12 minute read
Gold standard
Sally Ann Grassick chats with Angus Gold, who has been racing manager for Sheikh Hamdam Al Maktoum’s Shadwell Stud for 33 years
Baattash
AFTER 33 YEARS AS RACING MANAGER to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Shadwell operation, Angus Gold is a well-known figure at racecourses and sales complexes around the globe. It is admirable longevity in a sometimes fickle business, and it was a significant role for the young 26-yearold Gold to be handed in the 1980s.
“The fact that I am still here 33 years later is a testament to how patient and loyal Sheikh Hamdan is to have put up with me for all those years!” laughs the typically modest Gold.
“I suppose I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I had no family in racing when I was growing up, but I always loved watching it on television and I loved riding horses. Ian Balding was the nearest trainer to us at home so I went to ride out for him when I was about 18.
Angus Gold
“He was very kind to me and that is where I learnt to ride a racehorse as I hadn’t a clue what I was doing! I went from there to Charlie Milbank in Chantilly where I had four fantastic months before returning to the UK where I completed the English National Stud course.
“My parents then felt it was time for me to get a proper job so I went and did four years in the insurance world in London,” he continues. “I realised that the City life was not for me and I was very lucky when a decent man named Michael Oswald, who ran the Queen’s stud at Sandringham, took me on as a student.
“During my time there I went to the BBA for the winter, to help out at the sales, and later they asked me to come back and work for them; which I did for four years.
“Sheikh Hamdan happened to be looking for a racing manager, a role which until then had been covered by the two stud managers in Ireland and England. The BBA was tasked with finding someone for the job, and luckily they came up with me.”
Now with those 30-odd years working for Shadwell and having had such a close relationship with Sheikh Hamdan, Gold has the chance to reflect a little on changing times.
“I could never have imagined back then that I would still be there today. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It was expanding so fast that I don’t think anyone knew, including Sheikh Hamdan, at that stage just how big it was going to get,” he reflects.
“I used to speak to Sheikh Hamdan every single day during the racing season but obviously Dubai has gotten much bigger and he has a very full time role now as the minister for finance.
“Nowadays I try not to bother him so much, but he is still incredibly hands on. He seems to be more enthusiastic now than he was in the beginning, which was proven by his presence at the yearling sales over the past few months and how many horses he bought.”
The latter part of the last century saw something of a golden period for Shadwell with superstar stallions such as Green Desert, Nashwan and Unfuwain all standing at Nunnery Stud. However, as has been the case for so many studs, replacing champion sires with new champions is no easy task.
“Every stud would love to be developing stallions; you just have to look at the success of Coolmore, Juddmonte or Darley; that is what everybody would like to do,” reflects Gold, adding: “I think we have all learned over the years that it isn’t just as easy as that! “Sheikh Hamdan’s greatest pleasure comes from his home breeding operation, but obviously that started with horses who were bought from the sales. The success of a homebred horse such as Muhaarar or Taghrooda gives him the most satisfaction, particularly as he loves to see them all as foals and yearlings the whole way along. It’s the culmination of a lot of work and planning.” Even though Sheikh Hamdan is now so busy in Dubai with his ministerial role, the boss still makes the most important decisions himself, and loves the thrill of the autumn sales season.
Sheikh Hamdan
“Every single mating goes through Sheikh Hamdan, just the same as no yearling gets allocated to a trainer without his say so,” explains the racing manager. “For example, he was the one who personally picked out the record-breaking Dark Angel filly from Ballyhimikin Stud in Book 2 and he has instructed me that he will allocate her to a trainer himself. I think he is still so passionate about the whole business because he is so involved in it.
Shadwell has been such an influence in the sale ring – each year approximately 15 yearlings are bought in October Book 1 with numbers increasing to 30-50 purchases in Book 2. Shadwell has been leading buyer through the second week of the Tattersalls October yearling sale every year since 2014. In recent years purchases at the GoffsUK Premier Sale have also hit double figures, with a substantial handful also bought at the Goffs Orby Sale, too. G OLD, of course, is the one who ultimately produces that short list for the Sheikh to view, and as Shadwell’s European purchasing results testify, there is a certain type of horse that Gold likes to buy.
“As for my own yearling selection process; you have to take every sale and horse on its own merits,” he explains. “If you have had luck with one particular vendor or family before then you have a tendency to go back there, but you have to like the horse as well. “I find it fascinating to see yearlings out of a mare that I may have previously seen ten progeny out of, and to go back and look at my notes to compare them. That is part of what Sheikh Hamdan loves about the sales, too. “He said to me once this year, while looking at a yearling, that it was much better than the yearling out of the mare the previous year!
“I was thinking how on earth does he remember that? He has an amazing memory for horses.” Gold’s longevity at Shadwell has given him a perspective on the stud and its horses, some generation-defining names of European horseracing.
“I have been lucky to work with some amazing horses during my time at Shadwell,” he recalls. “Sheikh Hamdan would say the best horse he has bred is Nashwan, he did something that no horse had ever done before.
“It was in the early days of Shadwell and he was out of Height Of Fashion, who quickly became Sheikh Hamdan’s favourite mare. She did so much for him in also producing Unfuwain and Nayef; we still have plenty of females from the family on the stud too.
“Other highlights for me would have to be Salsabil and Dayjur, as well as Taghrooda and Muhaarar in more recent times. Enbihaar has been a bit of a star for us this year and Battaash has kept the flag flying recently,” he says.
Of the Charlie Hills-trained rocket by Dark Angel, Gold reports: “He is on a break now and will have a similar race plan next year. He takes a bit of minding as his knees aren’t the best. He puts so much into his races both physically and mentally that personally I don’t think he is a horse that you can run every three weeks.
“He has grown up a lot and was much calmer this year. It was wonderful to have Sheikh Hamdan there to see such a fantastic performance from him at York. Hopefully, the same enthusiasm will be there when he returns to the track next year.”
Even with the numbers of horses in training that Shadwell has on a global scale finding those stand-out runners is difficult, and producing Classic horses tough. With the changing horizons for breeders and greater emphasis on the commercial breeding, it is difficult to find the middle-distance horses at the sales.
Height Of Fashion
“We have a huge number of horses in training worldwide and, although we had a lot of winners this year, in my opinion, we were very much down in the quality of three-yearolds,” says Gold.
“In the old days we always had seven or eight promising two-year-olds going into the winter of which two would not train on or get hurt, three of which would be just fair, three would be pretty good and two would be very good. That is generalising it a bit, but that’s what it used to feel like.
“We haven’t had the big selection of potentially nice three-year-old Classic horses for the last two or three years. There are obviously various reasons for that, but one thing, in particular, is that at the sales it is now very hard to go out and buy lots of potentially really nice middle-distance horses.
“So many people are breeding now for the commercial market; lots of Dark Angels, Exceed And Excels and Kodiacs to name just a few because they sell well, but you’re never going to be winning Derbys with those. “Sheikh Hamdan likes trainers to buy horses that they like at the GoffsUK Premier Sale or October Book 2 and, of course, a trainer is going to go out and find something that he thinks looks sharp.
“We have to be careful to try and keep a healthy balance of our own mares to go to stallions such as Sea The Stars, Frankel, Dubawi and Lope De Vega, stallions who are potentially going to get you high-class mile upwards horses.”
Dayjur
Taghrooda
Juggling that need for precocity, the requirement for prize-money earnings, as well as trying to produce Classic-type horses from a large broodmare band is a continual quest.
“It is a very fine balance because obviously those Classic races are the ones we want to be winning,” explains Gold. “We are constantly trying to find those horses, to keep the quality of our broodmares up, to mate them properly to find the right balance genetically and then hoping they can run.
“The fact that Taghrooda was already five years ago just shows that we don’t have horses like her every year sadly.”
SHADWELL’s policy has been to retire the best of the home-bred colts to the stallion roster, but if the quality of those horses is below-par, is Gold tempted to look elsewhere for new recruits? “Over the years we have discussed buying a top colt to be a stallion and, very occasionally, Sheikh Hamdan will look at a horse with a view to buying it, but on the whole he breeds a lot and buys so many yearlings that normally he is content to let them show what they are capable of,” explains Gold. “Funnily enough I do remember trying to get him to buy Hurricane Run in his three-year-old year, but, for various reasons, he didn’t at the time.
“Muhaarar was our big hope going into this year, but the perception going around the sales the past couple of months has been that he has been a bit disappointing.
“For me, his progeny looked immature as yearlings and they are proving not to be precocious on the track, but I have liked the quality of his winners and they’ve won decent races. I think next year will be his year. Although he was a champion sprinter, he often hit a flat spot in his races and looked like he would stay further, so I’m not convinced that he will be breeding sprinters on the whole.”
Shadwell currently has a very young stallion band – at Nunnery Stud, Muhaarar stands alongside fellow Group 1 winner Mukhadram, who had his first threeyear-olds this year, Tasleet, who has first foals to come in 2020, and new recruit Eqtidaar. Derrinstown Stud in Ireland also stands young sires in Markaz and the Irish Guineas winner Awtaad, both who had first yearlings in 2019, as well as Haatef and stalwart Tamayuz.
“I think Tamayuz is one of the most under-rated stallions at stud in Europe,” says Gold of the sire of four Group 1 winners. “He comes up with a decent horse nearly every year at a sensible fee.
“We haven’t hit the board yet with a real good stallion, but that’s what we have to strive to come up with.”
So what does the future hold for Shadwell and Gold?
“I don’t see any major shift in policy in any one direction for Shadwell in the near future. Sheikh Hamdan has put so much into the business that we all strive to get him as much success as possible. He measures his enjoyment in the success of Shadwell. I would sincerely love for us to come up with a good stallion for Sheikh Hamdan.
“You only have to look at what Prince Khalid and the Juddmonte team have done in producing so many good horses by their own stallions, it would be fantastic to be able to do that.
“We will also strive to update our broodmare band and the quality of our horses as a whole, that is where the strength of the operation will lie in years to come.”
