RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD HORSES HIS MAIN INTEREST IN LIFE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14883, 24 January 1914, Page 3

RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD

HORSES HIS MAIN INTEREST IN LIFE.

Thero is none of the gloom of Russia about 31. Mantascheff, who is hoc only the richest Russian, but is credited .with, being tho richest man "in tho World, sijj -aanojaijooii; jj£ uvx.\i usao .impu sensational buying or horses at Newmarket has been one of tho notable events of the week (says the London "Daily Express" of December 3rd). Most Russians who come- to London are fiercely political or blatantly artistic, but M. Mantaschoff represents a typo of Russian that is less familiar to us. Ho is an earnest young man of thirty-thrco years, who. is using his great wealth to improve tho breed of horses m Russia. Horses are his main interest in- life. 1 ho intrigues of Grand D-ukes, the tur-. moil of interior politics, all the things that make Russia so interesting to us do not enter into his vision of things. It is impossible, when you sco this calm , keen-faced young man to think iof Kieff; with its persecutions and pogroms, or of rod-shirted peasants play- '■ ing tho balalaika in Littlo Russia. This '■ multi-millionaire is not Russian at all: Ihe is a cosmopolitan; he belongs to tho I capitals of Europe. Ho is the rouble king. Having bid astonishing sums at Newmarket for mares and foals, with which ho is going to start a Paris stud, he is now resting , iv London, and an "Express" representatives interviewed , him. Tho Rouble King, whose money is made from vast oil properties in Russia, does not. liko his American prototype, bother about high finance. Ho does not know how much his income a minute is, nor does he care. Ho spends as much as ho likes on his horses, but he seldom makes a bad bargain, and he lives as a man of fashion and wealth li\es, with nono of the eccentricities and display of some multi-millionaires. Ho is a young m;in, with an earnest faro and laVge eyes that have a certain melancholy in th"cm. -His nose is sharp and curved, and a little thin moustache hides his upper lip. Ho was dressed in tho most perfect clothes that a London tailor could cut—and in excellent taste. There is nothing "horsey" J ■about the appearance of this man, who collects hordes as some men collect post- j ago stamps. i HOUSES "WORTH £300,000. "Mv horses," he said, '"are worth ! three "million roubles (£3CK),COU). They aro ail I care for. I have a stud in ; Tiflis of sixty horses, and another in ' Warsaw of sixty hon-r-s, and now I am about to start "a third .stud in Paris, for it is too far to send maro to England. "1 am well pleased v-;th my English ' purchases—[ have bought this week twenty-i-ujdit iunre.« and foals and one twi>-ye-ar-old. I havn eighty horses in training this year, and next year I hope to have ninety. "Tho bost bloodstock in England, I found, is not for &ale. I was tojd that Neil Gow was for sale, and I wired to I.ord Rost'bcry, but he replied that Neil Coiv could not be sold. In two other cases auso I found it was no good making an offer. "T race my horsps in Warsaw-, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Paris, and one of my horses, Grimsa, won tho Grand Prix of the Empress—which is the Russian Derby. When my stable i i Paris is formed I hope to enter a horse for the English Derby. "1 have only one ambition in the world —to have one of the best stables. 1 am fond of my work, and I am eager to do all I can for horso-breeding."