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“P---ed off”: Hawkes stable blindsided by Sheikh Fahad
Andrew Slevison • May 5th, 2025 1:37 pm
Wayne Hawkes has revealed that West Of Swindon will no longer be trained by Team Hawkes.
The two-year-old colt has been taken out of the care of the Hawkes’ with majority owner Sheikh Fahad Al Thani from Qatar Racing opting to send him elsewhere.
West Of Swindon will now be trained by Ciaron Maher.
Hawkes said the Sheikh went about accumulating more than 50 per cent of the shares in the Wootton Bassett juvenile in order to take the horse away from the Hawkes stable.
“Everything was great, everything was fine, everything was fantastic,” Hawkes revealed on SENTrack’s Giddy Up.
“Sheikh Fahad then came along in the start of the new year and said he wanted to buy people out up to the value of $5 million, just trying to buy their shares out. That’s when we thought, ‘Oh yeah, here we go, something’s going on here, he’s offering crazy money for this horse’. Of which some people did cash in.
“Then we raced the horse and he did what he did in the autumn. Apparently Sheikh Fahad flew down and had a meeting with one owner who had 20 per cent of the horse. I’m not sure what the deal was but it gave Sheikh Fahad 55 per cent so they gave us the arse. It’s as simple as that.”
Hawkes admits the stable was blindsided by the decision.
“He just took the horse off us. Pretty disappointing and I was a bit p---ed off, there’s no doubt about that,” Hawkes added.
“Why would you be happy? The bloke has gone around behind the backdoor and done what he’s done.
“That’s ok. When you’re the son of a ruling family you can probably walk around and do what you want whenever you want.
“Good luck to them. I’m just lucky that he’s not my best two-year-old in the stable. But it’s a pretty fair kick in the guts.”
West Of Swindon has had three career starts for two seconds, most recently running 13th in the Golden Slipper in March.
