Family takes another step toward goal

To the uninitiated, the names alone are dizzying.

There is Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and owner of Bernardini, the favorite in the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

There is Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, Sheik Mohammed’s brother and Dubai’s deputy ruler and minister of finance, the owner of Invasor, another contender in the Classic.

And there is Sheik Rashid bin Mohammed al Maktoum, the 25-year-old son of Sheik Mohammed and the owner of Henny Hughes, the favorite in the $2-million Sprint.

The family’s horses race under the names of Godolphin, Darley Stable, Shadwell Stable and Zabeel Racing International, but the Maktoums increasingly have one goal.

They may well clean up in the Breeders’ Cup here Saturday, but their real goal is to win the famous race below the twin spires of Churchill on the first Saturday in May.

Sheik Mohammed first began talking of taking the Kentucky Derby in 1999, and last spring, giddy after attending his first run for the roses, Sheik Hamdan told Rick Nichols, head of Shadwell’s U.S. operations, “We’ve got to win this one.”

Five weeks later, the Maktoums’ assault on the Triple Crown was well underway.

Bernardini won the Preakness in a scintillating performance that received scant notice because of Derby winner Barbaro’s gruesome injury. Then Sheik Hamdan’s Jazil, who had run fourth in a dead heat in the Derby, won the Belmont.

Though it occasionally appears members of the family do a delicate dance trying to avoid each other’s horses the way the Williams sisters sometimes avoid each other in tennis, it will be brother-against-brother for Sheik Mohammed and Sheik Hamdan in the Classic.

“They’re sportsmen,” said Kiaran McLaughlin, who trains Sheik Hamdan’s Invasor and spent 10 years wintering in Dubai as Sheik Mohammed’s personal trainer.

“They run against each other all the time,” McLaughlin said. “They pull for one another, yet they are happy to beat one another.”

The Maktoums’ commitment and their vast wealth were evident at pastoral Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., at the recent September Yearling Sale, where the annual arrival of the sheiks aboard private 747s at tiny Blue Grass Airport brings visions of greenbacks to Kentucky horsemen.

Sheik Mohammed wandered the grounds without a kaffiyeh, or traditional Arab headdress, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt as he personally inspected horses.

When the sale ended, his bloodstock advisor, John Ferguson, had spent an astonishing $59.9 million on 34 yearlings -- including $11.7 million on a Kingmambo colt, $9.2 million on a son of the late Danzig and another $8.2 million on a Storm Cat colt.

It was the eighth year in a row Ferguson has been the top buyer at Keeneland’s September sale, spending more than $240 million. Sheik Hamdan was no small player at this year’s sale either, spending more than $16 million.

The Maktoums’ focus has shifted in recent years from buying horses bred for racing in Dubai and Europe, where they have long been dominant, to American racing.

Although Sheik Mohammed has won seven Breeders’ Cup races as an owner or part owner, five of them have been on grass, and he has never won the Classic.

Bernardini’s victory in the Preakness suggests he might be getting closer to the elusive Derby.

“I tried to win the Kentucky Derby buying European-type horses, and it did not work,” Sheik Mohammed told a small group of industry reporters at the Keeneland sale.

“European horses look different than American horses. So three years ago, I started to buy to race in America, and we went for the American type of horses. That’s why we are successful.”

The scope of the Maktoums’ worldwide operation is mind-boggling.

Godolphin racehorses alone have run in 298 races this year, winning $10.3 million.

But racing is only a small part of the picture. The family also has a massive horse-breeding operation.

Darley is standing 52 stallions in seven countries this year, including Australia and Japan. The Maktoums own two Kentucky horse farms, Gainsborough -- formerly owned by Sheik Maktoum, the late ruler of Dubai -- and an old-line farm named Jonabell.

Jimmy Bell, who became the president of Darley USA after his family sold Jonabell to the Maktoums in 2001, said the U.S. operation has 11 stallions, 150 broodmares and 100 horses in training, including about 40 to 50 2-year-olds, one of whom might become Sheik Mohammed’s Derby winner.

“He’s made a very definite plan for the stallion operation, and he has a commitment to American racing,” Bell said.

Whether 747s carrying the sheiks from Dubai might arrive in Louisville before Saturday remains uncertain.

Even if the Maktoums are not here, their presence will be felt.

Some American horsemen might find that intimidating, but the influx of dollars to a struggling industry is welcome.

“To have some sheik offer a lot of money for a horse is exciting. It’s great for the breeders,” said Doug O’Neill, the trainer of Lava Man, the onetime $50,000 claimer who will go against Bernardini and Invasor in the Classic.

“That’s the beauty of this game,” O’Neill said. “You can still get a horse like Lava Man or Seattle Slew. Money obviously doesn’t guarantee results.”

No, but it helps.

“It’s just a matter of time,” said Dan Hendricks, trainer of Brother Derek, another horse in the Classic. “They did it in Europe with grass pedigrees and grass horses. Then they expressed their desire to win the classics here, and it was just a matter of time. They not only bought up the dirt pedigrees, but now they’ll be breeding the dirt pedigrees. And with their numbers and their money, it’s inevitable that they’re going to be winning the races.

“We’ll be throwing Brother Dereks and Lava Mans at ‘em as we go.”

robyn.norwood@latimes.com