Tributes have been paid to Khalid Abdullah, who became so immensely successful an owner that to reel off a list of his best horses is nearly the same as telling the story of British Flat racing over the last 40 years. The man whose breeding operation brought forth Frankel and Enable, among more than 100 top-class performers, died on Tuesday. He is believed to have been aged 83, though it appears there is no precise record of the day he was born in Saudi Arabia in 1937. Having been a casual follower of the sport for some 20 years, Abdullah began buying racehorses in the late 70s and enjoyed almost immediate success when his Known Fact won the 2,000 Guineas in 1980, thanks to the controversial disqualification for interference of Nureyev. The owner’s green, white and pink silks quickly became familiar to fans and, from the outset, they were involved in some of the sport’s most memorable moments. His first Arc success was also the result of a stewards’ inquiry, after Rainbow Quest was repeatedly bumped by Sagace in 1985, but much more satisfying was the following year’s triumph by Dancing Brave, sweeping up the middle of the Longchamp straight past one of the best fields ever assembled for the French race. On the other hand, Dancing Brave’s Derby defeat still causes many a punter to throw up his hands in horror at the memory of how much ground he was asked to make up. “The Prince”, as he was often referred to, was thought a lucky man to have owned a colt as fine as Dancing Brave at such an early stage of his involvement in the game. Form judges of the time doubted he would ever get his hands on a better animal but the final years of Abdullah’s life brought Frankel, an unbeaten champion whose fame spread far beyond horse racing and who now has a high-earning second career as a stallion in Newmarket. The highly strung, hard-to-manage Frankel was perfectly handled by his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, a just reward for Abdullah, who had supported Cecil during some lean years, when almost all other owners had gone elsewhere. Cecil was all but forced into retirement by 2005, when he was left with just 10 horses capable of winning a race; Abdullah owned seven of them. It was an example of the owner’s loyalty, frequently mentioned by admirers on Tuesday evening, and it meant everything to Cecil, who once compared himself to the type of horse Abdullah’s Juddmonte operation typically produced. “I’d like to think I was late-maturing and I like those sort of horses. And his horses, a lot of them are just taking a bit of time but they’re worth waiting for,” the trainer said as he prepared Frankel for a second Royal Ascot success in 2012. But a wide variety of horses achieved glory under the Abdullah silks, from the course record-breaking speedster Oasis Dream through stellar milers like Zafonic and Kingman to middle-distance Classic winners. Quest For Fame, Commander In Chief and Workforce all won the Derby, while Abdullah shares the record for Arc victories at six. Enable’s first Arc win in 2018 is thought to have been her owner’s final day at the races. He had many other top-class animals, including the Breeders’ Cup heroines Midday and Banks Hill, the doughty Twice Over, the durable Famous Name and the rather fortunate Special Duty. Though it hardly seems possible, he is said to have watched every race he was involved in and would often let his trainers know what he thought of the outcome. “He was humorous but steely, tough,” recalled John Gosden, trainer of Enable. “You better be on your mettle with him. We had an awful lot of fun together and when they got beaten, he took it hard. It was a passion for him, he always referred to it as his one great luxury.” “I owe him everything,” said Roger Charlton, whose very first season in charge of Beckhampton Stables resulted in Derby wins at Epsom and Chantilly, thanks to Quest For Fame and Sanglamore. “He had real passion for it, which is so important. Any owner-breeder goes through rough patches, bad years, bad horses, they come around and that’s what we have to deal with, but his passion was always there, right to the end.”