Headline Feb10, 2013/

           '''THE SPORT OF KINGS!'''

Very very little on the racing's canvas has remained untouched since the then 28 years old Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirate, watched Hatta, the first Horse he owned, win a humble race in Brighton in 1977
Four years later, the man synonymous with Dubai bought his first stud farm, the 3,000 acre Dalham Hall property in Newmarket.
Just later he went on to own 7,000 acres of paddocks, and 5,000 acres of farmlands at the headquarters of British Racing. This is just in Britain.

His 4,000 acres of pasture in Ireland make him the largest farmer in that country. He owns equally significant parcels of land in Japan, America and Australia. And that is just the land. He has spent far more on horses; billions of pounds in pursuit of fleet-footed thoroughbreds, all of which descend from three Arabian Stallions. Some years ago, he bought ten superior stallion prospects at a cost of more than £150 million.

The benefits for Newmarket, where Sheikh Mohammed's global bloodstock interests are centred, have simply been immense. So much so that Sheikh Mohammed transferred the balance of racing power from
America to Britain.
Every year for 30 years, he bought the cream of the young horses in America to race them in Britain. New thinking and new opportunities led Sheikh Mohammed to establish Godolphin, which has its headquarters in Dubai where its horses spend winter.

This opened a window on the collective Gulf mind as it evolved from the Sheikh's desire to have horses trained in Dubai. The sterling success of this desert venture prompted him to establish the annual Dubai Racing Carnival, culminating in the Dubai Gold Cup. Godolphin's horses started to get trained by Saeed bin Suroor, a native Dubaian.

The recent recession undermined many dreams and projects. Expectedly, Dubai's long term patronage for Horse Racing became unclear.
The world hopes that it will continue by the future kings or the standard of racing would really decline, and worse still, the sport would lose the sponsor of myriad races, equine charities, building projects, courses for students and homes for failed racehorses, and whose funding of Channel 4 racing keeps the sheer thrill, joy and sport on mainstream television!

With loving and respectful dedication to ''All the students of UAE!'' Please share forward this very important post!!

Good Night & God Bless

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