A significant number of the individuals whose colours have defined Flat racing for the last 40 years are now in their 70s
There have been few racehorse owners in recent decades who showed as much loyalty to their trainers as the late Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, who died in March 2021.
From his earliest days in the sport in the 1980s, being chosen to train for the Sheikh’s Shadwell Stud operation was pretty much a guarantee that more – often many more – impeccably bred horses would follow. While Sheikh Mohammed, his younger brother, famously sent a fleet of horse boxes to remove his entire string from Henry Cecil’s stable one morning, Sheikh Hamdan was characterised by his decision to buy a yard in Lambourn for Dick Hern in the mid-80s, after he was forced to quit the Queen’s stables at West Ilsley.