The Hon. Gwen (Mrs Brian) Maguire MBE

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The Hon. Gwen (Mrs Brian) Maguire MBE,  n é e Evans   (1988 – ), is an Anglo-Welsh racing breeder and trainer, and majority owner of the Woolbury Stud, near Woolfont Magna, Wilts, with a satellite facility at Lambourn, Berks.

Life
The Hon. Mrs Maguire was born, as the Hon. Gwenllian Betrys Eluned Mared, the daughter of Gerallt Iolo Huw Dafydd (Evans), the Baron Evans of Pont-y-Clun and Aintree, and his wife the former Alis Gwynne-Vaughan, on 8 November 1988, at Newbury, well in time for Strands of Gold’s win at the Hennessey Gold Cup in that year.

She attended Cheltenham Ladies’, although she insists she was in fact educated rather at Cheltenham Racecourse, Taunton, Ludlow, Fakenham, Plumpton, Fontwell Park, and Doncaster.

She then attended the then RAC Cirencester, now the Royal Agricultural University, after which she became an assistant trainer and stud manager for her father’s stables and stud in Newmarket. When her younger brother, the Hon. Geraint, was of age to begin such training, the Hon. Gwen took over the rebuilding of the Woolbury Stud, recently acquired by her family.

In this, she was materially assisted by her being, in the Duke of Taunton’s admiring words, ‘a deceptively fluffy cobra: she holds everyone in the palm of her dainty hand, and one had best hope one doesn’t give her cause to close that hand’; His Grace has also asserted that ‘everyone, regardless of age, sex, preferences, or marital status, is the least bit in love with Gwennie, and, Christ, does she get by with things on the strength of it’. Certainly, she is one of the most popular and admired people in the District, and treated as if an old native resident: she has always been able to talk Lady Crispin, now the Hon. Lady Trulock, down; is a heroine to the Duke’s niece; is an intimate friend of the Duchess’, of Lady Agatha Prothero-Fane’s, and of Dame Edith Rice’; and is a stalwart of the WI, the lace-making group, the local Hunt and Pony Club, and most other local organisations.

It is also noteworthy that she briefly dated – as a favour to him – Sher Mirza (one of their dates becoming newsworthy), before becoming engaged to and subsequently marrying the former England and Ireland cricketer Brian Maguire CBE.

In 2012, the Taunton Estates assisted, for a minority stake, in the transfer of the Stud to a group of which the Hon. Gwen was the majority owner.

Family
She married, in 2013, Brian Francis Michael Maguire CBE. They are parents to the twins Máire Mairéad Gwendoline Constance, who is goddaughter to Lady Crispin Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet (now the Hon. Lady Trulock), and Eoin Aneurin Charles Patrick, to whom the Duke of Taunton is godfather. The twins are – without their parents’ having had any say in the matter – effectively in the care of the Hon. Gwen’s old nurse, Alis Parry Price, and of The Breener’s Auntie Assumpta, Miss Assumpta Ní Chonchúir, both of whom came down for the christenings and never left.

She remains on very close terms with her parents, brother, and sister-in-law, and is in hopes of soon having nieces and nephews to spoil in her turn.

National Hunt
Scaevola (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Lars Porsena* (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Tully* (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Agrippina (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Hostilia* (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Livia Augusta (formerly the Duke of Taunton; now, HG and HG niece Henrietta Maria; to be transferred to Henrietta Maria Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet upon her attaining the requisite age to have runners in her own name)

Flat
<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Numa Pompilius* (stallion, now at stud) (the Duke of Taunton)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Cunctator (gelding) (the Duke of Taunton)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Vistilia* (filly, now broodmare) (the Duke of Taunton)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Gracchus (foal by Tully out of Vistilia)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Pamiri (stallion, now at stud) (HH the Nawab of Hubli)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Durrani Emperor (stallion, now at stud) (HH the Nawab of Hubli)

<p class="western" style="margin-left:0.49in;margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">Maidan Over (stallion, now at stud) (HH the Nawab of Hubli)

<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0in;font-weight:normal">* Began in Flat, ran in mature years in National Hunt