest and most private men in Yorkshire, he jointly owned See More Business for part of that champion's career, and also had Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Voy Por Ustedes, Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Exotic Dancer and Marlborough.

He later concentrated on the Flat and enjoyed Group 1 success with Sans Frontieres (Irish St Leger) and Amazing Maria.

Robert Ogden was born in Wibsey, Bradford on January 15, 1936, the eldest of six children; their father, Albert, was a master builder. He left school at 15 and did two years' national service in the army.

He and his brothers Joseph, Victor and John built up the Ogden group of companies, running a demolition and site-clearance business, reclaiming slag heaps from old South Yorkshire pits, extracting any remaining coal from them, and selling the cleared sites for redevelopment.

They also manufactured equipment used in engineering, quarrying, mining, construction and related industries.

Ogden was introduced to racing by his friend and fellow businessman Jack Hanson, a neighbour of his in the village of Sicklinghall, near Wetherby.

They went half-shares in horses trained by Hanson, and their best winners were Frankie, Winter Melody and Smokey Bear.

Frankie finished fifth to Wollow as a 200-1 shot in the 1976 2,000 Guineas and took the 1m2f handicap at Epsom on Derby day as a four-year-old; Winter Melody won the 1978 Imperial Cup; and Smokey Bear ran in Ogden's colours when landing the Tennent Trophy at Ayr in 1980.

Sir Robert Ogden (second right) with Voy Por Ustedes after the Champion Chase in 2007Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

In business he concentrated increasingly on property development, and owned shopping centres in Leeds and Harrogate. He was an early investor in the regeneration of London's Docklands in the 1980s, and made most of his fortune when property prices there soared.

His racing operation expanded in the following decade, and he retained the young Paul Carberry from 1995 to 1998 – the only years when that jockey was based in Britain.

His best ever hurdler, Squire Silk, won the Tote (ex-Schweppes) Gold Trophy at Newbury for him, Carberry and trainer Andy Turnell in 1996, came fifth in the Champion Hurdle, and was the biggest contributor to the prize-money haul that made him champion owner for the first time the following season.

The homebred's victory in the Maghull Novices' Chase at Aintree in 1997 supplemented the win of the Gordon Richards-trained General Command in the Great Yorkshire Chase – a result that, as a proud Yorkshireman, Ogden was particularly delighted with.

At the time he had most of his horses with Richards, having attracted adverse publicity by sacking Ferdy Murphy, who had trained at the stables he owned at Middleham.

See More Business won the 1999 Cheltenham Gold Cup and two King George VI Chases for owners Paul Barber and John Keighley, and Ogden bought Keighley's half-share for about £250,000 in January 2000.

See More Business never won a Grade 1 for him, but became the main contributor to his second title that season by running away with the Aon Chase at Newbury and, by 21 lengths, the Martell Cup at Aintree. He was officially rated the champion chaser, jointly with Looks Like Trouble, to whom he had been fourth when favourite for the Gold Cup.

See More Business wins the Martell Cup at Aintree in 2000 in the colours of Sir Robert OgdenCredit: Edward Whitaker

Ogden was champion owner for the third and final time in 2000-01, when he picked up two Grade 1 prizes in April. Fadalko won the Melling Chase at Aintree and Marlborough the Tote Gold Trophy Chase at Sandown – a replacement race for the Gold Cup after the Cheltenham Festival had been cancelled.

He snatched the title from Norman Mason on the last day of the season when Ad Hoc took the Whitbread Gold Cup. Less than two months later he added another title in the form of a knighthood.

Marlborough, trained by Nicky Henderson, had been his first Cheltenham Festival winner in the National Hunt Handicap Chase in 2000. In later seasons the gelding won the Charlie Hall and Racing Post Chases, and was second to Best Mate in the King George.

Ad Hoc won Sandown's big end-of-season handicap chase again in 2003, by which time it had been renamed the Attheraces Gold Cup. Like See More Business and Fadalko, he was trained by Paul Nicholls.

Leading owner, businessman and philanthropist Sir Robert Ogden dies aged 86

Ogden won both the big novice chases at Cheltenham in 2006 with five-year-olds – the Arkle with Voy Por Ustedes and the Royal & SunAlliance (now Brown Advisory) Chase with Star De Mohaison.

Voy Por Ustedes, trained by Alan King, won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2007, although Kauto Star was that season's top two-miler, having trounced him in the Tingle Creek Chase.

When attempting a Champion Chase double in 2008 he was second to Master Minded, beaten 19 lengths, but he reversed the placings in the Melling Chase, scoring a spectacular victory by 18 lengths.

Voy Por Ustedes gained further Grade 1 success in the Ascot and Melling Chases in 2009. The Melling gave the owner some consolation for the death of Exotic Dancer the previous day. Those two Ogden colour-bearers were officially rated the joint-champion two-and-a-half-mile chasers of the season.

Exotic Dancer on his way to winning the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham in 2007Credit: Edward Whitaker

Exotic Dancer was trained by Jonjo O'Neill, and it took a great champion to stop him winning the top prizes he deserved.

In 2006-07 he landed both of Cheltenham's big autumn handicap chases, and would have won the King George and Gold Cup as well but for the intervention of Kauto Star. He gained some compensation in the Betfair Bowl – the Aintree race See More Business had won as the Martell Cup.

Exotic Dancer ran Kauto Star to half a length at level weights in the 2007 Betfair Chase at Haydock and scored his only Grade 1 victory in the 2008 Lexus Chase at Leopardstown.

In 2009 he came third to Kauto Star and Denman in the Gold Cup, but the following month he had a fatal heart attack in the racecourse stables after finishing second at Aintree.

Ogden's racing operation had hitherto been geared towards the production of staying chasers, but by now he was spending his winters abroad, so he switched the emphasis to the Flat and sold all his jumpers in 2012.

He had consecutive Albany Stakes winners La Chunga and Sander Camillo (2005-06) and their trainer, Jeremy Noseda, also handled Sans Frontieres, the owner's only Classic winner.

In 2010 Sans Frontieres won the Princess of Wales's and Geoffrey Freer Stakes, and then took a weak running of the Irish St Leger.

Ogden's Thomas Chippendale won two races at Royal Ascot – the King Edward VII Stakes in 2012 and the Hardwicke in 2013, just after the death of his trainer Sir Henry Cecil; the colt collapsed and died after the race.

He bred only a few of his horses and the best of them was the David O'Meara-trained grey Amazing Maria, who scored Group 1 triumphs in the Falmouth Stakes and Prix Rothschild in 2015.

Sir Robert Ogden was occasionally interviewed in the winner's enclosure after a televised race, but he usually shunned publicity, preferring to let his horses do the talking.

Nevertheless, the elderly divorced tycoon attracted the attention of gossip columnists when seen on the racecourse with a succession of beauties who were several decades younger than him.

He named Sander Camillo after one of them, but by the time the filly was racing he had already moved on to his next Brazilian companion.

He was knighted in 2001 for services to charity in Yorkshire. He never forgot his roots, and his many donations in his native county included university scholarships for youngsters from poor backgrounds, and funding for the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre for cancer support in Harrogate and the National Autistic Society's Robert Ogden School near Barnsley.

A fixture on the Sunday Times Rich List, he was estimated to be worth £153 million in 2020. He enjoyed many of the trappings of wealth, including a luxury yacht and private jet.

He had two sons, Robert and Adam; the latter rode two Grand Military Gold Cup winners for him in the 1990s.

Sir Robert Ogden CV

Full name Sir Robert Ogden (knighted 2001)

Born Wibsey, Bradford, West Yorkshire, January 15, 1936

Father Albert Ogden (master builder)

First big-race winner Winter Melody (1978 Imperial Cup)

First winner in own name Majestic Maharaj, Chester, July 12, 1980

First Pattern winner Frickley (1993 Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle)

Joint-champion chaser (official ratings) See More Business (1999-2000)

Joint-champion 2m4f chasers (official ratings) Exotic Dancer & Voy Por Ustedes (2008-09)

Highest-rated horses (RPRs) 178 Exotic Dancer (4 races including 2007 Betfair Bowl, 2008 Lexus Chase), 178 Voy Por Ustedes (2008 Melling Chase), 176 See More Business (3 races including 2000 Martell Cup)

Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Voy Por Ustedes (2007)

Other Cheltenham Festival winners Marlborough (2000 NH Handicap Chase), Voy Por Ustedes (2006 Arkle Chase), Star De Mohaison (2006 Royal & SunAlliance Chase)

Classic winner Sans Frontieres (2010 Irish St Leger)

Other Group 1 winner on Flat Amazing Maria (2015 Falmouth Stakes, Prix Rothschild)

Martell Cup/Betfair Bowl winners See More Business (2000), Exotic Dancer (2007)

Melling Chase winners Fadalko (2001), Voy Por Ustedes (2008, 2009)

Tote Gold Trophy Chase winner (Gold Cup substitute) Marlborough (2001)

Lexus Chase winner Exotic Dancer (2008)

Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Exotic Dancer (2006)

Whitbread/Attheraces Gold Cup winner Ad Hoc (2001, 2003)

Other big-race winners over jumps Squire Silk (1996 Tote Gold Trophy Hurdle, 1997 Maghull Novices' Chase), Fadalko (1999 Scottish Champion Hurdle), See More Business (2000 Aon Chase, 2001 Pillar Property Chase), Kingsmark (2000, 2001 & 2002 Edward Hanmer Memorial Chase), Marlborough (2002 Charlie Hall Chase, 2004 Racing Post Chase), Iris Royal (2003 First National Gold Cup, Tripleprint Gold Cup), Star De Mohaison (2006 Mildmay Novices' Chase), Gray Steel (2006 Prix Amadou), Exotic Dancer (2006 Boylesports Gold Cup, 2007 Cotswold Chase), Ungaro (2006 Feltham Novices' Chase), Voy Por Ustedes (2006 & 2007 Desert Orchid Chase, 2009 Ascot Chase)

Other Group winners on Flat La Chunga (2005 Albany Stakes, 2006 Summer Stakes), Sander Camillo (2006 Albany Stakes, Cherry Hinton Stakes), Sans Frontieres (2010 Princess of Wales's Stakes, Geoffrey Freer Stakes), King Torus (2010 Superlative Stakes, Vintage Stakes), Thomas Chippendale (2012 King Edward VII Stakes, 2013 Hardwicke Stakes), Amazing Maria (2013 Prestige Stakes, 2015 Duke of Cambridge Stakes)

Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Exotic Dancer (2007)

Last winner Velazquez, Newcastle, December 28, 2021

Most prolific Grade 1 winner Voy Por Ustedes (5)

Best horses as owner-breeder Squire Silk, Amazing Maria

Cheltenham Festival wins 4 (2000-07)

Most wins in a season Jumps 42 (1996-97, 1999-2000) Flat 22 (2011 - 21 GB, 1 Ireland)

Champion owner of jumpers 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2000-01

Racing manager Barry Simpson

Colours Mauve and pink checks, white sleeves

Honours CBE (1984), KBE (2001)

Wealth £153 million (Sunday Times Rich List 2020)