It was announced on Thursday that the son-in-law of Godolphin’s Sheikh Mohammed is paying a performance regiment of the British Household Calvary nearly $380,000 to play a festival in Abu Dhabi. It will be the first time the troupe has performed outside of the United Kingdom in its near-400 year history.
At first blush this might seem like an odd combination, but it’s been said by diplomats on both sides that this will go a long way to easing tension between the UAE and Britain.
Horses bring people together in ways seldom seen with anything else.
Thoroughbred racing started as a game for British farmers in the 1600’s and soon become the favorite pastime for wealthy landowners.
Now every horse in a starting gate today can trace their lineage back to one of three foundation stallions: the Byerly Turk from England, the Darley Arabian from Syria, and the Godolphin Barb from Morocco.
It is interesting to note that the UAE’s Godolphin had what was widely viewed as their best shot at a Triple Crown race victory this year, with U.S. two-year-old in training sale purchases Regal Ransom and Desert Party. In private purchases, they paid $12million for Vineyard Haven (who didn’t make the return trip to the U.S.) and, post-Derby, they paid a still undisclosed sum for West Side Bernie.
There is no Godolphin runner in this year’s Preakness.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t diversity in the field …
#1 Big Drama has a trainer from the Chicago suburbs, an owner who made his fortune in Pennsylvania, and a jockey from Puerto Rico
#2 Mine That Bird was purchased originally by Canadians who then sold him to connections hailing from the southwestern ranching and rodeo circuit
#3 Musket Man has a Venezuelan jockey, and Irish trainer, and two owners: one a New Yorker, the other a former Oregon high school athletic director
#4 Luv Guv’s owner is racing royalty from New York, with a Hall of Fame trainer from Wisconsin, and a Cajun jockey who made a name for himself in the midwest
#5 Friesan Fire has a young Panamanian jockey riding for a former Kentucky farmer, and a team of owners comprised of a Delaware car dealer and a retired international corporate attorney now living in Spain
#6 Terrain’s trainer hails from a family with Louisiana Hall of Fame ties, using a Maryland-based jockey, and with an owner who got into the game through a friendship with Claiborne Farm of Kentucky
#7 Papa Clem has a team of old school California racing progeny coupled with a talented Peruvian upstart now calling the Golden State home
#8 General Quarters has got to be the feel-good story of the year: the lone horse in his Kentucky-raised owner/trainer’s stable, he gets a young French jockey in the irons
#9 Pioneerof the Nile’s owner/breeder is a wealthy Egyptian schooled in the United States who made his fortune by turning Middle Eastern companies around, who couples with an awesome Arizona-born jockey/trainer team
#10 Flying Private is the longest shot on the board, but has interesting connections with a Wisconsin trainer, a Peruvian jockey, and a duo of real estate moguls for owners
#11 Take the Points’ owner is a former hedge fund manager from Atlanta using a trainer from Dallas and a Peruvian jockey
#12 Tone It Down is the local Maryland horse: a father trains for his daughter and her husband and gets a Cajun who made his name in the state
#13 Rachel Alexandra is the most talked about horse in the field and deservedly so; among many reasons is that she races for new connections for the first time: purchased from an Alabama steel magnate by a Northern California wine mogul, with a Texan trainer from a long line of great horsemen, and a Cajun jockey in the zone in major stakes recently
