LEGENDARY Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said he was ‘living the dream’ after netting a whopping £945,000 in Saudi Arabia.
Fergie was on hand at Riyadh racecourse to cheer home his star horse Spirit Dancer – who he bred himself – as he swooped late to bag the Neom Turf Cup at the glittering Saudi Cup meeting.
It is the second huge prize-fund the horse has won in a matter of months, having also netted Fergie and his co-owners Ged Mason and Peter Done £500,000 in Bahrain in November.
Fergie revealed he broke a rib when celebrating that race after Mason hoisted him in the air with a bear hug.
There were no bear hugs in sights this time – but his hearing aid did get knocked out during the celebrations!
On paper it looked like he would have a tough task beating the hot favourite Luxembourg.
But he stormed home under Oisin Orr to win comfortably by a length and take his earnings through the £1.7million mark.
He has had plenty of success with racehorses in the past, including with Rock Of Gibraltar who was a champion on the Flat in the early 2000’s, and the dual King George winner Clan Des Obeaux.
But this was extra special given he bred the horse – who’s dad is the great racehorse Frankel – with Niall McLoughlin, who runs the football icon’s Upperwood Farm Stud near in Hertfordshire.
Sir Alex grinned: “We are living the dream, one hundred per cent.
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“It’s fantastic, a friend of mine encouraged me to have a stud in Hemel Hempstead, we bought a mare from the trainer Andreas Wohler in Germany and you can see the results today with this horse.
“His trainer Richard (Fahey) said he would have a chance but you can never be too confident in a race like this.
“He’s by Frankel, they’ll go up mountains for you.”
The Old Trafford hero recently broke the world-record fee paid for a National Hunt horse when spending £633,000 on Caldwell Potter at a sale in Ireland.
The ultimate dream with that horse, who has switched from Gordon Elliott to Paul Nicholls and will miss the Cheltenham Festival, is to win the Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
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Jack Keene
