Strictly embargoed until 11pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - NO CONTACT MUST
BE MADE WITH THE WINNERS BEFOREHAND AS THEY ARE NOT AWARE THEY HAVE WON
MAKTOUM FAMILY HONOURED BY TBA
The Dubai-based Maktoum family will tonight receive the prestigious Duke Of
Devonshire bronze at the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association's Annual
Awards' Dinner in London.
The Award recognises the enormous input the Maktoum family have made to
racing and breeding in Britain after an involvement of nearly 30 years. It
is a poignant Award following the death last week of Sheikh Maktoum Al
Maktoum, who with his brothers Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikh
Ahmed, had enjoyed success at the highest level on the racecourse.
It all began back at Goodwood in 1977, when Hatta landed a lowly contest
for Sheikh Mohammed. Since that victory, horses owned by members of the
Maktoum family have captured virtually every major race in the
international racing calendar, with success coming for each of the brothers
in their own right as well as the Godolphin operation.
When Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum and his three brothers spent $6.5 million on
eight yearlings at the 1981 Keeneland July Sale under the banner of the
Aston Upthorpe Stud, few realised the major change in racing that was on
the way.
Sheikh Maktoum's farms included Gainsborough Stud near Newbury, Woodpark
Stud in County Meath, Ballysheehan Stud near Cashel and Gainsborough Farm
in Kentucky, which house around 165 broodmares. He was the first member of
the family to enjoy classic success in Britain when Touching Wood took the
1992 St Leger and two of his best performers, the sprinters Green Desert
and Cadeaux Genereux, have firmly established themselves as among the very
best sires of their generation. Sheikh Maktoum's son Saeed took the
Vodafone Derby in 1995 with Lammtarra.
In Sheikh Mohammed's own silks, the likes of Oh So Sharp, Pennekamp,
Diminuendo, Indian Skimmer, Belmez, Old Vic and Pebbles all established
themselves as among the very best of their generation. Sheikh Mohammed's
vast breeding operation is spearheaded by his British operation, the
1,800-acre Dalham Hall Stud estate in Newmarket. A man of great vision,
Sheikh Mohammed inaugurated the world's richest race - the Dubai World Cup
- in 1996 and has seen it develop into a truly international spectacle.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, an honorary member of the British
Jockey Club since 1989, has owned two Vodafone Derby winners, Nashwan
(1989) and Erhaab (1994), as well as numerous other big-race winners around
the world, including At Talaq and Jeune, who won the Melbourne Cup in 1986
and 1994 respectively. In 2000 he gained his fourth success in the 1000
Guineas when Lahan followed the examples set by Salsabil, Shadayid and
Harayir while Nashwan provided him with a first 2000 Guineas victory in
1989, which was emulated by the Barry Hills-trained Haafhd in 2004. A
prolific and highly-successful breeder, Sheikh Hamdan owns Shadwell Stud in
Norfolk, Beech House Stud in Newmarket, as well as studs in Ireland and
Kentucky, which together house over 160 broodmares.
The youngest of the four Dubai-based Maktoum brothers is Sheikh Ahmed Al
Maktoum. He enjoyed his first British classic success with the home-bred
Ameerat in the 2002 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. His yellow and black
epaulets colours have been carried to victory by the likes of Mtoto in the
1988 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Eclipse Stakes
(1987 & 1988), Possessive Dancer in the 1991 Irish Oaks, Wassl in the 1983
Irish 2,000 Guineas, Morshdi in the 2002 Italian Derby, Tobougg in the 2001
Darley Dewhurst Stakes and the ill-fated but brilliant filly Bint Allayl.
His breeding interests are centred around Aston Upthorpe Stud in
Oxfordshire.
Since 1994, a significant number of the Maktoum Family's runners have run
under the Godolphin banner, with a phenomenal record of 124 Group One
winners worldwide including a string of household names.
ENGLAND RECEIVES DOMINION AWARD
John England, the long-serving stud groom at the late Sir Stephen Hastings'
Milton Park Stud, will tonight receive the Thoroughbred Breeders'
Association's Dominion Bronze at the TBA's Annual Awards Dinner in London.
The late Sir Stephen Hastings, a former MP and SAS soldier, and his wife
Elizabeth-Anne enjoyed great success breeding from Milton Park Stud with
their big-race winners including Italian Oaks heroine Zanzibar and
Ela-Aristokrati.
John England and his wife Margaret, who was stud secretary, played an
integral part in that success.
England had worked in the hunting world when Milton Park Stud was
established in 1984 in the grounds of Lady Hastings' family home, Milton
Park, also the base of the Fitzwilliam Hunt kennels.
Sir Stephen moved to near Wansford in 1997 when his wife died and John
England continued as stud groom, overseeing the Milton Park Stud dispersal
at last year's Tattersalls December Sales.
For further information, please contact Louise Kemble, the TBA's Chief
Executive, on 01638 661321
Strictly embargoed until 11pm Tuesday, January 10, 2006
OLDREY WARNS HORSEMENS' GROUP TO NOT SEEK GOVERNANCE ROLE
David Oldrey last night told the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association's
Annual Awards Dinner in London that the new Horsemens' Group - which the
TBA has agreed to join - should not try and seek a role in the governance
of racing.
Oldrey, who completes a five-year term as TBA President this year, felt
that lessons can now be learned on the subject as a result of the British
Horseracing Board's creation in 1993.
"The TBA is solidly behind the Racehorse Owners' Association's endeavour to
get the Horsemens' Group up and running to handle the vital commercial
interface with the racecourses and in conjunction with them do a deal with
betting," said Oldrey.
"However, such hopes will only be realised if the new commercial forum
accepts strict limits on its field of activities. Rumours that some of
those involved might be rather keen to snip bits and pieces off the role of
governance and deal with them too would seem to me good evidence that some
folk never learn the lessons of history. We surely have by now seen enough
to accept the logic of the severance of commercial and governance issues -
but severance must mean severance and not the covert reunion of the snipped
bits and pieces with commerce in another corner of the wood."
He added: "Pondering on what to say to you for the fifth and final time as
President, I thought back to the meetings of the Jockey Club Stewards in
1992 which set up the BHB. Perhaps it would be worth trying to work out
what went wrong.
"For some years things appeared to progress reasonably well. Even if the
ride was pretty bumpy at times we did seem to go two steps forward for
every one back. Not any more - nowadays the whole thing is more like a game
of snakes and ladders with the snakes much longer and more numerous than
the occasional rather stumpy ladder. Why? Is it bad luck or the natural
perversity of lawyers, or both? Perhaps to a degree, but in fact I think
the main problem has actually been the way we set things up in the first
place.
"Forever and a day the Jockey Club had been regulator, governor and, along
with the Levy Board, caller of the commercial shots. Issues like prize
money were no great bother even if there was never enough of it."
He continued: "In 1993 the Club passed both governance and commercial
matters to the fledgling BHB as a single parcel. I am sure that many of our
subsequent troubles can be traced back to the bundling together of such
different activities, to be handled by a new and fairly democratic body in
a rapidly changing environment.
"What was possible for an entirely undemocratic Club in former times was
always going to be a whole lot harder for the new authority. Intractable
problems were surely inevitable as it tried to contain the assorted spats
between its different elements - so it has proved, in spades. Such light as
is presently visible on the horizon seems to me to stem from the decision
to accept defeat over the original bundling and instead go for a less
utopian but more pragmatic separation of governance and commercial issues.
One must be hopeful that if the inevitable commercial quarrels can be
insulated from the governing of the show in the general interest, things
will improve."
Oldrey also paid tribute to Maktoum Al Maktoum, Dubai's Ruler who died last
week after more than two decades as one of the major forces in British
racing and breeding. Sheikh Maktoum's Gainsborough Stud is sponsor of the
TBA's Awards Dinner.
Oldrey said: "I must express the Association's sadness at the untimely
death of Sheikh Maktoum. Many elements in British racing, indeed in racing
worldwide, will join in mourning the premature loss of so good a friend to
the sport. Amongst his many kindnesses Gainsborough have sponsored this
dinner since 1993 and I know I speak for everyone here in offering our
collective sympathy to the Al Maktoum family."
For further information, please contact Louise Kemble, Chief Executive of
the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, on 01638 661321
Strictly embargoed until 11pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - NO CONTACT MUST
BE MADE WITH THE WINNERS BEFOREHAND AS THEY ARE NOT AWARE THEY HAVE WON