Stoute Among Trainers to Lose Shadwell Horses

The extent of the restructuring of Shadwell undertaken by the family of the late Hamdan Al Maktoum has been brought into focus as racing manager Angus Gold revealed a list of trainers who no longer have horses for the team in Europe, including Sir Michael Stoute.

Speaking in the wake of the April 16 win of Morghom at Newbury, Gold pointed out the promising son of Dubawi  had been with Sir Michael Stoute as an unraced 2-year-old, but is now trained by Marcus Tregoning.

Gold said the decision to no longer have horses with Stoute—a 10-time champion trainer—had been a difficult one made in keeping with a desire to see Shadwell as a leaner operation, and reported Mark and Charlie Johnston, Ed Dunlop, Brian Meehan, Dermot Weld, and Freddy Head were also no longer on the rota. 

"We were cutting down on some horses and decided to cut down on some trainers," said Gold. 

"Sir Michael now has no horses for us, sadly. With all the sales and cutbacks we had to make some changes. It was a hard decision to move Morghom, but he was an unraced 2-year-old who hadn't shown a huge amount.

"He'd done a few half-speeds and looked potentially a nice horse, but we got no further than that.

"Then we decided to cut down. William Haggas, John and Thady Gosden and Roger Varian have horses for us in Newmarket and then there's Charlie Hills, Owen Burrows, Richard Hannon and Marcus Tregoning, Jean-Claude Rouget and Francois Rohaut in France, and Kevin Prendergast in Ireland.

"We've none with Brian Meehan, Mark Johnston, Ed Dunlop and Freddy Head now, but that's what the family decided when they cut down the numbers."

2019 Lockinge Stakes hero Mustashry  was Stoute's biggest winner for Shadwell, while Maraahel  twice won the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot in addition to a hat-trick of successes in Chester's Huxley Stakes.

Gold said: "There was nothing anti-Sir Michael. We were getting rid of all the other horses we had with him bar one, who's gone to Richard Hannon, and we kept Morghom because he was a homebred Dubawi and (in case) he turned out to be any good.

"It was nothing anti-Sir Michael, goodness. We've been with him a long time and it's sad not to have horses with him anymore. Sir Michael's been there before and it's very sad, but it's nothing against him at all. When it was decided to have fewer horses we had to make some changes."

Discussing Morghom's future, Gold went on: "I loved the way he traveled and I loved the way he quickened. He's just been a bit cheeky at home and Jim said he went up a few times in the stalls.

"I don't want to say yay or nay, but I'd hate to drop him in at the deep end and he gets too buzzed up and we lose him."