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Shadwell Racing is the Thoroughbred horse racing operations of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai.
Introduced to Thoroughbred flat racing while a student in the United Kingdom, Sheikh Hamdan established his first racing stable there in 1981. Over the years he has invested heavily in both racing and breeding and has acquired major operations in England, Ireland and the United States.
He owns eight stud farms worldwide containing over 200 regally bred mares and many top stallions. Six of these are in the county of Suffolk, England, three near Thetford – Nunnery, Melton and Snarehill Studs – plus the Salsabil Stud near Bury St. Edmunds, Elmswell Park Stud and Beech House Stud just outside Newmarket. The other two are Derrinstown Stud in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland and the 3200 acre Shadwell Farm near Lexington, Kentucky.
The Nunnery Stud is where the whole British breeding operation is controlled and currently standing there are Aqlaam, Nayef, Mawatheeq and Sakhee, as well as Green Desert, now pensioned. In the past Nashwan, Unfuwain and Haafhd also stood there. Beech House Stud is used as a base for Shadwell’s private mares, both Thoroughbred and Arabian. The paddocks are also used to winter the private Arabian young stock before they are broken in at Snarehill. Elmswell Park Stud and Salsabil Stud are located deep in the Suffolk countryside. These operations together look after Sheikh Hamdan's private mares. It is here that the mares are cared for prior to foaling, and then once they have foaled they stay until they return to Ireland with their foals in the late summer. The quiet surroundings of Salsabil Stud are ideal for the mares and foals at this early stage of the foals' development. The Snarehill Stud is used as a base for breaking in the young Thoroughbreds. It is also used for rest and rehabilitation for horses in training. Finally there is Melton Paddocks which was originally the public stud before the building of the Nunnery Stud, but now it houses the Arabian stallions.
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