- The Guardian, Wednesday March 19 2008
The extent to which Sheikh Mohammed is prepared to go to almost any price to secure a horse on which he has set his heart is revealed in the latest edition of Timeform's Racehorses annual, published last Wednesday.
Their story has Darley, Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock operation, sending an agent to enquire about the price of a promising juvenile in America. When the owner asks for "a staggering $60m", the agent does not even bother to respond. Then Coolmore, bitter business rivals to the Sheikh, step in and do a deal.
On hearing this, Sheikh Mohammed is said to have enquired, "Why didn't we buy that colt?". When the agent replied that the owners had wanted $60m, the Sheikh - so the story goes - fired back: "So, why didn't we buy it?"
The anecdote - "well-sourced and original", according to Timeform - appears in the essay on Authorized, purchased by Sheikh Mohammed for an undisclosed sum after his impressive five-length success in last year's Derby.
The Sheikh's buying power has regularly astonished the racing world. His Jalil became the most expensive horse ever to race in Britain after being purchased for $9.7m at auction in 2005. Having initially failed to justify his pricetag, Jalil has struck form recently and is a leading contender for the Dubai World Cup, worth $6m to the winner, later this month.
The success, or otherwise, of Sheikh Mohammed's buying policy will be a significant theme over the next few months, and other highly relevant topics are also discussed at length in various individual essays in Racehorses.
For instance, the entry on New Approach - another talented animal recruited by Darley at great expense last year - uses the betting patterns around Teofilio's scratching from the 2,000 Guineas last year as the basis for a discussion on the issue of inside information.
The introduction to Racehorses, meanwhile, reflects on the debacle of Kieren Fallon's trial at the Old Bailey on race-fixing charges, as well as the urgent need for racing and bookmakers to find common ground for everyone's benefit.
