Lady Chryss O’Reilly obituary: ‘She took good news with enthusiasm and the bad news with class’

Born: June 28th, 1950

Died: August 23rd, 2023

Lady Chryss O’Reilly, who has died in France, aged 73, was a renowned horse owner and breeder who became a public figure in Ireland when she married businessman Sir Anthony O’Reilly 32 years ago. She was also a former chairwoman of the Irish National Stud and a philanthropist.

Chryssanthie Jane Goulandris was born in New York to John Goulandris and his wife Maria Lemos, both of whom came from prominent Greek shipping families. Her father died from a heart condition when she was just three and her brother Peter was a baby.

Martyn Turner

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She was drawn to horses from a young age, something she had in common with her late father’s family. She began horse-riding when she was eight and, in an interview with French author Anne Konitz-Hoyeau for her book Éleveurs (Breeders) she recalled how she and a young friend would spend hours poring over old copies of The Blood Horse, a US weekly magazine. She studied stallion advertisements, sales results and pedigrees. “My mother thought that this universe was not for young girls,” she said, but it did not quell her interest.

She attended Chapin, the prestigious girls’ school in Manhattan’s Upper East side, whose alumni include Jacqueline Kennedy, Vera Wang and Sigourney Weaver, before studying art and French civilisation at the Sorbonne in Paris. She dabbled in the family business for a while but preferred spending time with her uncles and cousins at horse races and sales, gaining valuable experience along the way.

Her uncle Constantin P Goulandris owned Haras de la Louvière, a stud farm in Normandy, and when he died in 1978, she took over the running of the farm. Around this time, she bought her first horse, a yearling filly. It was a wise purchase – Tovalop won two races and her offspring produced Top Toss, which won the Prix d’Aumale and the Prix de Psyché.

[ Tributes paid to Lady Chryss O'Reilly, who died this week ]

She enjoyed breeding in partnerships as well as under her own banners of Skymarc Farm and Petra Bloodstock Agency. Her many successes included Helissio, which won the 1996 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe; Lawman, which won the 2007 French Derby and Latice, which won the French Oaks in 2004.

French horse-racing newspaper Jour de Galop, which described her as “one of the great breeders of our time” in 2021, carried lengthy tributes to her from the horse-racing world.

One of her breeding partners, Henri Bozo, director of Monceaux Stables, said she made the industry nicer and more human. “She took the good news with enthusiasm and the bad news with class,” he said.

Remarkable knowledge

Marc Violette, who worked with her for 25 years at Haras de la Louvière, said her sense of pedigree breeding was quite rare and her knowledge of the racing market was remarkable.

Her good friend Édouard de Rothschild, president of the horse racing authority France Galop, said they had lunch together the day before her death. “She followed breeding and racing very closely but was not at all looking to break records or be at the top of the list. Yet her results speak for themselves.”

In 1996, her husband caused a sensation when he spent $2.5 million on a 40-carat diamond engagement ring for her. It had been previously gifted to Jacqueline Kennedy by Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis

She first met Sir Anthony O’Reilly with her brother Peter in New York in 1989, when the Irish media baron and HJ Heinz chief was looking for investors to help him buy Waterford Wedgwood. The romantic spark was lit when she accepted his invitation to come to Ireland for the Heinz 57 Phoenix Stakes.

The father of six was divorced from his first wife, Susan, and was one of Ireland’s most successful businessmen, while she was reserved and private, and 14 years his junior. But the thought of being plunged into the spotlight did not deter her and they married at his Lyford Cay estate in the Bahamas in 1991.

The marriage of one of Ireland’s richest businessmen and the Greek shipping heiress created a formidable power couple and ensured that they were near the top of the Sunday Times Irish Rich List. In 2005, the list estimated their combined fortune at €1.897 billion. In 1996, her husband caused a sensation when he spent $2.5 million on a 40-carat diamond engagement ring for her. It had been previously gifted to Jacqueline Kennedy by Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

But despite her privileged life, Lady O’Reilly disarmed people with her down-to-earth manner and her warm persona. She took to Ireland with ease and relished life at the sprawling Castlemartin estate in Kilcullen, Co Kildare. She threw herself into horse breeding, and building a world class stud farm at Castlemartin. By the turn of the century, she owned 125 brood mares and had forged successful partnerships with leading Irish trainers.

Kevin Prendergast trained her horses for more than 20 years and said: “She was a perfect owner and never interfered one way or the other... We had great fun. She was a very good judge, very smart, and a lady in every respect.”

Dermot Weld, who trained her 2010 Pretty Polly winner Chinese White, and her 2013 Irish St Leger winner Voleuse De Coeurs, said she was “a joy” to work with. “She was a very intelligent, very understanding lady and such a lovely person... I served on the board of the National Stud with her, and she was exceptionally committed to the thoroughbred industry.”

Indelible mark

She had much in common with Queen Elizabeth when it came to horses and was the perfect choice to lead the monarch around the Irish National Stud when the queen visited in 2011. Her husband had accepted a knighthood from the queen a decade earlier, elevating her to Lady O’Reilly.

In a statement following her death, the Irish National Stud said its former chairwoman had left an indelible mark on the thoroughbred sector “but it will be the depth of warmth and generosity she afforded to so many people across this great industry that will be cherished above all her many accomplishments”.

When she was inducted into the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Hall of Fame in 2013, its chairman Joe Osborne said there was no one more deserving of the honour. “She has been an exemplar in the industry as a breeder, an owner and through her work at the Irish National Stud,” he said.

After her marriage, she was a regular presence at her husband’s side and became involved in his interests. Her family invested in Waterford Wedgwood and she became a director, but the ailing company collapsed in 2009.

She and her husband were friends with the actor Paul Newman and she was instrumental in helping him to open Barretstown, the camp for seriously ill children, in 1994

Her personal connections meant that she was pushing an open door with her philanthropic endeavours. She became a director of the Ireland Funds America, part of the philanthropic organisation set up by her husband and US ambassador Dan Rooney. Its president and chief executive, Caitríona Fottrell, said Lady O’Reilly’s broad support of culture and the arts in Ireland as well as her generous support of the fund’s Pittsburgh Dinner were just some of her many philanthropic contributions.

She and her husband were friends with the actor Paul Newman and she was instrumental in helping him to open Barretstown, the camp for seriously ill children, in 1994. She was the first chair of the charity. She was co-founder and chairwoman of the O’Reilly Foundation, which provided full scholarships to young Irish graduates to further their studies abroad.

[ Collapse: The fall of Tony O'Reilly ]

Her husband’s fortunes took a downturn with the financial crash, and when a confluence of events brought his financial woes to a head, she tried to broker an arrangement to buy his debt from IBRC, as detailed in Matt Cooper’s book The Maximalist. However, Castlemartin, the jewel in their crown of properties, was sold to help repay creditors and he was declared bankrupt in 2015.

In recent years, the couple divided their time between France, Ireland and the Bahamas. When Lady O’Reilly wasn’t engrossed in her equine pursuits, she enjoyed gardening and was a keen collector of Australian and South African art.

Sales topper

The weekend before she died, two horses she bred, Witch Hunter and Vespertilio, won the Hungerford Stakes in Newbury and the Debutante Stakes at the Curragh respectively. The day before her death, one of her colts became the sales topper at Arqana’s v2 auction in Deauville, selling for €200,000. Colleagues in the horse-racing world said they were glad that she had spent her last days surrounded by the horses she loved, and the friends who were dear to her.

She is survived by her husband Sir Anthony O’Reilly and his family, her brother Peter Goulandris, his wife Karen and family, and the extended Goulandris family in Greece and America.