Since the 80s, the likes of the Maktoum ruling royal family of Dubai and Saudi Arabia's Prince Khalid Abdullah have striven to dominate British flat racing. Yet for all the seven and even eight-figure sums paid by these Middle Eastern interests over the last 30 years, with their petro-millions sometimes driving the price of horseflesh sky high, no one can claim to have invested at the rate of Sheikh Fahad bin Abdullah al Thani. Since starting from scratch last April, the 22-year-old, a nephew of the Emir of Qatar, today owns more than 40 horses in training. He also has a stake in the stallion Makfi, 2010 winner of the 2000 Guineas, now at Tweenhills Farm & Stud in Gloucestershire. A second top-ranked colt racing in France will join him next year.
Sheikh Fahad became fascinated by racing during five years of studies in London and attended his first race meeting 18 months ago. In addition to his own investment vehicle, Pearl Bloodstock, he has a stake in Qatar Bloodstock, part of QIPCO, a family holding company with interests in real estate, oil, gas and construction. With soft features and few airs and graces, Sheikh Fahad is an unlikely bloodstock mogul. When in London, he often bases himself at the Dorchester hotel, from where he can visit the stables of his trainers throughout Britain and Ireland, travelling by private plane, and go racing to follow the fortunes of his string.
British racecourses have an atmosphere very different to anywhere else in the world, he suggests. And just as he prefers the old Highbury ground of his beloved Arsenal over the club's new Emirates Stadium home, Sheikh Fahad likes the centuries of tradition that surround racing in Britain. "It is where the best horses run," he says.
On a trip to America last year looking for bloodstock, he intended to buy up to four yearlings. He returned with 11. A prudent approach has not always been the case when it comes to Middle Eastern bloodstock ventures. But Sheikh Fahad, who has a degree in business administration, maintains: "You must be sensible." He justifies his personal expansion into bloodstock on the grounds that the market was favourable for investment. Selling a £115,000 Pearl Bloodstock purchase within a week of buying it for a 74 per cent profit certainly seems a reflection of that, as do two seven-figure deals for two purchases both costing less than £275,000.
Qatar Bloodstock is expected to yield a profit commensurate with the rest of QIPCO's assets. QIPCO's sponsorship of the inaugural Champions Series and Champions Day is an effort to raise awareness of the company in a domain in which it has invested heavily.
The Sheikh notes that on the basis that Qatar was the surprise choice to host the football World Cup of 2022, you cannot rule out a major racing occasion also taking place there one day, despite the unfavourable climate. He attributes his own involvement in racing to fate, which is always capable of upsetting the odds—who would have imagined a Qatari royal who 18 months ago had never been racing, celebrating his birthday this year with a winner at Royal Ascot?
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