Magnificent seventh British Owners’ Championship honour for Sheikh Hamdan

By Duane Fonseca

Newmarket, UK: His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum won a seventh British Owners’ Championship title when being bestowed with the honour for 2020.

A total of 112 winners carried his prestigious blue and white silks to victory, earning a massive £2,309,194 in prize money in the process.

Sheikh Hamdan’s leading earner was the brilliant sprinter Battaash, trained by Charles Hills. who was successful in the King’s Stand Stakes, King George Stakes and Nunthorpe in the past 12 months.

Homebred filly Nazeef was another dual Group One winner for Sheikh Hamdan bringing home the Falmouth Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes during 2020. The John Gosden schooled 4yo daughter of Invincible Spirit also scored in the Listed Snowdrop Fillies’ Stakes and Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes, while finishing third in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.

Another top-tier victor for Sheikh Hamdan in Britain in the past year was the Marcus Tregoning conditioned Mohaather, who delivered a thrilling victory in a high-class renewal of the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, and has since been retired to stand at Nunnery Stud. That win was a superb follow up to his big margin win in the Group 2 Summer Mile at Ascot.

Other stars of Sheikh Hamdan’s championship season in 2020 included Enbihaar, a dual Group 2 winner in the Lillie Langtry Stakes and Lonsdale Cup; Hukum, who scored in the King George V Handicap and Geoffrey Freer Stakes; and Motakhayyel, who took the Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot and Bunbury Cup at the Newmarket July meeting.

There are plenty of exciting two-year-olds owned by Sheikh Hamdan who turned three on 1 January, with Shadwell claiming there’s “much to look forward to in 2021 as well”.

Minzaal won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and was a close third in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, Alkumait struck in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes, Mujbar took the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes and the unbeaten Zeyaadah won the Listed Montrose Fillies’ Stakes in what was a stellar year for Sheikh Hamdan, whose seventh championship followed the victories of 1990, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2005 and 2014.