A great-great-grandson of William Holmes à Court, 2nd Baron Heytesbury, and a grand-nephew of William Frederick Holmes à Court, 3rd Baron Heytesbury, Holmes à Court was one of the world's most feared corporate raiders through the 1980s, having built his empire single-handedly from virtually nothing to a diversified resources and media group with an estimated value immediately before the 1987 stockmarket crash of about A$2 billion. Shareholders in the company enjoyed enormous investment growth. 1984 saw Robert Holmes à Court's horse Black Knight win the Melbourne Cup with a time of 3 minutes 18.19 seconds.