Talking Horses: Shadwell shrinkage suggests racing entering a new era

There have been few racehorse owners in recent decades who showed as much loyalty to their trainers as the late Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, who died in March 2021.

From his earliest days in the sport in the 1980s, being chosen to train for the Sheikh’s Shadwell Stud operation was pretty much a guarantee that more – often many more – impeccably bred horses would follow. While Sheikh Mohammed, his younger brother, famously sent a fleet of horse boxes to remove his entire string from Henry Cecil’s stable one morning, Sheikh Hamdan was characterised by his decision to buy a yard in Lambourn for Dick Hern in the mid-80s, after he was forced to quit the Queen’s stables at West Ilsley.

So it came as a bit of a jolt to hear confirmation over the weekend that several high-profile and very successful trainers have been cut from the Shadwell list, following a decision by Sheikha Hissa, the late owner’s daughter, to slim down the operation.

Sir Michael Stoute, 10 times champion trainer, will no longer have any horses to run in the famous blue and white silks. Mark and Charlie Johnston, Ed Dunlop and Brian Meehan have also been dropped from the roster, along with Dermot Weld and Freddy Head in Ireland and France respectively.

The colours which were carried with such distinction by horses like Nashwan, Salsabil, Dayjur, Battaash and Taghrooda are not about to disappear from our tracks overnight, but a fresh direction of travel has been set. Shadwell announced plans to sell a “substantial” number of horses last September and while there were 630 runners in the blue and white in Britain in 2021, the total seems certain to fall well short of that this year.

Shadwell was also conspicuously absent from the high-profile Book 1 Sale at