THEY say racing is the sport of kings – but to get an idea of the riches of some of the biggest owners, it’s probably better to say it’s the sport of prime ministers!
That’s because no one in the game has a sprawling property empire quite like Sheikh Mohammed, PM of the UAE and ruler of Dubai.
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Worth up to an estimated £10.7billion, this massive supporter of racing around the globe and owner of Godolphin lives a life of total luxury.
That includes a 531ft superyacht and astonishing property empire in Britain – worth a combined half a BILLION pounds.
And those are in addition to his ownership of the Burj Al Arab, the world’s most luxurious hotel and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Let’s look at the yacht though, the gigantic 531ft vessel – about three football pitches – that requires 88 crew to keep it looking ship-shape.
It was completed in 2006 and the yacht – which, until 2009, was the largest in the world – is usually moored at Sheikh Mohammed’s private island in front of his summer palace in Dubai.
The sheer size of the thing beggars belief.
There is a helipad, enough space over its eight decks for 115 guests and even an onboard disco.
There is a massive dining room for entertaining visitors, a cinema, a submarine and even a squash court.
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The 10m pool on the top is connected to not one but two Jacuzzis, with breathtaking views out over the ocean.
Winding staircases connect one storey to another and there are reported to be three lifts inside too.
The enormous yacht has a top speed of 30mph and its 1.2million litre diesel tanks mean it can travel 8,500 nautical miles.
The yacht is basically a floating palace – and a world away from the real-life palace he owns in the UK.
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The true scale of the Sheikh’s investment in UK property hasn’t been confirmed – but even what is publicly known is mind-blowing.
It includes the £13m purchase of Woodhay in Surrey in 2021, a house marketed as a ‘palatial and aesthetically beautiful mansion’.
Woodhay boasts ten bedrooms, a swimming pool, and a cinema, all set in ten hectares of parkland located four miles from Ascot – where the Sheikh races his thoroughbred horses on the Flat.
There is the £75m Longcross House near Chobham in Surrey.
The historic estate purchased by Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s to escape the stifling summer heat in the Gulf.
And another of the Sheikh’s properties is Dalham Hall.
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He snapped up the Suffolk estate in 2009 for £45m and it now serves as grade II-listed stud farm near Newmarket racecourse.
The country pile, which boasts 3,300 acres of land, was once owned by British diamond magnate and imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
But even that estate is dwarfed by his 14-bed holiday home in the Scottish Highlands, which is on a 63,000-acre estate.
The home, which has helipads for up to three choppers, was also embroiled in a planning row when the Sheikh – who in December 2021 was ordered to pay £554m as part of Britain’s biggest ever divorce settlement – planned to add a hunting lodge and a laundry to clean guests’ clothes.
Those are just mansions that are known about – he is also believed to have properties in some of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
One of his family’s companies bought a house in Eaton Square in Belgravia in 2013 for £17.3m.
The square was named the most expensive place to buy property in Britain in 2016.
But even the hefty price tag on that purchase may have been eclipsed by the sale of a six-storey property in Knightsbridge four years ago.
When Rutland House hit the market in 2018, it made headlines for its staggering £61.5m price.
No one knew who’d bought the mega-pad, which came complete with an underground pool, cinema and aquarium.
But The Guardian allege it was bought by Lizzium Ltd, a business based in the tax haven of Jersey, which also owns Warren Towers, another of Sheikh Mohammed’s Newmarket properties.
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It’s also not known how much property the Dubai ruler actually owns in Newmarket, which has become something of a home from home for him.
As well as Warren Towers and Dalham Hall, Sheikh Mohammed has two vast horseracing stables there.
They’re part of Godolphin, his family’s Thoroughbred company which has stables around the world and produces some of the most sought-after stallions on the planet.
His love of horseracing has reportedly led him to pour more than £600m into the sport over the last decade, and he was pictured with the Queen at prestigious events like Royal Ascot.
It’s thought his properties in Newmarket could now account for as much as half the town, made up of paddocks, stables, and even dozens of ordinary houses.
