Inside the ruler of Dubais 800-acre horse farm in Lexington, Kentucky where the stud fee is U

Publish date: 2024-02-01

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On a recent trip to Kentucky, I got a tour of the 800-acre horse farm. Keep reading for a look inside.

Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai since 2006, is an avid horse racing fan.

As a child, he reportedly battled in bareback races with his friends on the sands of Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach.

In 1996, he brought horse racing to Dubai by launching the Dubai World Cup, which has a US$12 million winner's purse – the largest in the world.

At this year’s Keeneland yearling sale in September – the largest horse sale in the world – the Sheikh spent US$16 million on 10 horses.

The Sheikh is the owner of Godolphin, a global horse racing organisation. The thoroughbred stallion division is called Darley.

Sheikh Mohammed bought his first stallion farm in the UK in 1981, kicking off his thoroughbred stallion breeding operation.

In 1986, a year after the first Emirates flight took off, the Sheikh bought another horse farm, this one in Ireland.

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In 2001, Sheikh Mohammed bought Jonabell Farm, an 800-acre horse farm in Lexington, Kentucky, the “horse capital of the world”.

On a recent trip to Kentucky, I drove out to Jonabell Farm. I got my first hint of the fact that this was no ordinary farm when I first pulled up to it …

… and had to pass through a security gatehouse to get in.

I was stopped at this gate, to the left of which was a security gatehouse (not pictured because I was scared of getting in trouble).

A Godolphin employee took down my name and checked it inside before letting me pass.

Inside, I found that the Sheikh has a room filled with dozens of gleaming horse racing trophies.

Godolphin horses have won England’s Royal Ascot, the Dubai World Cup and the Irish Derby among their major successes.

The barns are immaculate, with gleaming wooden panels and skylights.

“As you can probably tell, Sheikh Mohammed has a lot of money to spend on his horses,” a Godolphin employee told us during the tour of the farm. “This is his favourite hobby other than his airline, Emirates. So he spends a lot of money here on the farm and takes really good care of his horses.”

Each horse has its own personal fan blowing into its stall.

Each stall was outfitted with fresh, clean straw and a window.

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No expense is spared for the horses at Jonabell. Just consider the fences: They aren’t made of wood, but of a special material that can cost twice as much.

Jonabell uses flexible centaur fencing, a polymer that’s meant to be safer for horses, who can injure themselves on traditional wooden rail fences.

Centaur fencing can be up to twice as expensive than the oak plank fences usually used on Kentucky horse farms.

But it’s more cost-effective over time, Tara Nesmith of Centaur Fencing Systems told me in an email.

“Continuous maintenance such as painting and board replacement adds to the overall expense of owning a wooden fence over time,” Nesmith said, noting that Centaur “is a high tensile fence system that requires little maintenance, therefore saving money over the life of ownership.”

That brings me to the breeding shed. The shed, where mares from farms all over Kentucky come to breed with Godolphin’s stallions, has padded walls and non-slip rubber flooring.

The breeding process seemed downright bizarre to me as an outsider in the horse industry.

During the breeding season, which lasts from February to around the end of June, the stallions at Jonabell will breed with multiple mares per day at three designated times: 7.30am, 1.30pm and 6.30pm.

One stallion on the farm isn’t there for breeding, but to act as a “teaser stallion”. Before a mare is brought into the breeding shed, she’s held in a nearby stall that shares a window with the next stall. The teaser stallion will poke his head through the window, and if everything goes according to plan, the mare will signal that she’s ready to breed by peeing, turning her butt toward him, and lifting her tail. Then she’s brought in to breed with the actual breeding stallion.

About eight people are in the room during the breeding process, all wearing helmets. They put soft boots onto the mare’s hind legs in case she kicks.

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“We try and make this process as safe as possible because at the end of the day, you are dealing with a 1,500-pound stallion and a 1,000-pound mare – probably a little bit heavier because they’re usually pretty fat,” the tour guide told us.

The breeding itself only takes a few minutes. As the stallion dismounts, the veterinary surgeon will catch a sample of his sperm and test it to make sure it’s good sperm. If not, the mare will come back and they’ll try again.

Godolphin stallions have a 90 per cent success rate of getting mares pregnant.

Jonabell Farm is home to Medaglia d’Oro, one of the most expensive breeding stallions in the world. It costs US$200,000 to breed a mare with him.

His stud fee is US$200,000, meaning he could rake in millions in a single breeding season.

The average stud fee in North America is about US$24,000.

My tour of Jonabell Farm couldn't have been more different from my visit to one of Kentucky’s most prestigious horse farms: Claiborne Farm, a 3,000-acre, 109-year-old farm that’s been visited by Queen Elizabeth – twice. Legendary racehorses Secretariat and Seabiscuit both lived at the farm, and 2013 Derby winner Orb lives there now.

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While I was impressed by how Claiborne pampered their horses, after I toured Jonabell Farm, I realised Sheikh Mohammed’s farm was on a another level.

From the high-security entrance to the barns with skylights, it was clear the Sheikh of Dubai spares no expense on his precious horses.

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