Furious owner removes all his horses from trainers’ yard after odds-on shot gets thrashed
FURIOUS owner Sheikh Obaid has removed all his horses from a trainers' yard - after an odds-on shot got thrashed.
A year after sacking his retained jockey Andrea Atzeni, he’s now got the hump with father-son duo Simon and Ed Crisford.
He’s removed all his horses from their Newmarket stable and sent them up north to Karl Burke in Yorkshire.
The Sheikh is not shy at letting his feelings known and infamously fell out with legendary trainer Luca Cumani.
That led to multiple Group 1-winning superstar Postponed switching yards to Roger Varian.
The Crisfords will be fine without the Sheikh and still have plenty of support from wealthy Middle Eastern owners.
But it’s a blow nonetheless to lose such a powerful player and big spender from the yard.
The icing on the cake was apparently the defeat of odds-on favourite South Shore at Sandown last Friday.
South Shore was sent off 4-6 fav for a Class 4 5f maiden but finished 11 lengths behind 15-8 winner Cover Point on just his second start.
That two-year-old and the likes of Dukeman, Bolster and Bystander are already in the care of Burke.
The Crisfords have plenty of ammo still, none more so than top juvenile Vandeek who runs in next weekend’s Group 1 Middle Park.
Atzeni has partnered him so far this season but he’s now in Hong Kong so team Crisford have handed the ride to James Doyle.
Sheikh Obaid follows in the footsteps of Sheikh Abdullah, who admitted to being 'angry' when he pulled all his horses from George Boughey's yard.
The breaking point came after a bust-up over Asadna, the £160,000 horse 'broke the clock' on debut at Ripon in May yet has failed to win since and flopped at Royal Ascot.
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