Qatar spurs glorious future for Goodwood

With multimillion-pound backing from the Doha’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the UK’s biggest horse racing events has been lifted to greater heights. The going is certainly good for Glorious Goodwood.

Horses complete the Qatar Bloodstock Richmond Stakes race on Ladies Day at Goodwood Races on July 31, 2014. Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

As quintessentially an English sporting event as tennis at Wimbledon or cricket at Lords, the Glorious Goodwood horse racing festival starts tomorrow with a distinctly Middle East flavour.

The course’s lush setting on the Sussex Downs of southern England has known the thunder of hooves for more than 200 years.

But with the 2015 meeting offering Arabian pure-bred runners from several countries, including the UAE and Qatar, and prize money more than doubled by sponsorship from Qatar, a big occasion in the sport of kings has suddenly grown bigger.

As a result of the investment by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund – the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) – total prize money has soared from £2 million (Dh11.4m) to £4.5m. One race alone, the Group 1 Qatar Sussex Stakes, will be run for £1m, £700,000 more than last year, and Goodwood says this makes it one of the most significant mile runs in the world.

Now known as the Qatar Goodwood Festival – although the traditional “Glorious Goodwood” title lives on in the organisers’ publicity – the event runs for five days at what the organisers call “the most beautiful racecourse in the world”.

“It has always been a huge part of the English racing and social calendar,” says Adam Waterworth who, as Goodwood’s sport managing director, has been the key figure in negotiating Qatar’s investment.

“This year, with the added prize money, it is also generating enormous interest internationally.”

He says the partnership reflects the rapid growth of Qatari interest in thoroughbred racing, a relatively recent development in the state and driven in no small part by the enthusiasm of the ruling Al Thani family.

Their sporting passions are already evident from ownership via the QIA’s sporting division, Sports Investments (QSI), of France’s top football club, Paris Saint-Germain, and sponsorship of the kit of La Liga and Champions League winners Barcelona. QSI also owns the Burrda sportswear manufacturers.

For Arabian Gulf racing enthusiasts, a clear highlight of Goodwood will be the Qatar Harwood International, a £400,000 race for Arabian pure-breds on a final day otherwise dominated by the Qatar Nassau Stakes and the Qatar Stewards’ Cup.

It will form part of a new Qatar Arabian Triple Crown, along with existing races – the World Cup at Longchamps, part of the Arc de Triomphe event on the banks of the Seine in Paris in October, and the Emir’s Sword in Doha in February. A US$1 million bonus awaits a horse winning all three.

Listed UAE entries include the four-year-old filly Aurora Forta out of Abu Dhabi’s Forta Stud, while the UAE-bred, Omani-owned Karar, the son of Invincible Spirit and the winner of the Shaikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship series race at the British Newbury course a year ago, also features.

In Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes, Toomore, now owned by the Godolphin stables of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is tipped to be a runner.

But the RacingBetter website predicts a “mouth-watering clash of the generations” pitching two great European milers, the Irish-owned Gleneagles and the French-owned Solow, who was the winner on the Dubai Turf race at Meydan in March. Godolphin was unwilling to name runners at Goodwood ahead of the meeting beyond confirming it would have a ”strong presence”.

The Goodwood chairman Lord March says the course’s reputation for heritage and innovation made the new race “a fantastic thing for racing”.

“I am looking forward to great Arabian horses thrilling the crowds.”

The 10-year sponsorship deal between Goodwood and the QIA, first announced in December, represents a fruitful union of Gulf investment clout and British aristocracy.

The track, lying 8km north of the town of Chichester and about 15km from England’s south coast, is owned by nobility, in the form of the family of the present Duke of Richmond.

The family seat is the nearby Goodwood House and the family’s lineage can be traced to Charles Lennox, the illegitimate son of King Charles II, whose surname is honoured by the first event of the festival, the Lennox Stakes.

Goodwood now awaits the benefits of what it calls “the single biggest sponsorship deal ever done for the benefit of British racing”.

Hamad Al Attiyah, the president of the Qatar Equestrian Federation, describes the investment as an example of the support for sport shown internationally by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ruler.

“The sponsorship demonstrates Qatar’s further commitment to British racing and, with such huge prize money on offer, we hope it will help to attract international runners from all over the world as well as continuing to see the best in Britain, France and Ireland,” he says.

Qatar’s investment is scheduled to continue until 2024.

There are eight key races at Glorious Goodwood. The Qatar Nassau Stakes will now be worth £600,000 (a three-fold increase), while prizes in the Lennox Stakes, Goodwood Cup and King George Stakes have each risen to £300,000. Provision has been made to increase prize money further if a race moves up in status from Group 1 to Group 2.

Goodwood’s racecourse began life as a venue for flat horse racing by the third Duke of Richmond in 1802. As a colonel of the Sussex Militia, his chief motivation, reportedly, was less a love of racing than a desire to provide sporting distraction for his officers.

Yet he rode himself and, on the first day of the second annual event, 213 years ago, he is said to have “romped home with a horse called Cedar”.

And the course has developed its facilities as the setting for a range of functions beyond the world of racing. As one of Britain’s renowned estates and historic homes, it attracts upmarket weddings and other family ceremonies.

There is also a lively commercial sideline, with organisers of corporate events being offered a classic English setting and “a very special place to do business, build relationships with clients or celebrate with colleagues”.

As is the custom at the most prominent of British race meetings, a strict dress code applies to the most prestigious section, the Richmond Enclosure.

The rules, relaxed in other areas, make for fascinating reading: “Gentlemen are required to wear jackets and ties, cravats or polo-neck sweaters. For the traditional, linen suits, waistcoats (with jackets) and the archetypal ‘Goodwood’ Panama hat can be worn, as popularised by King Edward VII in the early 20th century.

“Ladies should also dress smartly and are encouraged to wear hats at the Festival Meeting. Jeans and shorts are not permitted at any meeting, for men or women.”

The Festival Meeting has become an event in itself, with the British media scrambling to publish photos of the most spectacular, or ludicrous, pieces of head gear on show.

Even in the other areas, informality has its limits: “Bare chests and fancy dress are not allowed in any enclosure and stiletto heels are not recommended, due to the Goodwood terrain and areas of decking.”

Bare chests or not, the multimillion pound backing of a global financial thoroughbred means the future for Goodwood looks glorious indeed.

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