KING OF THE TRACK
He conquered football with Leicester, now their billionaire Thai owner wants to be...
SUMMER reshuffling of t he squad at Leicester City is likely after another season when they fell well short of their 2015-16 Premier League-winning season.
Club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will also be hoping that during the next few months his massive i nvestment i n horse racing can deliver.
The Thai billionaire, who built a fortune through his King Power duty free shop empire, created waves last year when buying six horses for £2million at the London Goffs Sale on the eve of Royal Ascot — largely to run at that meeting.
But that initial outlay has proved just the start. Srivaddhanaprabha shelled out more than £16million on two-year-old sf or 2018, suggesting he wants to make as big an impact on horseracing as on football.
His expensively recruited string, which races under the King Power Limited banner and carries the Leicester City blue and white colours, includes a Frankel filly named King Power which cost £2.5m and a filly by Dubawi which cost £1.3m called Tuk Power.
Sr iv add ha nap rabha’ s string now numbers about 60 horses. Three trainers — Andrew Balding, Ralph Beckett and Richard Hannon — handle the bulk of the horses. David Elsw or th, Martyn Meade and David Simcock are also on the trainer roster.
Balding, who has more than 30 of the Sr iv add h an apr ab ha horses in his Kingsclere Stable in Hampshire, said: ‘It has been a huge boost for my yard. He has bought some lovely horses. The ones I’ve got are more for next year but he has some nice ones with Richard and Ralph.
‘Money doesn’t always guarantee results but the signs are good. They are the nicest bunch of horses I’ve ever had. We’ll all be doing our hardest to get him some results.’ There is a nod to Leicester City in some of the names Srivaddhanaprabha (left) has given to his two-year-olds. There is Fox Vardy, £220,500 son of Frankel trained by Mead, and Fox Kasper, who cost also cost £220,500 and is trained by Hannon, while £378,000 buy Come On Leicester, also trained by Hannon, showed enough on her debut third at Ascot on Friday to suggest she could be heading back to the track for next month’s royal meeting.
Srivaddhanaprabha made his first venture into British racing last year when sending a couple of horses to Balding after John Rudkin, Leicester City’s director of football, had checked out the yard. The owner has now visited the stable himself.
Balding added: ‘He has played polo to a good level. He is a horseman and knows about horses.’
Star of the Srivaddhanaprabha stable, Beat The Bank, runs in Saturday’s Group One Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.
Balding said: ‘I’m pleased how he has wintered. My horses have been needing a run but, having said that, he has done plenty of work and he is as straight as we can get him.’