Little was known about Wathnan Racing in early May 2023. But within the space of six weeks and only three runners, the operation went from unheralded newcomer to emerging force.
No purchase prices were ever made public for Isaac Shelby, Courage Mon Ami or Gregory, but given the colts’ elite-level credentials, it was safe to assume significant sums changed hands.
Securing blue-chip prospects right before major races was a bold strategy, but the magnitude of their results more than justified the means.
Isaac Shelby went down by a short neck to Marhaba Ya Sanafi in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, giving Wathnan a Classic placegetter with their very first runner in Europe.
At Royal Ascot Courage Mon Ami went one better when registering a famous victory in the Gold Cup, while Gregory annexed the Queen’s Vase. Both winners were trained by John and Thady Gosden and ridden by Frankie Dettori. As starts go, this looked particularly auspicious.
As momentum gathered, more details began to emerge. The picture became clearer in the aftermath of the Gold Cup when it was revealed that the owner behind the Wathnan brand was the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The Emir is not only an important, and extremely wealthy, international figure but he hails from a family with strong links to racing. His brother, Sheikh Joaan, is the principal of Al Shaqab Racing, owner of top-notchers like Olympic Glory, Shalaa and Treve. The siblings are cousins of Sheikh Fahad of Qatar Racing, whose silks have been carried by Group 1 winners such as Kameko, Roaring Lion and Simple Verse.
And the roots laid down by Sheikh Joaan and Sheikh Fahad run much deeper than simply owning strings of racehorses, as both have developed extensive bloodstock portfolios. The former operates out of Haras de Bouquetot in Normandy, while the latter is invested in the broodmare band and stallion division of Tweenhills in Gloucestershire.
The Emir has a history of significant sporting involvement as he bought Paris Saint-Germain football club through Qatar Sports Investments in 2011, also overseeing his homeland’s successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Royal Ascot brace inevitably prompted questions about Wathnan’s future involvement in racing. Was this a flash in the pan or were we witnessing the seeding of an empire?
The operation’s senior representative is Olly Tait. The owner of Twin Hills Stud in New South Wales was an influential figure in Godolphin’s expansion into Australia, and its management in Japan and the US.
Tait turned to Richard Brown (left), a founding partner of Blandford Bloodstock, to act as racing advisor, as well as boots on the ground at European auctions.
Both have tended to play questions about Wathnan’s future plans with a straight bat, simply saying the brief from Qatar has been to “produce a team of horses the Emir and his family can be proud of and can enjoy.”
But actions always speak louder than words, particularly on the Turf, and the bare facts relay that in just over 12 months Wathnan have developed into a significant player. The point was hammered home in no uncertain terms at this year’s Royal Ascot.
The steep upward trajectory is illustrated by the number of runners at the meeting. In 2023 there were just three, with Courage Mon Ami and Gregory joined by Isaac Shelby, who ran a creditable fourth to Paddington in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
This time around the squad numbered 28. Even more remarkable than the rise in runners was the fact that Wathnan registered an impressive tally of four winners. For context, only Coolmore had more.
Leovanni initiated the four-timer with a decisive strike in the Queen Mary Stakes, before a day three brace saw the exciting Shareholder claim the Norfolk and English Oak run away with the Buckingham Palace Stakes. The haul was completed when Haatem gave weight and a beating to 18 rivals in a deep renewal of the Jersey Stakes.
To deliver four winners has to be a source of satisfaction
Brown, who has been responsible for sourcing the vast majority of Wathnan’s runners, says his overriding emotion in the aftermath of Royal Ascot was relief, before continuing: “That turned into quiet satisfaction for the whole team surrounding Wathnan, and particularly for the Emir and his family. We’ve been given an extremely good opportunity to work with top people and top horses. To deliver four winners, and lots of the other horses ran well as well, has to be a source of satisfaction.”
As well as four winners, Wathnan also had Electrolyte and Columnist fill the places in the Coventry Stakes, as did Haunted Dream and Torito in the Wolferton; Native Warrior headed up the near-side group when third in the Britannia; Space Legend was runner-up in the King Edward VII Stakes; while Dark Trooper ran a huge race to finish second of 25 in an ultra-competitive Wokingham Stakes.
These results were not achieved by chance, as Wathnan have invested heavily in recent months. Brown mined the European breeze-up sales for juvenile talent and duly unearthed two winners in Leovanni, a £190,000 Goffs UK purchase, and Shareholder, a €460,000 acquisition from Arqana. Columnist and Electrolyte also came from the two-year-old sales and cost £170,000 and £220,000 respectively.
The dozen or so breeze-up recruits were joined by a similar number of blue-chip horse-in-training purchases. This group included the progressive English Oak and Haatem, who earlier this season won the Craven Stakes and reached the places in both the 2,000 Guineas and Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Investment doesn’t guarantee results, particularly in an arena as unpredictable and competitive as Royal Ascot, even if it does increase pressure. Owners can spend heavily or they can invest wisely, but the key to success is doing both.
We’d been given a clear remit to try and produce horses that can be competitive
“There’s only one certainty in our sport and that’s that there are no certainties,” says Brown. “Even with the team we’d assembled, that didn’t guarantee anything. You hear all these horror stories of people with unbelievable teams struggling, so I was completely aware that we might not get a winner. We’d been given a clear remit to try and produce horses that can be competitive at the meeting. So, if you’re not competitive at the meeting, then it means you’ve failed.”
We will never know what might have been had Courage Mon Ami and Gregory failed in 2023, but if their success helped pave the way for the team assembled this year, it is hard not to wonder what the future might hold after another four winners.
Although there is a firm focus on the royal meeting, Brown stresses their purchasing strategy is underpinned by a much longer-term view. “Courage Mon Ami wasn’t bought to win the Gold Cup, much like the horses this year weren’t bought just to win those races,” he says. “They were bought to be good additions to the team.”
The team now numbers close to 50 horses in training in Britain, spread among 16 different trainers. There are six trainers in France with Wathnan-owned horses in their stable, while the Willie Mullins-trained Lope De Lilas was also among the raft of recent private purchases.
There is a pleasing range among the trainers based in Britain, thanks in large part to a policy of leaving their acquisitions with existing stables. This has seen the likes of Adrian Keatley, Eve Johnson Houghton and Ollie Sangster saddle Wathnan runners, as well as the more familiar names of Gosden, Haggas and Beckett.
Northern trainers such as Karl Burke and Richard Fahey have also received the backing of Wathnan, as have younger names like Archie Watson and Tom Clover.
Wathnan’s arrival in Britain can only be seen as a vote of confidence, not only for the trainers they employ but the sport at large. Their support is a particularly welcome development given a lack of fresh investors is among the sector’s many challenges.
“The investment that we’re seeing in our sport is tremendous,” says Brown. “It’s well documented that prize-money in Britain isn’t at the level that any of us would like, but suddenly someone new has come in and invested to these levels. It’s good for everybody.”
The yearling sales at Tattersalls have already benefitted from the operation’s presence, and the youngsters picked up there could potentially take Wathnan to the next level. The bloodlines among the dozen would entitle any owner to dream big, especially with the group having been spread between the Beckett, Gosden and Haggas stables.
All the dreams are still alive at the moment
The purchases include Wicked, a 600,000gns Kingman sibling to Magna Grecia and St Mark’s Basilica; Magnetite, a 575,000gns Frankel brother to Elarqam out of Attraction; Dunamase, a 500,000gns Kingman brother to Age Of Kings; and Fitzmaurice, a 470,000gns Wootton Bassett brother to Chindit.
The team’s Arqana August Sale recruits include the €950,000 Subsidence, a son of Frankel and Via Pisa; a €660,000 Night Of Thunder three-parts brother to Arabian Crown named Orageux; and Cerelia, a €410,000 filly by Wootton Bassett.
“They’re all well bred; we’ve bought some Frankels, some Kingmans, horses who’ll hopefully be summer two-year-olds and go on and be middle-distance horses next year,” says Brown. “That was the type we were looking for, which is why the breeze-up concept that Olly and I proposed to the team complemented the yearling buys. All the dreams are still alive at the moment.”
It is understandable that Wathnan’s spending habits have drawn attention, but Brown emphasises that the team have not been given a blank cheque to buy everything on their shortlist. Brown illustrates the point by saying through gritted teeth that one of the ones who got away went on to win at Royal Ascot. He declines to give a name.
“There’s been plenty [of horses in training] we either haven’t been able to buy or we’ve decided not to buy because they’ve cost too much,” he says. “We’d have bought less than 50 per cent of the horses we bid on the breeze-up sales and even less than that at the yearling sales.
“We’re very careful with our valuations and if the horses go beyond the valuation then we’ll stop. We either get the horse or we walk away, those are the two options. And we’ve walked away from a great deal.”
While it may not be acknowledged publicly, at least not directly, there is a weight of evidence that suggests Wathnan is laying the foundations for something altogether more permanent. This goes deeper than just a purchasing strategy.
In October the operation announced that James Doyle would leave his role with Godolphin to become Wathnan’s first retained rider at the start of 2024.
“Having horses in different places, it was going to be important to have some continuity, and also going into big meetings we wanted to ensure that we had the services of a world-class jockey,” says Brown. “I’ve always been a huge fan of James’s.
“I knew he was the man we wanted – we were absolutely delighted to get him. He’s a world-class jockey, a world-class bloke and his feedback is absolutely world class. He’s an incredible addition to the team.”
He’s a superb horseman
Wathnan’s presence in Britain has also been boosted by the arrival of Hamad Al-Jehani, a leading trainer in Qatar who is overseeing a select string from the lower yard at Kremlin House Stables in Newmarket. Al-Jehani, who landed last year’s Qatar Derby with the Wathnan-owned Jeff Koons, only saddled his first British runner in mid-May, but has already been represented at major festivals. Beshtani finished second in a valuable Epsom handicap on Oaks day while Haunted Dream chased home Israr in the Wolferton Stakes.
“To have a second at Epsom and a second at Royal Ascot, he’s made an incredible start with only a tiny number of horses,” says Brown. “He’s brilliant to deal with and a superb horseman. I’m sure that number will grow organically; this year was just about him coming over and getting a feel for it. Training in Newmarket is very different to training in Qatar, but he’s grasped it pretty quickly from the look of things.”
Brown’s talent search has not been exclusive to Wathnan’s runners, with Tommy Allen recruited as Al-Jehani’s assistant. “The two key things to get right were a yard and an assistant,” says Brown. “Tommy is a very talented young guy, so he was somebody we were keen to get, and he came very highly recommended by George Boughey. Hamad and Tommy seem to get on like a house on fire and they seem to be working really well together. I think the results on the racecourse show that.”
There is also a wider support team involved in managing the growing Wathnan string and identifying new recruits. This includes Brown’s Blandford Bloodstock colleagues Tom Biggs, Stuart Boman and Tom Goff.
“It’s a unique opportunity and we’re just grateful that Olly recommended us, and that the team in Qatar listened to that recommendation,” Brown says. “We’re taking that responsibility very seriously, and I’m lucky that I’ve got a big team who bring lots of different opinions and thought processes into it.”
Resources – be that financial, human or equine – are one thing, but participants also require the temperament to handle the inevitable lows, as well as the highs.
we win and lose together
Wathnan’s results at last year’s Royal Ascot could so easily have given a newcomer a skewed perspective on how easily success can be attained. However, Brown says the team’s competitive spirit is counterbalanced by the kind of pragmatism that goes a long way when it comes to racing thoroughbreds.
“The key thing is the Qatari representatives that have come over have always said we win and lose together,” he says. “They’re absolute gentlemen and they’re sportsmen, so they understand it’s a sport. Of course, we had some real disappointments at Royal Ascot – that’s racing – but they took those equally as well as they took the victories. With every operation racing multiple horses, there’s enormous investment gone in. Whether you’ve bred them, bought them at public auction or a bit of both, it guarantees absolutely nothing. And that’s not lost on them.”
Only time will tell what Wathnan’s next move will be, although one logical step would appear to be establishing a breeding programme. The operation already has one bona fide Flat stallion prospect in Shareholder, while its fillies include two Queen Mary winners in Crimson Advocate and Leovanni, as well as the recently retired Remarquee, winner of the Fred Darling Stakes and runner-up in two Group 1s.
“There is the option of breeding,” says Brown. “But the breeding season is still eight or nine months away so I don’t imagine there’ll be any rush to make those decisions. At the moment it’s just about producing horses that the Emir can enjoy and be proud of. That’s the remit at the moment, and I think it will continue to be that for a while.”
That remit has resulted in Wathnan Racing bearing all the hallmarks of a superpower of the future. A sizeable and expensively assembled racing string? Check. Elite-level stable jockey? Check. A team with a strong track record of delivering success? Check. There’s even a slick social media presence to boot.
Of course, Wathnan still has something to prove, as all racing operations do. But it seems there is no longer a question about the scale of the outfit’s ambition. The question now is how far that ambition will take them.
James Doyle – pivotal part of the team
For all Wathnan Racing’s statements of intent, arguably none resonated with followers of the sport quite like the appointment of James Doyle.
The leading rider spent ten years with Godolphin but decided the time was right for a new challenge when Olly Tait and Richard Brown reached out with a proposal to ride in Wathnan’s red, blue and gold silks.
“I had to slightly take on trust a lot of what Richard and Oliver were telling me,” Doyle says as he reflects on the initial approach. “They said this is the start of what will be a very exciting journey going forward. Luckily I’ve known Richard for quite some time now and he’s a good friend. It’s still early days in this role but it’s great to roll forward out the back of Royal Ascot, where we had four winners and 28 runners. That really backs up what Richard and Oliver said.”
Doyle is no stranger to high-profile roles, as he was also Juddmonte’s retained rider prior to his job with Godolphin. When Brown put a prospectus together to send to the team in Qatar, Doyle’s list of Group 1 winners ran into three pages. This experience stood him in good stead heading into the pressure cooker environment of Royal Ascot.
“I’m lucky in the sense that with Juddmonte and then going to Godolphin for a number of years, Royal Ascot has always been a high-pressure week, so this year was no different,” he says. “In my mind I had to block out talk of the expenditure that’d gone in. As we all know, when you spend a lot of money buying horses it doesn’t guarantee you success. You need lots of things to go right to get winners at Royal Ascot and thankfully on four occasions it all worked out perfectly.”
Doyle was aboard all four of Wathnan’s winners at this year’s royal meeting, and he is understandably looking forward to getting back on the likes of English Oak, Haatem and Leovanni. He says that Shareholder’s victory in the Norfolk was “pretty spectacular,” adding: “Especially considering he only raced first-time-out 12 days beforehand. He’s a ball of speed and has a huge stride on him.”
The rider also gave a special mention to Space Legend, who he says has “a huge future” after finishing runner-up to Calandagan in the King Edward VII Stakes, despite still learning his trade.
“There’s obviously a strong team of two-year-olds, then there’s the older horses, including those who won at Royal Ascot,” he says. “There’s plenty of unraced two-year-olds to look forward to as well, so I’m hugely excited for the future.”
