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Juddmonte Farm's founder, His Highness Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, died at the beginning of this year, not having seen his horse race for a second time on the track in Riyadh.
His famous green, pink and white silks have been sported by jockeys around the world, as they have won 118 Grade/Group One races aboard with the world's greatest horses including Frankel (GB), Dancing Brave (GB), Enable (GB) and Arrogate among many others. He campaigned over 500 stakes winners, of which he bred over 440.
Douglas Erskine Crum, chief executive officer of Juddmonte, said on Tuesday, “The whole of Juddmonte feels a huge sense of loss. Prince Khalid will always be remembered as a quiet, dignified, benevolent family man, whose horses spoke for him. He leaves a legacy that will stand the test of time. His contribution to the development of the Thoroughbred will have long-lasting effects.”
Prince Khalid bin Abdullah was born in 1937 in Saudi Arabia and was a member of the House Of Saud, the Saudi Royal family, his father Abdullah bin Abdul-Rahman being a younger half-brother to King Abdulaziz, the founder and first monarch of Saudi Arabia. The extremely successful businessman will perhaps be best remembered for his profound contributions to the Thoroughbred breed.
Fillies recruited during Prince Khalid’s formative years as an owner were the foundation for a high-quality broodmare band of nearly unprecedented proportions. Prince Khalid’s first homebred winner came in the form of Fine Edge (GB) at Newmarket in 1982.
With the retirement of his preferred trainer, Jeremy Tree in 1989, a handful of trainers came to the fore who would be pivotal in shaping the Juddmonte dynasty, including Tree’s Beckhampton successor Roger Charlton. But the two training titans most closely associated with Prince Khalid in the post-Tree era were Sir Henry Cecil and Bobby Frankel.
Prince Khalid also sent many European-trained runners to John Gosden, then based in America, who has now trained for Prince Khalid for nearly 40 years.
A third-generation Juddmonte homebred by Galileo that both Cecil and Abdullah will be best remembered for. Just like his trainer and now his owner, Frankel’s legacy lives on and continues to build; he has made an explosive start at stud and his Group One winners include Khalid Abdullah homebred Logician (GB), winner of the 2019 G1 St Leger for John Gosden, and Quadrilateral, the champion 2YO filly of 2019 trained by Roger Charlton at Beckhampton, right back where it all began.
In 2014, Prince Khalid's team spent US$560,000 at Keeneland on a grey colt by Unbridled’s Song, who was eventually sent to Bob Baffert. The colt, named Arrogate, absolutely demolished any opposition on the track, winning several iconic races in his career. Arrogate will be represented by his first runners this year. His untimely death last June at the age of seven was a huge blow to the Juddmonte team.
Bob Baffert, the trainer of Breeders’ Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup winner Arrogate, told Sky Sports Racing, “He was definitely one of the titans of racing. He was such a gentleman, a really low-key kind of guy who trusted his trainers. The biggest compliment a horse trainer in America could get is if he wanted you to train his horses.”
By the time Arrogate’s racing career was winding down in the autumn of 2017, Prince Khalid Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, Enable was just building herself to her career peak. She was recently retired to stud with 15 wins from 19 starts, including 11 Group Ones, and earnings of over £9.6-million. She is set to visit Kingman for her first mating this spring.
The enormous loss of Prince Khalid bin Abdullah to the global Thoroughbred fraternity is immeasurable that we will be paying homage to him for many generations to come.