Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
END OF AN ERA
Carson leads tributes following the death of ‘institution’ Sheikh Hamdan
WILLIE CARSON has paid tribute to “an institution” after the death was announced at 75 of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Sheikh Hamdan (below), along with brothers Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Maktoum and
Sheikh Ahmed, was a huge investor in
British racing – and was rewarded with many of the sport’s greatest prizes.
“It’s terrible news,” said Carson, who was Sheikh Hamdan’s retained jockey. “He was an institution. There isn’t a word big enough for him.”
One of the most influential owner-breeders for over 30 years, Sheikh
Hamdan, the deputy ruler of Dubai, saw his iconic colours – blue with white epaulets and blue-and-white striped cap – twice carried to victory in the Derby by the Dick Hern-trained Nashwan in 1989 and Erhaab, saddled by John Dunlop, five years later. Carson, who rode both colts, added: “Nashwan was one of the greats, but Erhaab was one of my greatest achievements.
“I took the young man’s route on the inside – an old man at 51! He kept picking them up, but Hamdan liked his horses ridden round the outside and, when I came back in, he smiled, ‘Terrible ride! Terrible ride!’”
Champion sprinters,
Hern’s Dayjur and the Charlie Hills-trained Battaash also carried Sheikh Hamdan’s silks to glory at Group 1 level.
Battaash lowered Dayjur’s track record, set in 1990, when landing York’s Nunthorpe Stakes 29 years later. “They told him, ‘Battaash has beaten Dayjur’s record, sir,” recalled Carson. “He said, ‘Dayjur had a headwind!’ He loved that horse.”
Racing globally under his Shadwell
Stud banner, Sheikh Hamdan won two Melbourne Cups with At Talaq (1986) and Jeune (1994) and two Dubai World Cups with Almutawakel (1999) and Invasor (2007).