APQEII Cup News : Bin Suroor - a been-there, won-that trainer of champions

16 April 2002

Bin Suroor

Sha Tin racecourse is familiar and friendly territory for Saeed bin Suroor. It is where he won the 1996 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (Domestic Gr.1) with Overbury, and the 2000 Hong Kong Cup (Gr.1) with Fantastic Light.

Both horses, of course, are owned by members of Dubai's Maktoum family, for which bin Suroor exclusively trains. To those who aspire towards careers with internationally competitive racehorses, bin Suroor's job is viewed as one of the best in the world, and he has held it for the past seven years.

Bin Suroor late this week will fly into Hong Kong to send out another Maktoum horse, Grandera (Ire), to contest the HK$14-million Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup (now international Group 1) at Sha Tin on Sunday.

A four-year-old colt by Grand Lodge, Grandera placed three times in Grade 1 company in Europe last year. The Maktoums bought him privately, and have entrusted bin Suroor with the task of making Grandera a Group 1 winner. That could happen in the AP QE II Cup.

Soft-spoken, courteous, protective about his family life and professionally brilliant, bin Suroor is a native of Dubai and made his living as a policeman before getting involved with racehorses. He took out his first trainer's licence in 1994, set up shop at his home country's Nad al Sheba racecourse in February, 1995, and within two months was working for the Maktoums.

Since then, bin Suroor has matured into one of the most respected thoroughbred conditioners on the globe. The World Series Racing Championship (WSRC) is now in its fourth year, and the first three WSRC world champions have all been trained by bin Suroor - Daylami (Ire) in 1999, Fantastic Light in 2000, and Fantastic Light again in 2001.
How does he do it? "I am given good horses," bin Suroor said, with characteristic understatement. But it is a trainer's job to see that those good horses perform up to their potential, and, year after year, the Maktoum runners do.

What a list of achievements! In 1995, bin Suroor registered an extraordinary triple when he sent out Lammtarra to win the Epsom Derby (Gr.1), the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (Gr.1) and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1).

In 1997, bin Suroor repeated in the King George with Swain, who went on to win the race again the following year. In 1998, bin Suroor further won the Irish Champion Stakes (Gr.1) with Swain, and sent out Kayf Tara to the colt's first of two consecutive triumphs in the Irish St. Leger Stakes (Gr.1).

In North America, bin Suroor's accomplishments include a pair of victories in the Breeders' Cup Turf (Gr.1), with Daylami in 1999 and Fantastic Light in 2001.

Bin Suroor currently has two homes, one in Dubai, the other in Newmarket, England, where the horses belonging to the Maktoum family's Godolphin Stable train during the British flat-racing season. Bin Suroor has a wife and children, but declines to talk publicly about them. "I prefer to keep that part of my life private," he said.

In 1999, bin Suroor won the world's richest race, the Dubai World Cup (Gr.1) with Almutawakel. He won it again in 2000 with Dubai Millennium, and on March 23 this year, he registered his third win in that race with Street Cry (Ire).

The World Cup is the first of the 14 races that comprise this 2002 WSRC competition. Sunday's AP QE II Cup is the second.

The Maktoums provide the horses. Bin Suroor provides the training expertise. It's a winning combination on a global scale which on Sunday will vie for another major prize at Sha Tin.