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.
Named after the Godolphin Arabian – one of the founders of modern thoroughbred bloodstock – Godolphin is the thoroughbred horse racing and breeding operation founded by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who, since 2006, has been the Ruler of Dubai. In Britain, Godolphin relies on trainers Saeed bin Suroor and Charlie Appleby, both of whom divide their years between Dubai and Newmarket, while the famous royal blue silks are most often worn by retained jockeys James Doyle and William Buick. At the last count, the Godolphin operation had produced 5,415 winners, including 297 Group One, or Grade One, winners, worldwide since 1992, at a strike rate of 20%.