Tag: champion owner

What is Shadwell Racing?

Shadwell Racing is the horse racing business of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy tuler of Dubai and brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and founder of Godolpin. Sheikh Hamdan developed an interest in horse racing while studying at the Bell School of Languages in Cambridge in the late Sixties and his now familiar blue and white colours were first carried on a British racecourse in 1980.

Four years later, in 1984, Sheikh Hamdan purchased the 6,000-acre Shadwell Estate in Thetford, Norfolk which, following the construction of the Nunnery Stud, in 1987, would become the British base for one of the most highly regarded horse racing and bloodstock operations in the world. In the intervening three decades or so, Sheikh Hamdan has invested heavily in both aspects of the business and the Nunnery Stud has been home to illustrious racehorses and stallions alike.

Indeed, even in the face of formidable competition from the likes of Coolmore and Godolphin, to name but two, Sheikh Hamdan has been Champion Owner in Britain six times, most recently in 2014. Notable runners over the years have included 2000 Guineas, Derby, Coral-Eclipse Stakes and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1989 and Dayjur, dubbed ‘the world’s fastest horse after winning the King’s Stand Stakes’, Nunthorpe Stakes, Ladbroke Sprint Cup and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 1990. Much more recently, Baataash has continued to fly the flag for Sheikh Hamdan, winning the Prixe de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 2017, Numthorpe Stakes in 2019 and King’s Stand Stakes in 2020, among other high-profile races.

Who is the most successful racehorse owner?

In the history of British horse racing, the most successful owner is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. In 1992, Sheikh Mohammed founded Godolphin, the Al Maktoum family-owned horse racing stable, which has since won over 5,000 races worldwide and has won the Flat Owners’ Championship in Britain thirteen times since its inception. In 2018, for example, Godolphin accrued over £4.4 million in prize money in Britain, thanks in no small part to a first victory in the Derby with Masar, trained by Charlie Appleby.

However, Sheikh Mohammed recorded his first winner, as an owner, in Britain in June, 1977 and he and his brother, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, were highly successful owners in their own right throughout the Eighties, long before the foundation of Godolphin. Indeed, between 1985 and 1993, Sheikh Mohammed was Champion Owner in every year bar one, 1990, in which Sheikh Hamdan took the title. In fact, the year after Godolphin won the Flat Owners’ Championship for the first time, in 1996, Sheikh Mohammed won it again in his own right.