Summary
IT IS THE biggest contest in the history of horse racing, a struggle which makes an Old Firm battle look like a playground squabble. At stake is the domination of the entire multi-billion dollar bloodstock market across the world.
The headlines which blared that Sheikh Mohammed, the crown prince of oil-rich Dubai and one of the world's wealthiest men, had decided to boycott the yearlings produced by the world's most powerful breeding operation, Coolmore, all concentrated on the possible effect of removing one or other from the market for yearlings which drives the bloodstock economy. Prices would inevitably fall, the pundits concluded, but at Goffs' sale in Ireland last week, prices actually went up, and the top lot was a colt by top American sire Kingambo, owned by neither the Sheikh nor Coolmore.See the full content of this document
Extract
Racing Is Hit by a Turf War
The Sheikh did indeed boycott Coolmore's produce, just as he had done at the even more prestigious Keeneland sales in the USA, but it was he who paid E1.8m for the Kingmambo colt. So much for depressing the market. But could that buy be the clue to his actions?
Could the headlines conceal an even more extraordinary story - an Arab sheikh setting out to rival the world breeding champion, an Irish multi-millionaire called John Mag...See the full content of this document
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