Analysis: In what shape is Al Shaqab with Harry Herbert set to leave?

Website editor Geoffrey Riddle examines in detail Harry Herbert's departure, Al Shaqab's move to France, and looks at where the Qatar-backed operation is heading.

Harry Herbert will part company with Al Shaqab Racing at the end of next month to pursue personal opportunities with Highclere Racing.

Herbert, who was appointed as racing adviser to the Qatari-owned racing operation headed up by Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al Thani in December 2013, has helped build up the organisation in to a global player.

However comparatively poor results on the track in the past 12 months, and an embarrassing and spiralling debt to several British trainers that has now been repaid has resulted in a restructuring of the entire operation in favour of an administrative base in France that has all but rendered Herbert's role as insignificant.

Speaking on Monday Herbert said: "I am incredibly proud of everything Al Shaqab Racing has achieved since I became racing adviser to Sheikh Joaan Al Thani in December, 2013.

"There have been some wonderful moments on the racecourse from their Royal Ascot treble in 2014, five winners at the Qatar Goodwood Festival in 2015, and the greatest highlight of all was providing Sheikh Joaan with his first Classic winner when Galileo Gold won the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas in 2016.

"I have however, decided with the exciting and continual growth of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, particularly in Australia and with our National Hunt Horses, that my attention needs to be focused on the future growth plans that I have for my own business. I would like to thank all of the Al Shaqab team for everything they have done and to Sheikh Joaan for giving me such a wonderful opportunity.”

It is just over two months since it was revealed that Al Shaqab owed trainers and jockeys up to £1million in late payments.

Herbert played a key role in getting the trainers in Britain fully paid up, and has been spoken of fondly by those whom he helped out.

“The whole business and infrastructure grew very quickly,” Herbert explained.

“It is no excuse to not pay people on time and the whole thing was extremely unfortunate and embarrassing.

“Significant payments have been made these past months and all has been paid.

“Hopefully the stain will be erased.”

The reason given for Al Shaqab’s late payments was a complete reorganisation of its racing and administration operations.

This involved moving the back-office operations to Haras de Bouquetot, their Normandy-based stud where last year dual Arc winner Treve had her first foal. In turn this had serious ramifications for the racing operation.

Treve won two Arc de Triomphes for Al Shaqab (Racingfotos)

Where last season Al Shaqab had more than 100 horses in Britain spread across 12 trainers, that number has been slashed to 58 with just 11 two-year-olds feeding in at the bottom.

The horses are distributed in France among trainers such as Andre Fabre, Jean-Claude Rouget, Christophe Ferland, Pia Brandt, Nicolas Clement, Fabrice Chappet, Francis-Henri Graffard and the Purebred Arabian trainers of Thomas Fourcy and Elizabeth Bernard.

As a result of this redistribution Peter Burrell, Frankie Dettori’s agent, revealed that Al Shaqab’s retained rider in Britain would have his six-figure salary cut accordingly. It was estimated to be chopped in half, but Al Shaqab remain tight-lipped as to whether Gregory Benoist, the stable jockey in France, has been a financial beneficiary for being in line for considerably more rides.

The French arm of Al Shaqab will now have around 100 horses, 40 of which are homebred juveniles coming in to training. This is double the number of the previous year. Al Shaqab will continue to have horses in America and even have a colt by Derby winner Sea The Stars with David Hayes in Australia.

“It made sense to be racing in France because the owner and breeder premiums here are excellent,” Rupert Pritchard-Gordon, French racing manager for Al Shaqab, told Racinguk.com by phone.

“Expenses escalated quickly due to our expansion, which was simply natural progression on the back of our success.

“The problem with payments - it was more organisational than unwillingness. We have had time to get it in order and we are in a good spot now.

“There were a lot of payments to be made and I haven’t heard of any complaints and I can assure you I would have done if we had not paid up."

Pritchard-Gordon added: “As for Gregory’s salary it is nobody’s business.

“Dettori’s agent should not have revealed those details. It is private.”

Dettori rode Galileo Gold to Al Shaqab's first Classic success (PA)

Both Herbert and Pritchard-Gordon admit that there are full discussions ongoing as to what Al Shaqab will look like both at the end of the season and in the mid and longer terms.

With Haras De Bouquetot playing a more prominent role it is easy to assume that Sheikh Joaan intends to purchase less on the open market at the sales or behind closed doors.

A glut of stars such as Toronado, Olympic Glory, Brametot and Treve were bought privately. That is some foundation.

As an illustration of what a loss Sheikh Joaan’s input could be to global sales, it must be remembered that in 2013 he spent £10.7 million on 16 yearlings at Tattersalls.

How Al Shaqab operates as a vehicle for marketing Qatar as a country is surely key to understanding the organisation’s evolution.

Unlike Dubai which has the billion pound Meydan complex as a focal point for the sport in the UAE the Qataris chose instead to invest their money in Europe without much of that money trickling in to the coffers of Al Rayyan racecourse in Doha.

There was a time when Qatar had hoped to send horses over to England. Dubday, a Qatari champion owned by Al Shaqab, was campaigned in Britain by Jassim Ghazali and won at the inaugural Qatar Goodwood Festival in 2015. Since then, Qatari trainers have been thin on the ground in Britain. Other than the Emir’s Trophy however, the game in Qatar is struggling for investment.

Instead Al Shaqab and Qipco went straight for the heart of the sport in Europe, and now sponsor between them not only the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown but the entire elite game in Britain in the guise of the Champion Series. To be clear, Al Shaqab is run as an extension of the Gulf State by Sheikh Joaan, the brother of the Emir of Qatar. Qipco is a private Qatari company driven by Sheikh Fahad bin Abdullah Al Thani, the first cousin to the Emir, and his brothers.

For some, Qatar’s involvement in racing is too coincidental. Qipco set up the British Champions Series in 2011, the year after Qatar won the subsequently disgraced bidding process for the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

Qatar’s sponsorship of the Arc ends in 2022, also. Qatari insiders maintain that the coincidence is ‘just by chance’, and that the sponsorship will be extended, just as Qipco renewed their backing of the Champions Series in 2015 until 2024, the same year that Qatar’s support of Goodwood also ends.

Will any of this money result in Doha being handed a shiny new racing facility?

“Obviously the ambition is to build a state of the art racecourse, but when that will happen I do not know,” Herbert said. “There are obviously a lot of other things going on here in Qatar, not least the imminent football World Cup.

“They have done a lot of work here in Qatar. The protocols have had to be set up and horsemen are more confident of brining their horses here due to the work done to the surface of the track. It is much more organized now and Nasser Sherida Al Kaabi has knocked it in to shape. And there is excellent prize-money, too.”

Where Qatar is completely hamstrung in its efforts, however, is by the political and physical blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia and the neighbouring United Arab Emirates. This has been in place since June, and does not look like ending any time soon.

This is sure to be a pivotal, and crucial, year for Al Shaqab, and they will have to do it all without Herbert.