Qatar Racing’s David Redvers: The Magic Of Turning Geese Into Swans

Q: As a significant contributor to Qatar Racing's meteoric rise, what were one or two major factors that helped make this possible?
A: First and foremost, Sheikh Fahad’s enthusiasm and investment were unquestionably the starting points. And then we employ the best team to get the results – in terms of the Qatar Racing personnel, the trainers, the jockeys, etc. So it has definitely been teamwork. We are fortunate to be able to use the very best available, all over the world.

Q: Could we also attribute Qatar Racing’s success to being able to handpick the right horses, irrespective of farm, sale or country of origin?
A: Yes, I’d like to think so. We have not restricted ourselves in any way to anything. It's all been about finding the best horses wherever they are in the world and to do that you must approach things with an open mind. We ensure we do all the due diligence and obviously see as many horses as we can at every sale before drawing up our shortlists, using the experience we’ve all gained along the way.

Q: You are a man of many hats: racing manager, bloodstock consultant, owning and running Tweenhills, you have interests in Australia. How do you have enough time in the day to fulfil all these roles, with family, social, and other business commitments, especially in a COVID world?
A: All my roles complement each other, thankfully. I have eaten, slept, and breathed horse racing since I was 19 years old. I am now 51. For over 30 years it's been my passion, my hobby and my business, so there has never been a day when I've woken up and felt that I did not want to go to work. It has been rather easy for me because it's not something that I consider hard work. Every time I open a stable door, I have the enthusiasm of a man who thinks that behind that door might be the next Group 1 winner like Roaring Lion or Kameko. You go into the selection process hopeful, optimistic, and enthused by the task of finding the next good horse.

Q: Being one of the leading bloodstock consultants in the world, what advice would you give an aspiring bloodstock agent?
A: What helped shape me more than anything else is good horses. I was very lucky in that one of the first horses I ever bought was Lady Rebecca, winner of three Grade 1 races; and so you then become obsessed with the challenge of trying to find the next champion. I think nothing helps anybody who works with horses more than discovering good horses and working out what the common denominators are between them. And so instead of looking at horses as a puzzle that you can't work out, you start thinking you've discovered how several pieces of the puzzle fit together, and it gives you a head start. Once you have it in your mind that you've found several of the pieces to the puzzle, you are inspired to find the remaining pieces and after a while, you make a habit of finding good horses.

Q: Where do you see Qatar Racing in the next decade?
A: The first and most important challenge is to ensure that we keep Sheikh Fahad, Sheikh Hamad and their brothers entertained. They want top-class horses and they want to be represented at the best race meetings, not only in Britain but in Europe and the wider world. So, winning Group/Grade 1s in Australia and America in 2021 was great. It doesn't matter how successful you are in horse racing, you can never be too successful. You have to keep working hard to keep progressing. It is vital for us to build an elite breeding operation because that's ultimately the most satisfying thing. Breed, buy and raise active champions and put together a truly sustainable operation.

I think that the next 10 years for Qatar Racing will centre on finessing the elite broodmare band and growing the breeding operation so we can produce more Group 1 winners and stallions.

Q: What opportunities you hope to make available for Qatar Racing over the next decade? Would the very valuable Saudi Cup be a target for your horses?
A: Sheikh Fahad is very keen to find horses to win races like the Saudi Cup and compete in them, but obviously, it is a dirt race. He has several American horses and is hoping to identify horses that can go to Saudi Arabia in the future from there.

The European horses are primarily turfed performers, so naturally, their targets tend to lie elsewhere. I can certainly see Sheikh Fahad wanting to target all of the best prices, particularly in Saudi Arabia and possibly in Dubai, Bahrain, and even Qatar in the future.
The primary ambition is to find horses to compete in the British and European classic races and to develop the breeding operation at Tweenhills.

Q: How do you see the British Champions Series evolving with continued QIPCO sponsorship?
A: We certainly have further ambitions which have been discussed with British Champion Series and we’re all finessing and trying to make British Champions Day in October an even better experience than it is already. There are some quite exciting developments being discussed for this year. We want to ensure we're leaving a lasting legacy and want Sheikh Hamad to be immensely proud of how QIPCO's money has been spent. One of the things we're most proud of is how the average age of racegoers on QIPCO British Champions Day is steadily falling.
We're trying to ensure that Champions Day makes racing more accessible to a younger audience. Horse racing has to compete with other mainstream sports so we need to keep it very relevant – this is something we put a great deal of time and effort into.

Q: Do you see your horses racing in Qatar this year?
A: I’d say it’s unlikely. We are at an interesting moment in Qatar Racing's development – we have quite a large number of young horses in training by our own stallions, mostly in Britain and Ireland. For example, we have a lot of Roaring Lions, and extraordinarily, Roaring Lion has more 2-year-olds entered in the 2023 Derby than almost any other stallion. So we are hoping that there will be some smart Classic horses coming through this year and next. Our primary focus is to bring these nice youngsters through and hopefully find some world-class performers.

Q: Who are your current stable stars and what races could we expect to see them attempt?
A: Well, we have some particularly smart game-changing 3-year-olds. We have fillies like Mise En Scene who was in the frame in the Gr.1 Fillies’ Mile in 2021 and looks likely to start in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. We also have colt Buckaroo, also in the frame in Group 1 company last year, who we hope will develop into a Derby contender. Both are homebreds which makes it all the more exciting.

Q: Since you have been involved in some of racing's greatest moments what would you pick as your favorite race day and horse?
A: I don't think anything will ever come close to that year – in 2018 – when Roaring Lion won four Gr.1s on the spin. Though Simple Verse winning a Group 1 on QIPCO British Champions Day was an incredibly special moment too. That said, Dunaden winning the Melbourne Cup in 2011 was something I will never forget. I will be forever grateful for his win because it very much propelled international Flat Thoroughbred racing to the forefront of Qatar's mind and mindset – Dunaden is responsible for a large amount of investment into horse racing over the last decade or so.

Q: What is the race that you hope to win in the next 5 -10 years?
A: To win the Epsom Derby would be amazing. Followed by The Oaks, followed by a Breeders’ Cup race. That is what we want to achieve. We have got quite close – we’ve had several colts finish in the frame in the Derby and a filly finish second in the Oaks – but we need to win.
We have been giving it a good go and sooner or later we will crack it – hopefully with a Roaring Lion in 2023!

Q: Which is your favourite racetrack in the world and why?
A: I’d say Ascot, the Royal racecourse. It’s the course that Her Majesty The Queen holds most dear and the one that we have invested so much time and money into. There is simply no greater race meeting in the world than Royal Ascot.