Laura King, the lead English-language presenter/producer on Dubai Racing Channel, with a personal tribute to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, one of the great owner-breeders across the world of the last half-century, who has died at the age of 75.
My first conversation with Sheikh Hamdan was in a lift at Newbury Racecourse in the south of England. It was a typically British one, about the weather, of course. I suggested it might be nicer in Dubai, and he corrected me that it was 40 degrees C there at the time, so probably not.
Newbury is one of the places that his recent passing will be felt most. He founded – and financed – Arabian racing’s biggest day in the sport in Britain there each year, and for those in this small segment of the sport he is as close to irreplaceable as a human can be, having sponsored races as far afield as Uruguay.
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Sheikh Hamdan’s best ten horses
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Sheikh Hamdan seemed to love his Purebred Arabians (PA) the most of all the horses in his massive equine empire, but it wasn’t by accident that his Shadwell Stud operation has bred so many stars in the Thoroughbred ranks, too.
Those close to the Sheikh speak of his excellent knowledge of bloodlines. Former UAE champion trainer Erwan Charpy, whose numerous career victories include one with Sheikh Hamdan’s Manark in the PAG1 Kahayla Classic, spoke warmly of his main patron.
“He had an incredible knowledge of horses,” he says. “He was probably the first person who came to my barn when I first moved in. He just walked in one morning and gave me all the pedigrees of all the horses who were there, just by looking at them.”
I too encountered that knowledge, when interviewing Sheikh Hamdan after Soft Falling Rain won the G2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan in 2013. Asking about possible next targets, the Sheikh reeled off an impressively detailed pedigree analysis, before asking what I thought. I remember being too flabbergasted to reply with much of use.
Those close to Sheikh Hamdan would often speak of his loyalty. Indeed, he rarely moves his horses between trainers, and racing manager Angus Gold has been with him for more than 25 years, as has his Shadwell Stud boss in the UK, Richard Lancaster.
Since having his first runners in the UK in the early 1980s, he’s employed only a handful of retained jockeys, and one of them, Richard Hills, remains within the Shadwell fold as assistant racing manager. When on UK racecourses, he would be flanked by the same burly security guards year after year.
It was always one of my aims to ask Sheikh Hamdan for a long sit-down interview one day, to really try to discover the man behind the famous blue and white silks. Sadly, now I won’t get that opportunity. He’ll be hugely missed, both in Dubai, where the outpouring of grief on social media is indicative of the affection in which he was held, and across the whole of the racing world.
We can only hope that Shadwell will continue and that his legacy will live on.