Prince Khalid Abdullah

from ITB_February-March 2021

Originally published in International Thoroughbred, September 2012

1936 – January 12, 2021

PRINCE KHALID ABDULLAH was a member of the House of Saud, the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. The son of Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman, younger half-brother of the state’s founder King Abdulaziz, he was born in Ta’if in 1936.

He was a cousin of the present ruler King Salman. Prince Khalid’s first wife Al Jawhara Bin Abdulaziz is the founder’s daughter; the late Fahd Salman, who owned the 1991 Derby winner Generous, was his son-in-law.

Before embarking on a hugely successful business career, Prince Khalid studied history in Riyadh and the US and was also employed in the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

His main business vehicle was Marawid Holding, a private investment company with extensive dealings in a vast range of commercial activities, including financial services, telecommunications, satellite TV and radio networks, construction, catering and restaurants.

In the 1970s and 1980s Marawid was said to be the largest private employer in the Middle East.

A study of the commercial activities of members of the House of Saud published in 2001 listed 65 separate entities in which Prince Khalid held an interest.

He was the owner of Orbit Communications Company and until February 8, 2009 he served as chairman of the Saudi Chemical Company’s board of directors and as chairman of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company.

The early ownership years

By the early 2000s responsibility for running his business had passed, in part, to Prince Khalid’s four sons.

Prince Khalid’s first introduction to racing came on a trip to Longchamp with friends in 1956, but his venture into racehorse ownership did not begin until 1977 when his business interests brought him to London.

The first batch of four yearlings bought by Humphrey Cottrill on his behalf in 1977 were sent to his first trainer Jeremy Tree.

The following year Abdullah went to a then-record 264,000gns to purchase the highest-priced yearling at Tattersalls Houghton Sale.

In 1979, Prince Khalid’s name made it to the winners’ board for the first time, courtesy of the Jeremy Tree-trained Charming Native, who won at Windsor on May 14.

The winners started to flow – a month later Abeer became the Prince’s first Royal Ascot winner (also his first Group winner) in the Queen Mary Stakes.

Later that year, Known Fact, a son of In Reality bought at Keeneland in 1978, became the Prince’s first Group 1 winner when successful in the 1979 Middle Park.

The following season Known Fact won the 2,000 Guineas after the disqualification of Nureyev. The colt was the first Classic winner in Arab ownership and went on to become the first stallion at stud for the Prince, standing at Wargrave. Known Fact is described on the Juddmonte website as a “founding horse”.

Breeding racehorses and bloodstock became an all-encompassing passion for Prince Khalid.

In a rare interview in 2010 he told the Racing Post: “When I was at the sales I realised that it would be easier to buy horses and race them, but I got the feeling that this was not enough, that it would be more fun to do what people like the Aga Khan and Lord Howard de Walden did and build up your own families.”

In order to achieve these aims in 1982 Prince Khalid purchased Cayton Park Stud and Pudders Farm at Wargrave in Berkshire, renaming it Juddmonte Farms.

The British arm of the Juddmonte operations eventually came to include Estcourt Estate in Gloucestershire, as well as Juddmonte Dullingham, Side Hill Stud and Banstead Manor Stud in Cheveley, near Newmarket in Suffolk, which was purchased in 1987.

Rainbow Quest moved from Wargrave to Newmarket and the farm has become the organisation’s headquarters. In recent years it has housed the leading stallions Frankel, Kingman, Oasis Dream and Dansili.

Juddmonte also owns Ferrans Stud and New Abbey Stud in Ireland, as well as Juddmonte Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

The 1980s: developing years

IN 1979, the Prince purchased his first broodmare with the private acquisition of Metair from trainer Bill Wightman. She went on to produce Fine Edge (Sharpen Up), who became the first homebred winner for the farm. She is no longer represented at Juddmonte, but was the great grand-dam of the five-time Group 1-winning sprinter Sole Power.

That same month, a three-year-old filly named Slightly Dangerous was purchased following her win in the Fred Darling Stakes (G3).

She went onto become one of Juddmonte’s first important foundation mares. In 1985, she produced Warning (Known Fact) and he became a champion two-year-old, the Prince’s first homebred Group 1 winner (Sussex Stakes), a European champion miler of 1988 and, as a stallion, the leading first-season sire of 1993. He sired four Group 1 winners in total.

Slightly Dangerous went on to add two more Group 1 winners to her record – Commander In Chief (Dancing Brave), who was the second Derby winner for Prince Khalid, and Yashmak, as well as the Group 2 winner Dushyantor and Classic-placed Deploy. He is the broodmare sire of Dubawi.

From the early 1980s the Prince built up a collection of carefully selected mares, in the early days buying from Robert Sangster. By 2011 these represented, according to Lord Grimthorpe in an interview given to the Financial Times, “one of the greatest broodmare bands in the history of breeding”.

Since then, and in a relatively short space of time, Prince Khalid and his Juddmonte empire achieved so much.

The years 1982 and 1983 became pivotal for the ongoing fortunes of Juddmonte directly leading to the farm achieving many of its greatest successes.

That year Razyana (His Majesty) was purchased as a yearling. She did not win, but went on to become dam of the record-breaking Danehill, who was her first foal.

Also in 1982, Prince Khalid acquired Ferrans Stud in County Meath, Ireland, and Belair Stud in Lexington, Kentucky, as a package from German industrialist Dr Herbert Schnapka.

A number of broodmares and a stallion portfolio were part of the deal, including Fleet Girl, the fourth dam of Enable. The following year breeding stock was purchased from the estate of Jock Whitney, a package that included Rockfest (Stage Door Johnny), who was to become the great-grandam of world champion Frankel.

In the spring of 1990, Juddmonte enjoyed its first homebred Classic winner when Houseproud won the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.

All five British Classic races have been won with homebred horses: Quest For Fame, sired by Rainbow Quest, won Juddmonte’s first Epsom Derby in 1990, followed by Commander In Chief (a son of Dancing Brave) in 1993, and the fourth generation Juddmonte-bred Workforce, who broke the course record at Epsom with the victory in 2010.

Toulon won the St Leger of 1991 and Zafonic carried off the 2,000 Guineas brilliantly two years later, as did Frankel in 2011.

Reams Of Verse won The Oaks in 1997 and Enable in 2017. The Selkirk filly Wince won the 1,000 Guineas in 1999, which gave the full-house of domestic Classic winners. The 1,000 Guineas also won by Special Duty in 2010.

Juddmonte also bred Brian Boru, the Coolmore-owned St Leger winner of 2003.

Homebreds have also won all five French Classics under the famous Abdullah silks – Sanglamore won the Prix du Jockey Club in 1990 and New Bay in 2015, whilst Houseproud, Zenda and Special Duty took the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in 1990, 2002 and 2010.

Jolypha and Nebraska Tornado won the Prix de Diane in 1992 and 2003, American Post took the Poule d’Essai des Poulains in 2004.

Raintrap and Sunshack were the winners of the Prix Royal-Oak in 1993 and 1995.

Some of Juddmonte’s greatest moments on the racecourse have come in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s premier all-aged middle-distance race.

Rainbow Quest won in 1985 after the disqualification of Sagace and the following year the generation leader Dancing Brave (Lyphard) won in scintillating fashion after his 2,000 Guineas, Eclipse Stakes and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (1986) successes.

There was victory for Rail Link in the 2006 renewal, a success repeated by Workforce in 2010 – he is only the sixth horse in history to win both the Derby and the Arc in the same year.

The wonderful race mare Enable won in 2017 and 2018.

With six wins in the prestigious race, Prince Khalid is the most successful owner in the Arc’s history.

Rainbow Quest retired to Wargrave in 1986, moving to Banstead Manor in 1988. He sired nine Classic winners, 20 Group 1 winners, and was a prolific broodmare sire.

After that three-year-old season of 1986, Dancing Brave was rated 140 by the International Classifications, the highest rating then given to any horse. The ratings were recalibrated in 2013 and his figure was adjusted to 138 behind none other than Prince Khalid’s unbeaten star performer Frankel, who was rated 140.

Dancing Brave did not match Rainbow Quest’s achievement in the breeding shed, but did produce Commander In Chief and Weymss Bight (Irish Oaks) for the Prince. He is also broodmare sire of Oasis Dream.

**Danehill: a Juddmonte homebred who became a generation-defining stallion. He won the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup for Prince Khalid and was sold for stud duties to Coolmore**

Irish success

In Ireland, the list of Juddmonte-bred successes includes Irish Oaks winners Wemyss Bight and Bolas in 1993 and 1994 and Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Kingman in 2014 and Siskin last year

In the 30 years from 1990, Juddmonte homebreds have won 26 European Classic races, as well as two Classics in the US.

Since 2010, Prince Khalid’s homebreds have been most noted for success with the 14-race unbeaten third-generation Juddmonte homebred Frankel, named after the late US trainer Bobby Frankel, and the dual Arc winner Enable.

Frankel is regarded by many as one of the greatest racehorses of all time. He is out of the leading Juddmonte mare Kind, a daughter of the Juddmonte-bred and race Danehill.

After Frankel’s win in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in October 2011, Frankel was given a rating of 143 by Timeform, the highest mark awarded by the organisation in over 40 years and their fourth-highest of all time behind Sea Bird, Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel.

The World's Best Racehorse Rankings Committee ranked Frankel as the best racehorse they have assessed since their ratings were introduced in 1977, by a margin of two points.

Frankel was the first horse in 60 years to take championship honours as a two, three and four-year-old.

He retired to stud for the 2013 season and is now the sire of 44 Group winners and 12 Group 1 winners.

Enable ran 19 times, winning 14 races including 11 at Group 1 level. As a threeyear-old she put together a golden run that included wins in the Cheshire Oaks, the Epsom Oaks, the Irish Oaks, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. She was named 2017’s Cartier Horse of the Year.

After a delayed start to her four-year-old season, she won the Arc again, added the Breeders’ Cup Turf to her laurels and was awarded honours as the Cartier Champion Older Horse of 2018.

In 2019, she was again named Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse at the Cartier Awards, her fourth and fifth Cartier awards, tying the record set by Frankel.

Her race wins in 2019 included her second wins in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks.

In the 2019 World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, Enable was given a rating of 128, placing her in a three-way tie for first place alongside Crystal Ocean and Waldgeist.

As a six-year-old she won an unprecedented third King George King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Enable is the farm’s highest-earning homebred, and Juddmonte’s most successful race mare. She is the first European mare to win more than £10 million on the track.

Prince Khalid was champion owner in Britain three times and champion owner in both Britain and France in 2003.

In 1983 Prince Khalid was made an honorary member of The Jockey Club.

American success

In the US, Flute, trained by Frankel to win the Kentucky Oaks in 2001, became the first American Classic winner for Juddmonte and her Classic win was backed up two years later by Empire Maker, who took the Belmont Stakes (G1).

That same year the filly Sightseek (Distant View) began a run of seven Grade 1 victories, Frankel announcing her as the best horse he had ever trained.

Juddmonte’s US Eclipse Award champion mares include Ryafan in 1997, Banks Hill in 2001 and Intercontinental in 2005. The last two of these both won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, which was also won in 2009 by Midday, a three-time winner of the Nassau Stakes (G1) at Goodwood.

In 2018, the homebreds Enable and Expert Eye won the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Overall, Prince Khalid enjoyed six Breeders’ Cup successes.

In 2002, Toussaud (El Gran Senor) was crowned 2002 US Broodmare of the Year. She is one of only four North Americanbased mares to produce four Grade 1 winners – Chester House, Honest Lady (the dam of First Defence), Chiselling and Empire Maker.

Following Frankel’s death, Cigar’s trainer Bill Mott became Abdullah’s US trainer and subsequently Bob Baffert. He trained the $560,000 Keeneland purchase Arrogate to become the all-time leading prize-money earner of $17, 422,600 with his stunning Dubai World Cup win following his lucrative Pegasus Cup triumph in 2017.

In North America, Prince Khalid was the recipient of an Eclipse Award as top owner in 1992, 2003, 2016 and 2017, and received five awards as the top breeder: in 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2009.

Last November, Viadera (Bated Breath) became Prince Khalid’s last Grade 1 winner when taking the Matriarch Stakes. She was her owner’s 100th Grade 1 winner in the US and is from the family of Passage Of Time, Timepiece and Father Time.

She was successful by a nose from the Peter Brant-owned Blowout, a daughter of Juddmonte’s sire Dansili, while in third place was Juliet Foxtrot. She is a Juddmonte homebred, is also by Dansili, and is appropriately from the family of one of Juddmonte’s best, Dancing Brave.