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I remember in the past, many top quality southern NH horses running in the famous red and black colours of this owner. Nowadays I never see them at all. Does anyone know what happened to him ?
The last runner in a big race I can think of, was Gala’s Image way back in the 89 National. Probably some after that right enough, but none spring to mind.
seems to be very well:
Remember his horses well … Gaye Brief, Fifty Dollars More, Half Free … leading jumps owner four times in the 80’s before seemingly retiring from the sport.
"The first big-spending jumps owner of modern times was Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin, whose 30-strong string seemed formidable in the 1980s. John Francome will never forget the potentate who took exception to his riding, instead employing Richard Linley as his jockey.
Most of the sheikh’s horses were trained by Francome’s employer, Fred Winter, who’d never previously yielded to any owner. That alone illustrated the sheikh’s clout, yet his string would cut little ice today."… and found this quote from Charlie Brooks talking about his first meeting with Mercy Rimell …
"The first time I met Mercy face-to-face was at a lunch in Somerset given by Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin, who later that day asked me if I would run hotels in Morocco for him. Anyway, that’s another story.
Mercy had trained the Champion Hurdler, Gaye Brief, for him, and my guv’nor, Fred Winter, had a stack of good horses such as Fifty Dollars More and Half Free owned by the Sheikh. Trainers are not totally immune to ‘equine shoplifting’, i.e. they have been known to say, "Gosh, wouldn’t that horse benefit from a change of scenery". Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that Fred thought that Mercy would ever do such a thing, but he couldn’t be at the lunch and he didn’t really want his position as the Sheikh’s No.1 trainer undermined, so he sent me in to be ‘nightwatchman’.
She ate me for breakfast, or should I say lunch? I fluffed my lines every which way. It must have been like watching Margaret Thatcher in a bate, sorting out the cheese-eating surrender monkeys across the Channel. Which was probably why the Sheikh asked me to run hotels for him. He clearly didn’t think I knew much about horses."How right he was! I’m not sure it was Francome’s riding which annoyed the Sheikh (who former member Diane Avis reckoned to be no potentate, but a glorified builder), but his insistence on calling his benefactor "Sooty".
rory,
its a misconception that the title "Sheikh" carries any connotation of "potentate".
it doesn’t. it translates as "elder" and its connotation is "important or infuential man", at least as much in terms of advice or experience, as any influence deriving from political or economic power.
i certainly have none of the latter but i’ve had the title applied to me as an outside adviser as routinely as the alternative "Mr.".
Sh. Ali ( who seems to prefer being referred to as plain Mr. )certainly is a very successful self-made businessman in construction and related areas with the group he founded in 1971, Eastern Trading and Contracting Establishment(ETE).
i suspect though that in the traditional Saudi self-effacing way (particularly in Eastern province) he would be mortified if Chief or anyone else had any basis to use the word "glorified" in relation to him.
your reference to Francome took me to this extract from "Born Lucky":
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"…or ‘S—-‘ as I nicknamed him, decided that he didn’t want me to ride his horses anymore which came as quite a blow because he owned some of the best horses at Uplands.
His decision soured me for a while because I had never done anything but good for the man and rode him a countless number of winners.
The excuse that he gave was that I had insulted him by choosing to ride Sea Image in the Arkle Chase for George and Olive Jackson instead of riding Fifty Dollars More for him.
However I believe the real reason was that he thought I had stopped Fifty Dollars More when I finished fourth in the Lambert and Butler final to Wayward Lad at Ascot the time before.
…..[follows a detailed claim how the horse had sore shins and "if it hadn’t been such a valuable race I am certain the Governor wouldn’t even have run him" ]…
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