Qatar’s profile in European racing is set to become even more prominent. Not content with sponsorship of the two-day Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting, which starts Saturday at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, and elite racing in Britain through the Champions Series, Qatar is looking to extend its investment portfolio in Britain, and possibly Ireland.
The Al Shaqab operation, set up nearly a year ago by Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad, is expected to make a major announcement soon about expanding.
“I would have every confidence that there will be significant sponsorship from Sheikh Joaan’s side in England within the next few months,” said Harry Herbert, Al Shaqab’s racing manager.
The Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) sponsors Arc weekend, but it, too, is likely to have a major deal wrapped up before the European turf season comes out of hibernation after the Dubai World Cup meeting in March.
Goodwood Racecourse has been involved in rounds of talks for more than a year with the view to securing either a Qatar day, or Qatar weekend, at the Glorious meeting in midsummer.
Nasser Sherida Al Kaabi, Sheikh Joaan’s media manager, summed up Qatar’s desire to deepen its ties with the sport of kings.
“Our strategy is to represent Qatar around the world,” he said in Paris. “We want to compete in all of the major competitions and to try to win as much as we can.
“Racing is in our heritage and culture, which is why we are looking to sponsor in racing around the world. We hope you will hear something from us very soon.”
Walking down the Champs Elysees, you cannot miss Qatar’s flagship sponsorship.
France’s most famous boulevard is adorned with the maroon-and-silver banners of the QREC all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe.
Anyone coming into the French capital from the north by car will be stopped almost in their tracks by a giant poster for the race on the A1 motorway at the Porte de la Chapelle and, last night, a giant promotional projection was planned for the facade of the vast Ecole Militaire, which faces the Eiffel Tower.
Tomorrow’s race is the most lucrative contest staged on turf in the world, at €5 million (Dh23.2m).
Even when the Dubai Racing Club bolsters the prize-money pots to the Dubai Duty Free and Dubai Sheema Classic to US$6m (Dh22m) for this coming UAE season, the Arc will remain top.
In 2018, the prize money will rise to €5.3m.
It has been a ruthless and dynamic approach, and it mirrors that which Qatar employed to gain a foothold in football in France, and helped them win the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.
Sheikh Joaan’s Al Shaqab operation dominates the entries for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Treve, last year’s winner, will line up alongside Ectot and Ruler Of the World in the 20-runner field after yesterday’s draw.
It is a trio of horses that have been bought in training by Sheikh Joaan to feature on Arc day as part of his expansion plans within racing.
He alluded to the importance of using racing as a vehicle for promoting Qatar after Ectot had proved his credentials as a leading candidate for this year’s Arc with a fluid win in the Prix Niel at Longchamp last month.
“The main reason we are here is for the country, not for me,” Sheikh Joaan said. “We are representing Qatar. Hopefully, we will get what we have been strategising on.”
Qatar is well known for its extensive sponsorship of football through the purchase of Paris Saint-Germain and commercial relationship with Barcelona, but racing is increasingly seen as a desirable aspect to Qatar’s portfolio.
According to Sami Jassim Al Boenain, the general manager of QREC and chairman of the International Federation of Arabian Horse Racing Authorities, Qatari money has been injected into races in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden this season.
QREC also pumped money into a trotting race in Holland for the first time this year and is sponsoring the UK Arabian Derby.
The Newmarket event was among 17 races in the British Purebred Arabian programme this season that fell under the QREC sponsorship umbrella, the jewel to which was last month’s Harwood International Stakes, which, at £150,000 (Dh887,000), is Britain’s biggest purse for Purebred Arabians.
Ireland could be next.
Al Boenain recently accompanied Sheikh Mohammed bin Faleh, chairman of the QREC, for a tour of The Curragh, an epicentre of Irish racing. The pair are to return to Ireland in the summer with a view to seeking further sponsorship opportunities.
Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company, often known as “Qipco”, is one of the investment vehicles for the Al Thani family.
It is run by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah and sponsors the elite British racing calendar through the Champions Series. Last month Qipco sponsored for the first time the Irish Champion Stakes, the cornerstone of the fledgling Irish Champions Weekend.
This year the company became a commercial partner with Ascot racecourse, which included branding at the royal meeting in June that required the permission of Queen Elizabeth and added sponsorship of the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Sheikh Fahad bin Hamad is the driving force behind Qipco’s involvement in British and Irish racing. Gold Pearl was the first horse to run for him on a British racecourse when carrying the Pearl Bloodstock silks to second on June 2, 2010.
Since then, Sheikh Fahad and his brothers Sheikh Suhaim and Sheikh Hamad have grown a worldwide empire. They have horses under the Qatar Racing, Qatar Bloodstock and Pearl Bloodstock banners with 52 trainers worldwide.
The trainers range from Dubai World Cup winners Graham Motion in the US and Michael Stoute in England, to former top jockey Johnny Murtagh in Ireland, Andreas Wohler in Germany and Australian trainer Peter Moody, who took undefeated sprinter Black Caviar to England in 2012.
Sheikh Fahad has received a Japan Racing Association licence this year to expand into one of East Asia’s top racing nations. Qipco set up the British Champions Series in 2011, the year after Qatar won the bidding for the 2022 World Cup.
In the same year Qatar Sports Investments bought a controlling share in Paris Saint-Germain, and the shirt sponsorship of Barcelona by the Qatar Foundation, and later Qatar Airways, began.
Since Qatar first dipped its toes in the sponsorship waters of major races in 2007, its links with the sport have grown exponentially.
“It all started with the sponsorship of the Prix Moulin and talks with France Galop progressed from there,” Al Boenain said. “Who would say no to the Arc?
“I think when we sponsored the Arc for the first time Qatari owners tried to buy or breed horses with a view to winning it, and the Qatar Arabian World Cup.
“When Qataris see owners such as Sheikh Joaan and Sheikh Fahad breeding, buying and racing horses, they will be encouraged to get into this sport.
“Yellow And Green ran well when fifth for Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa in 2012, but when Treve won the Arc for Qatar last year, just a few years after we started sponsoring the race, it was a dream realised.”
Qatar’s sponsorship of the Arc ends in 2022. Cynics might argue that, strategically, the relationship will have run its course and performed its function.
Al Boenain is quick to reassure that the Arc sponsorship will be continued beyond the World Cup, saying it is “just by chance” the contract runs out in the same year as the World Cup.
Unlike football, racing does not have, and is not looking to implement, any financial fair play rules. It means that Qatar’s horsemen can be involved at the highest level, as Sheikh Joaan showed last year when he bought a yearling filly at the main sales in Europe for a world-record $8.3m.
He will be again heavily involved in yearling sales this month, too.
Until now the Qataris have looked to buy horses in training, but they have been in the game long enough that their stud farms are beginning to produce runners. Sheikh Fahad has concentrated much of his attention on Tweenhills Stud in Gloucestershire, England, while Sheikh Joaan has stayed true to France with the Haras de Bouquetot Stud in Normandy, where Planteur, who twice finished third at the Dubai World Cup, stands as his foundation sire.
“We are now concentrating more on the breeding and we are hoping to see how well our breeding industry works – the bigger the better,” Sheikh Joaan said. “I think the Qatar people are proud enough and I hope we are keeping them that way.”
Over the two days at Longchamp, Qatar owners will race 19 horses, compared to 13 runners owned by UAE horsemen. Sheikh Joaan has a strong hand in the Arc and will run the unbeaten Purebred Arabian Dahor Du Bruegere in the Arabian World Cup. Winning both races would be another landmark in the Qatar story.
“The Arc meeting is very special,” Al Kaabi said. “People are talking about it all over the world. The race is glittery and if we could put glitter on other meetings that would be great, too.”
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