RACING manager is a misleading description of what Angus Gold has been doing on behalf of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum for almost 33 years.
Sure, there is the racing, the visiting of horses, consultation with trainers and jockeys, making of plans and representation on the track, and with a presence in Ireland, Britain, France, America, Australia and South Africa, that is a considerable commitment as it is.
But according to those who know these things, Gold’s gift is as a talent-spotter, particularly among yearlings, puts him on another level. And his preparation for the sales remains as assiduous now as when he first left the British Bloodstock Agency to link up with Sheikh Hamdan in January 1987. This is a particularly busy time, with the sales in full swing and racing taking on a particularly international hue.
“I don’t want to make it sound too complicated,” Gold says with a chuckle. “Sadly it is not curing cancer. But there is lots of stuff. My main role is keeping Sheikh Hamdan informed. Talking to the trainers. Going to see the horses. Going racing a bit still, which Richard Hills helps me with.
“It is a global operation. We have plenty going on in South Africa, Australia and America and all around Europe. It takes a bit of keeping up with
.
“This time of the year you get some of the nicest two-year-olds coming out. Yesterday that lovely Frankel filly of Prince Khaled’s impressed me (Quadrilateral).”
One senses that the real passion lies in the challenge of unearthing the next potential Nashwan, Salsabil or Taghrooda, so traversing the stud farms to look at yearlings ahead of the sales is not a chore.
“I like to see the horses on the studs when they are relaxed and the staff are relaxed. You are chasing your tail a bit at the sales. If you are in a bit of hurry and you don’t get there until three in the afternoon, and they have been out 30 times already and they are getting fed up... You could easily miss a nice horse.
“I am a bit old fashioned. I like to see as many horses as I can rather than picking them on pedigree. You never know where good horses are going to come from. Lots of people don’t agree with that but I think you have to look at as many as you can.
The individual
“My background is as a bloodstock agent so I would always have the individual over the pedigree page. Of course you will find a well-bred ordinary looking horse can run. “Occasionally you will get a horse with very little pedigree that can run. On a perfect world you want pedigree, everyone wants pedigree. But I think the individual is as important if not more. There is no point having a beautifully bred horse with legs facing the wrong way.
“The one that surprised me last year was Night Of Thunder. He wasn’t a beautiful horse himself and I was amazed when I saw his yearlings. They are running very well so far. That is another reason for going around the studs.”
Given the amount of legwork he does then, which ensures that there are no preconceived notions, is worth noting the stallions whose first crop of yearlings have created an impression.
“I liked the Shalaas as foals (last year). I have seen a couple that I like as yearlings. I like the Adaays; we bought a couple at Doncaster and he’s a horse we raced ourselves (after being bought by Gold as a yearling). I very much liked the Awtaads that I have seen at Derrinstown, both our homebreds and the ones I see at the sales. I would give him a proper chance from what I am seeing of the individuals.
“I have seen a couple by Territories I liked earlier on. A couple of interesting Bobby’s Kittens and a couple of Harzands that I liked.”
Green light
Though Shadwell’s broodmare band has increased significantly in the last decade or so, Gold still has the green light to be active at the sales.
Sheikh Hamdan likes to attend when he can and is a regular at the Goffs Orby Sale, using next week’s annual auction to attend to meet up with trainers Kevin Prendergast and Dermot Weld, visit Derrinstown Stud and make sure the finger is on the pulse of all his Irish interests.
The 73-year-old’s attachment to the horses is legendary, and earlier this year, former Derrinstown manager Jimmy Lenehan spoke of his long-time boss’ desire to give yearlings every chance possible before they were sold.
“That is why all the family have lasted as long as they have. I can only speak about Sheikh Hamdan but he loves it from the ground up. He seems them as foals. He sees them as yearlings in the spring and autumn. He goes around a couple of times a year when they are in training. He is extremely passionate about it. It is fantastic that he gets the opportunity to see them as much as he does and is as interested as he is in it.
“I have always said that is the greatest thing about the Maktoums and their family. They were all brought up with horses. They understand when things go wrong. If a horse is no good they understand. They understand the nature of the business. They have been at it a long time. They take the rough with the smooth.”
Gold is not the only long-serving member of the Shadwell operation and Sheikh Hamdan’s loyalty is well known. On Irish soil, the friendship with Prendergast has lasted throughout the Dubai deputy ruler’s involvement in the thoroughbred industry.
Angus Gold and Sheikh Hamdan - "the greatest thing about the Maktoums and their family, they were all brought up with horses"
“He enjoys the relationships he forms. He loved Dick Hern, John Dunlop, Barry Hills, Tom Jones. Just this week he told me he remembered Dick Hern saying to him, that when he first moved from (Queen Elizabeth’s) West Ilsley to (Sheikh Hamdan’s) Kingwood, it took him three years to get to know the gallops. One of these things that goes into Sheikh Hamdan’s mind and he never forgot it.
“He quotes these things all the time. Something that John Dunlop said to him or Barry Hills or Tom Jones. He will remember horses, funny little things about one particular horse did that I have long forgotten. It is fascinating and a lot of fun.
“That is an incredibly attractive quality but it has served him very well in terms of continuity. He is not chopping and changing. Trainers, jockeys, even us who work for him. As a result we get to know the families and the quirks of the equine families.”
He has been a pioneer too, as evidenced by the success of At Talaq in the Melbourne Cup in 1986, a victory followed up by Jeune eight years later.
“It was the year before I started working for him. Tom Jones was a big friend of Colin Hayes and just said to Sheikh Hamdan that this sort of horse could win you a Melbourne Cup. It was a case of, ‘What is the Melbourne Cup?’ He explained it to him and they sent one horse over there and he won. The odds of that are 1,000,000/1 against. We are still there today all thanks to that one horse.”
Gold himself is responsible for the base in South Africa, which was established with a view to spreading the distribution of horses to the Dubai Carnival, with the European string having been diluted too much previously. Mike de Kock has ensured that the 61-year-old’s brainchild has been a considerable success.
What has been noticeable in recent years is the increasing proliferation of sprinters among the blue and white brigade, headed by the mercurially brilliant Battaash.
While enjoying the five-year-old’s redemptive Nunthorpe blitz – though it didn’t supplant Dayjur’s “extraordinary” performance 29 years previously in Gold’s mind, despite the breaking of the track record set in the 1990 romp – the general move towards precocious speed is not something he views positively.
“The whole industry has changed. It is fashion driven, which is a huge sadness to me. There are people who say there are an awful lot of people in the business to just to make money and not to breed good horses. That is the big difference since I started. At the end of the day I can’t see that that is benefitting the industry.
“Sure, it is not entirely their fault and we have this appalling prize money situation which we are stuck with for the moment. Internationally it is a huge embarrassment and until that changes, who is going to want to buy bar rich men with patience? Who is going to want a buy a lovely mature backward horse?
Take time
“Look at a Stradivarius for example. He was always going to take time but he turned into a top-class horse. There are very few people willing to spend decent money on that type of horse when he is going to take time.
“In Australia, they have maidens for $75,000. We are racing the best bred horses in the world, 20 of them at Newmarket today, for a first prize of £4,000. It is unsustainable I’m afraid. It is getting worse rather than getting better. That is the frightening bit.”
Battaash remains on target for the Prix de l’Abbaye and has been the totem of a squad that includes Enbihaar, Elarqam, Mustashry and Khaadem, while the Prendergast-trained Madhmoon, despite disappointing on home turf especially, remains the owner’s second-highest earner in Britain this season thanks to his efforts in the 2000 Guineas and Derby.
Angus Gold and Kevin Prendergast at the Curragh \ Caroline Norris
“If I am honest, at the start of the year I was very worried. In the old days, we always had seven or eight nice two-year-olds going into the winter of which two or three wouldn’t measure up, a couple would be quite good and a couple would be very good.
“In the old days of Shadayid, Salsabil, Dayjur and obviously Nashwan, Elmaamul, those sorts of horses, it felt easy. It has been anything but recently.
“We didn’t have those seven or eight nice two-year-olds going into last winter. On the face of it our best horse was Madhmoon. Potentially Rakan of Dermot Weld’s, who is bred to be a good horse. Madhmoon has been a good horse but he hasn’t been a top horse, as of yet. I was very worried but the way it panned out I am relieved.
A revelation
“Battaash has been a revelation this year, in terms of he has been much more consistent. He has been a much more settled, happier horse mentally. He puts so much into his races. I went to see him the day before yesterday when I was in Lambourn. Big Bob (Grace), who does him, said to me that though outwardly, he won the Nunthorpe easily, he was flattened after it because he puts a hell of a lot in mentally and physically. I don’t think he is a horse that you can bounce back.
“I am sorry we couldn’t bring him over to Ireland (for the Flying Five) but I don’t think it would have been the right thing for the horse. He is a horse that likes his races spaced and we have to respect him.
“Look, I’ve been quoted that I have never been the biggest fan of the horse because he hasn’t been straightforward but I really admire the way he has grown up this year. To see him doing it at York, which bar Longchamp a couple of years ago, was far and away the most impressive win for me... to see him good before, get a lovely fast pace, see him settle and then kick at half-way and ping clear was really impressive.”
Jockey Chris Hayes reported Madhmoon to have run flat in the Irish Champion Stakes and Gold is confident that it wasn’t the colt’s true running. The good news is we are likely to see him again next year.
“Kevin said outwardly he seems to have bounced out of the race fairly well but he never picked up. He just galloped on in the one pace. One thing he can do is quicken. So when you see them not doing what they are a capable of there has got to be a reason, whether it be physical or mental.
“If he was mine I would leave him alone. Give him a winter to himself and just be a horse for a while. Then bring him back in the spring and hope we can rekindle everything and start it then.
“I never thought for one second he would stay a mile and a half. I still don’t think he does but equally he did because he was second in the Derby and only just beaten. I just don’t think that is his best trip. I think he has speed. Chris Hayes said to me in the middle of August when he had ridden him in work, ‘I think we might end up bringing this horse back to a mile even.’ He certainly doesn’t look a staying horse. He’s a butty, compact type. He doesn’t look your archetypical big, staying horse.”
There was no luck over Irish Champions Weekend but Gold was wowed by the racing and especially the industry reaction to Pat Smullen’s fundraising drive for CancerTrials Ireland. In excess of €2.5 million has been accumulated to date, thanks in no small part to the €500,000 contributed by Sheikh Hamdan.
Smullen was a regular in the Hamdan’s silks as first jockey to Weld and steered Bethrah to Irish 1000 Guineas glory in 2010. There’s that loyalty again.
“I thought it was the most unbelievable weekend for Irish racing, incredible advertisement. I bow to no one in my admiration of Pat, and didn’t let alone when he was riding and wasn’t sick.
“What he organised and the way everybody rose to the occasion was extraordinary. Sadly for me, I had been in Kentucky, I only got back the day before and whizzed over on Saturday, I wasn’t there on Sunday. I watched as much as I could at home and bar the weather I thought it was incredible. It was fantastic to see a buzz at the Curragh again.
“I thought the effort made – let alone the money raised, that is incredible – but the effort of all of those old jockeys to come out of retirement; one of the greatest photographs I have ever seen on a racecourse was the nine of them lined up walking back together down the track. That epitomised everything good about racing.
“God willing, Pat will beat this horrible thing. But he is a remarkable man and I thought it was incredible the job they did. I am so delighted they managed to raise so much money.
“The most important thing is that he recovers. It showed racing at its very best and showed the generosity and warmth of the Irish in particular.”
Angus with John Gosden at the sales \ Caroline Norris