R E Q U I R E D R E A D I N G F O R T H E D I S C E R N I N G G A M B L E R • F I T Z D A R E S. C O M • F O U R T H E D I T I O N, S U M M E R 2 0 1 6
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BY DR PETER COLLETT
BY MICK EASTERBY
Oil, sheikhs, and the risks for British horseracing By Christopher M. Davidson
B
ACK IN 1969 few would have guessed that the two dusty racetracks that had just opened in Al-Qusais and Za’abeel on the outskirts of Dubai would give birth to a vast oil-financed and multi-billion-dollar industry. Soon it would not only stretch through all six of the oil-rich Gulf states, but would also become increasingly intertwined with many of the most lucrative and prestigious horseracing events in the world. With the British Empire’s preeminence in the region dating back to the early 19th century, and with London maintaining close political, military, and economic relations with the Gulf monarchies long after its official withdrawal in 1971, it was in many ways inevitable that Britain would become the prime destination for such Arab horseracing investment. Spurred by early victories such as the 1982 St Leger with Touching Wood, Dubai’s Al-Maktoum ruling family led the charge, soon joined by sheikhs and princes from Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and eventually gas-exporting Qatar. Translating victories on the track into major horseracing industry businesses, from the
Shadwell Farm and the Harwood Stud to the Darley Group and then Godolphin in the mid-1990s, the UAE’s rulers and their Gulf counterparts were soon much more than the mere owners of some of the best British horses money could buy. With their interests rapidly expanding into almost all aspects of the sport, especially in flat racing, this elite group of
Horseracing is estimated to be worth close to £3.5 billion and sustains an estimated 17,500 full-time British jobs investors and sponsors have come to dominate British horseracing. Welcoming such generous foreign investment is essential to the sport here, as it is to almost all other industries and sectors of the liberalising and open-for-business British economy. But, as in any other sector or sport, the emergence of such powerful and extensive monopolies would usually be a cause for concern, and the now intrinsic ties
between Gulf investment and British horseracing should be no exception. Most obviously, with such well-financed heavy-hitters as the Al-Maktoums, the AlNahyans, and the Al-Thanis on the scene, most meaningful competition seems to be getting crowded out, with some of Britain’s leading trainers reporting that half or more of their horses are now Arab-owned, and with the Racing Post’s Julian Muscat recently observing that “the influx of Middle Eastern potentates continues at such a pace that British owners are increasingly frozen out”. Much more seriously, however, if the source of wealth underpinning these substantial foreign investments is in jeopardy, as now seems to be the case for many of the Gulf monarchies in the wake of the 2014 oil price crash, the implications for British horseracing, and indeed the broader British economy, may be very serious. Indeed, the sport is now estimated to be worth close to £3.5 billion and sustains an estimated 17,500 full-time British jobs while indirectly supporting the jobs of over 67,500 others in leisure, hospitality, and catering. For years the prospect of a decline in Gulf investment has been deemed unlikely,
mostly because previous dips in oil prices have been fairly short-lived. Moreover, such investments have been assumed to be somehow ‘ringfenced’ from any austerity measures because the influence enjoyed by the Gulf’s rulers in British horseracing is understood to transcend any economic considerations, as it is seen as being directly tied into the regime survival strategies of these autocratic families. The huge stakes that the Gulf elites have developed in Britain’s and other horseracing industries certainly go far beyond mere commercial interests for these families or even their governments’ stated policies of trying to diversify oil-based economies into new sectors such as leisure and tourism. Ties to horseracing along with other sporting or cultural events have historically provided these monarchies with considerable ‘soft power’ back at home. Through the ‘sport of kings’ the sheikhs and princes can hob-nob with the British aristocracy and beam back images of themselves in top hats and tails to their own populations as they share carriages with British royals and shake the hand of Queen Elizabeth. Indeed, the photographs →