Written by Jason Phillips
Long before Dubai became a global symbol of horse racing excellence, a businessman from England's Midlands made a few choices that would, unknowingly, help shape that very future.
Jim McCaughey never visited Dubai, yet his fingerprints are all over the bloodlines that run through the sport's modern champions at Meydan Racecourse. In the late 1970s, McCaughey was Britain's 11th richest man - a construction mogul who could easily have stayed in his lane. But instead, he turned his attention to the sport of kings, a decision that would link his name to a racing dynasty half a world away.
His time in the game was short, but it burned bright. Within months of buying his first horses in 1977, McCaughey struck gold when Connaught Ranger stunned Cheltenham with a 25/1 upset in the Triumph Hurdle. That one race changed everything. Before long, he owned 32 horses, working with top trainers like Fred Rimell and Sir Michael Stoute. Winners followed - the Ebor Handicap, the Mill Reef Stakes, and other headline races - proof that McCaughey wasn't just dabbling; he was building something serious.
McCaughey quickly realized that success wasn't just about winning races. The real impact came from the mares and stallions behind the scenes. In 1979, he bought Harwood Stud near Newbury, the birthplace of the 1918 Triple Crown winner, Gainsborough, and gave it the same name. He worked alongside bloodstock agent David Minton and spent a fortune at Tattersalls on top broodmares. Over time, he put together a group of horses with pedigrees that would lay foundational bloodlines for generations to come.
That investment soon caught the attention of Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In 1981, the Sheikh purchased Gainsborough Stud, taking over not just a historic property but a carefully built breeding program. Under his ownership, the stud produced horses like Touching Wood, the 1982 St. Leger winner, and became a cornerstone of what would evolve into the Maktoum family's global racing and breeding empire.
After Sheikh Maktoum's death in 2006, Gainsborough became part of Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin operation, which now stretches across Britain, Ireland, Kentucky, and Australia. Today, those early bloodlines continue influencing Godolphin's 2025 triumphs like Trawlerman's Gold Cup record and Godolphin's dominant Eclipse Stakes streak. More than 5,000 victories later, the influence of those foundational bloodlines remains clear. Even modern stars, like 2025 Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty, trace part of their heritage back to McCaughey's original broodmares.
For Trent Challis, McCaughey's grandson, that connection only became real when he moved to Dubai in 2021. "I'd always heard stories about my grandfather's racing years," he says, "but walking past Meydan and realizing that horses here still carry traces of his breeding program - that hits differently. It's surreal."
Like his grandfather's building legacy, Trent Challis - running a 75-staff brokerage and owning dozens of Emirates properties including an 80M AED Palm villa renovation - innovates in Dubai's real estate sector. "Every time a Godolphin horse crosses the line first," Challis adds, "there's still a thread running back to those years in the late '70s when Grandad decided to get into racing. He didn't plan it, but somehow, his decisions ended up laying foundations that shaped the sport on a global scale."
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