Cover image courtesy of Keeneland
Courtesy of TDN Europe
Angus Gold
Racing Manager, Shadwell Stud
(Interviewed on Sky Sports Racing)
“It's a very sad day. From my point of view he was an amazing man, and we spoke for the first 25 years nearly every day – whether about horses or just about what was going on in the world.
"To have the sort of success he had you've got to have the passion – and he had that in abundance. He absolutely loved the business, particularly the breeding, as everyone knows. A homebred Classic winner was the highlight for him. That's why Nashwan was so special and close to his heart, as he always said.
"He was absolutely passionate about the business. He loved going to look at the foals and the yearlings and to see them on the racecourse. I'm sure that's what kept him going for so long. He was so passionate about it.
"He was absolutely passionate about the business. He loved going to look at the foals and the yearlings and to see them on the racecourse." - Angus Gold
"It was wonderful to talk to a man who was so immersed in the whole thing, the fact he was very busy in his own right in Dubai and obviously a rich and powerful man, yet what he loved was talking about his horses. He would often ring me about the smallest thing that you wouldn't think he had time to notice – but he watched every runner and had very strong opinions.
"It's too early to talk about what the future will bring. We will wait and see what Sheikh Hamdan's family want to do, but I think just from the breeding point of view some of the families he has helped develop over the last 40 years will be around for a long time to come."
Angus Gold and HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum | Image courtesy of Tattersalls
William Haggas
Trainer
"He was very loyal, very sporting and very generous. He was also kind, wise and humble, and he was always very approachable, which not many people knew. He had an aura about him, and when you met him in Dubai he was surrounded by lots of people but often in England he would come to see the horses with very few people. It was great to have him when he came because he knew everything about the horses and he loved them.
"The tragedy was that last year, through COVID, he didn't get to Royal Ascot. He'd been going to Ascot every year and he didn't have much success latterly. Then last year he had six winners and it was tragic for him that he couldn't be there.
"He was great to train for and he had great respect for his trainers. Whatever the jockey said, his line was always, 'What does the trainer think?', and that's quite rare. He was an extraordinary man and I don't think we will see his like again.”
The late HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum | Image courtesy of Shadwell Stud
Willie Carson
Retired jockey
(Interviewed on The Nick Luck podcast)
“One year I had 13 Group 1 winners and they were nearly all his. He was a quiet man, very loyal; he gave his views of course. He loved the good horses and would often ring up when you had ridden work on one of the stars to ask how it had gone. That's where he got his enjoyment. He was a very passionate owner. The whole of horseracing should be wearing a black armband. I can't believe he's gone. I always liked having my little hug with him at the sales, a sort of yearly reunion as it were.
"He loved the good horses and would often ring up when you had ridden work on one of the stars to ask how it had gone. That's where he got his enjoyment." - Willie Carson
"Nashwan was obviously a fantastic horse. The record books don't give him credit because you had to see this horse, to see his majestic movement going to the post. I was the lucky person who had to sit on him and I used to feel like I was floating on air with that long stride of his. He did what no other horse did.”
Charlie Hills
Trainer of Muhaarar and Battaash
“(His support) was instrumental when I took over, otherwise the operation wouldn't have happened, so it was great having Muhaarar early on. Winning those four consecutive Group 1s as a 3-year-old was a big part of my life and I was so pleased to have a champion for Sheikh Hamdan. To train for someone like him has just been an enormous privilege."
Battaash (Ire) | Image courtesy of Shadwell Stud
Marcus Tregoning
Trainer of Mohaather
"Our association started in the early 1980s when Sheikh Hamdan bought Height Of Fashion from The Queen. That was the start of the horses coming to West Ilsley, which was where Dick Hern was training.
"The early ones were Unfuwain and Nashwan – both out of Height Of Fashion. It was a tremendous excitement getting those, and it snowballed from there.
"He was always good fun, and loved it – he had great passion for racing.
"A couple of years ago he was here with me at Whitsbury, having the usual banter and usual fun. What a lot of people didn't see, which I was very lucky to see, was his sense of humour.
"He had a great love, a passion for racing, and he loved talking about the horses and looking at them and talking about their pedigree, their temperaments, and what they might do. I have to say he was very easy to train for, because generally speaking he'd leave most of it to me. But obviously he had tremendous input too, and it was just always good fun."
Mohaather (GB) | Image courtesy of Shadwell Stud
John Gosden
Trainer
"I have been fortunate to train for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum since the 1980s when I was in California. He has always been an absolute gentleman with a true passion for his horses and a profound and intimate knowledge of them.
"He enjoyed being close to his horses whether on the stud farm, the racecourse or the stables. Sheikh Hamdan was a most respected, loyal, kind and humorous man of great depth and judgement.
"A huge contributor to the development of his country and a truly great international owner, breeder and philanthropist in the worldwide racing industry, he will be greatly missed."
The late HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum | Image courtesy of Keeneland
