The UAE Royalty 1: May 2004

[La la]

I never thought Rashid looked good. But I guess he is quite cute after all... nice muscles too.

[La la]

Bibi, can you read Arabic? There is an article about Sheikh Tamim with an up close picture on www.elaph.com. I can not read Arabic so I can't tell you for sure what the article is about! :(

[silver charm]

Thought you all might be find this interesting. It was posted on the Thoroughbred Times forums......

"The owner of the 2000 guineas winner Haafhd, Mr Hamdan al maktoum one of the wealthiest and nicest guys around gave a very generous donation of €100,000 to my local primary school in batterstown co meath. He owns the local woodpark stud where many of his staff send their kids to batterstown primary school . The parents asked the stud for a donation of €20,000 but when Mr maktoum found out he felt €100,000 was more appropiate. I know €100,000 is nothing to him but its still nice to see such acts of generosity."

Good guys finish first.

[La la]

Originally posted by silver charm@May 25th, 2004 - 8:48 am
Thought you all might be find this interesting. It was posted on the Thoroughbred Times forums......

"The owner of the 2000 guineas winner Haafhd, Mr Hamdan al maktoum one of the wealthiest and nicest guys around gave a very generous donation of €100,000 to my local primary school in batterstown co meath. He owns the local woodpark stud where many of his staff send their kids to batterstown primary school . The parents asked the stud for a donation of €20,000 but when Mr maktoum found out he felt €100,000 was more appropiate. I know €100,000 is nothing to him but its still nice to see such acts of generosity."

Good guys finish first.

Is it Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum we are talking about?

[silver charm]

Nope, sorry.

It's the greatest racehorse owner of all time!!!! Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum! He's definately not gossip worthy in terms of looks but the man is an absolute racing genius. Which makes him very interesting to me indeed.

[La la]

OK, I don't know much about Sheikh Hamdan bin Saeed; I certainly did not expect this. What do you know about his business acumen? It is always nice to more about them. B)

[silver charm]

It's generally assumed among the three brothers (Shk Maktoum-eldest, Shk Hamdan & Shk Mo) who effectively run Dubai that Shk Mo is the showman of the group. He's quite charismatic. Shk Hamdan is an absolute brainbox. And Shk Maktoum is the elder statesman. All these guys are in their 50s and I think Skh Maktoum is in his 60s.

Skh Hamdan is the Minister of Finance & Industry but like the rest of the brothers (if not the whole family) dodges the spotlight. I have never read anything about him in regads to business just that the 3brothers are in constant contact and run the Dubai show cooperatively.

Everything I've ever read about Shk Hamdan is about his racing acumen-which is all I really care about. Shk Hamdan is known in the racing world for watching a line of his ponies trot and being able to rattle of the breeding lines of each one from memory. A very difficult task given the state of today's thoroughbred breeding. He has also campaigned very successfully 'homebreds' (horses he has bred-not bought at auction). The only other owners with such a success rate is the Ballydoyle group and the Aga Khan. Successful homebreeding is the ultimate sign of 'knowing your stuff' in racing. He is very well known in racing but once again is usually outshined by his baby brother Mo. I am in complete and total awe of his racing knowledge, instinct & accomplishments.

I used to go to Nad al Sheba during the races because I wanted to meet the man who I think is one of the greatest owners on the planet but he never goes to the races-only the Dubai World Cup. I'm sorry to bore those that are not into racing but it is my passion.

[QueenB]

Lala, I think you're right, I think Jass of Qatar did enjoy his former position, but I read in an article about his abdication was also because he never wanted to be CP. There were so many articles written about his abdication, but they all seem to repeat the same thing - as though they just reprinted the same article over and over again.
I think Jassim is so cute , actually to me he is cuter than Prince Hamzah and Prince Ali of Jordan. :flower:
Tamim looks really, really happy to be CP. He's always I think the Emir gave Tamim more power though.
Thanks a lot for the link :flower:. I can't read Arabic either. Too bad there isn't an English version of the website.

I think Jass and Tamim has 2 older brothers. I read none of the older brothers wanted to be CP either .

I think Hamdan and Rashid look a lot a like . Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart ! Why doesn't Sheikh Mo have any pictures of the older daughters on his site - he has two older daughters right? I was going to email Sheikh Mo, to ask him if he could update the pictures of Hamdan and Rashid to more recent ones as the ones on the site look a few years old - because the princes look so very young .

Bibi :flower:

[pallas athina]

I've also wondered why SMo hasn't updated the pictures of his children. :(

[silver charm]

A few years ago the photos of ShkMo's kids were not staged portraits as they are now. They were candid family snapshots. Some of them were downright cute-especially the girls. They really played it up for the camera. But those photos were replaced by these staged portraits and I don't think they showcase the kids and family in the best of light. Also the kids are getting older-it won't be that easy to get good photos of them. (You know how teenagers are.) I'm quite happy SkhMo has his kids on his website are they are not treated like some great mystery.

Give the guy a break. He's got a job to do & he does it well. Helping us analyse Shk Rashid vs Shk Hamdan's muscle build is not his priority.

[La la]

I also think that Hamdan and Rashid look very much alike. I always presume that the cuter one is Hamdan.. hehe. It is hard to be on either side of the fence. When our school was going on camping my sister was sick. Her teacher came to me and said "Oh, you are here. I thought you were sick today".

I have to agree, Jassim is VERY cute! I also find him more exotic and handsome than Hamzah and Ali. Have you ever been to Qatar or the UAE? Where can you find a spontaneous glimpse of all these drop-dead Sheikhs? As for Sheikh Hamdan and Rashid, da best catch would be Go-dolphin (Nad al-Sheba?), wot say Silver Charm?

It is an old Bedouin tradition not to publicize pictures of Sheikhas (their wives and teenage daughters). The emiratis have been good at preserving and adhering to that. You are not supposed to ask Arabs about their wives or daughters either (at least if you are a male).

But there are always exceptions. Sheikha Lubna, head of Tejari.com, has managed to carve a niche of her own. I have seen many pictures of her. I think this will change with time. Dubai is quite liberal. But Bahrain, Kuwait and, Qatar seem to lead the competition. I realized it when you told me about Sheikh Jassems mother being interviewed on the television.

[La la]

Thank you for the info about Sheikh Hamdan, Silver Charm! :flower:

I had no clue he was into horses I must admit. As you mentioned, Sheikh Mo and his boys always outshine everyone. But I have seen a picture or two of Sheikh Hamdan and his sons. They must be into horses as well! Did you live there for a long time?

[silver charm]

All of the Maktoums are into horsies and they babble on and on about how it's Arab tradition. I think there is a quote from Shk Mo about how it's in his blood since he's an Arab and from the desert and all. But a good friend of mine who rides endurance (sometimes even beats the sheikhs) will tell you all this is a bunch of hype because there weren't horses in the UAE until the 70's. It could be the 60's but I'm pretty sure it was the 70's. Of course horses were in the Arabian desert years and years ago since the stallion and mare that originated today's thoroughbred are descendants of gifts from the Sultan of Oman to the King of France in 1700's-could be 1800's. (Okay, I was never much for dates.)

Okay, long story short... Shk Hamdan's kids are into endurance also.

Also there was a photo exhibition in Dubai a couple of years ago with old photos of the sheikhs. One of the photos was Shk Mo's wedding to Shka Hind where there was some sort of horsie festival tied into the whole celebration. The photo was of Shk Mo jumping from one galloping horse to another. I just can't wait to see what he cooks up for his new bride!

[La la]

Sheikh Mo's daughter Maitha

[silver charm]

Beautiful eyes. Mo should be proud.

[La la]

I know, VERY beautiful eyes. They must be Mama's.

Nice smile too.

[pallas athina]

Originally posted by silver charm@May 26th, 2004 - 8:53 am
Give the guy a break. He's got a job to do & he does it well. Helping us analyse Shk Rashid vs Shk Hamdan's muscle build is not his priority.

Oh come on, he could at least delegate the responsibility for updating the pictures. I thought he was a humanitarian after all.

[silver charm]

Just check out endurance websites for hunky photos of sheikhs sweating.

Mmmmm....I wonder what Sheikh Hazza's been up to lately???

[QueenB]

Hi Everyone
Lala, thanks for the link to the pic of Sheikh Mo's daughter. I couldn't tell them apart - Rashid and Hamdan in a couple of pictures I saw of them, especially from the side. I keep hearing Hamdan is the cuter one though.
I haven't been to the UAE.... Why are the rulers in the UAE called Emir or Prince and not King? Bahrain, etc. they use the title King.
I have one question for you... I was looking up pics on Sheikh Jass on that same site, but there were none - only some older guy kept popping up. Then this picture came up

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/CF...1842&print=true
It says:
Caption:
DOHA, QATAR: Sheikh Jassem bin Hamad Al-Thani, head of Qatar club holds up the Crown Prince Cup of the Qatar winners' trophy after the match against al-Sadd at the al-Rayan Stadium in Doha 01 May 2004.

But that looks nothing like the Jassim I've seen in pictures and on some television clips. It has to be an error. :o Hope adorable Jassim didn't morph into that! :o :P

There are also lots of pictures - well more than I've ever seen - of Tamim, a couple of him in Paris and in a suit. He's really tall, do you think he's over 6 Feet?

Silver Charm, I've heard and read about the great job Sheikh Mo is doing - but this isn't about his job, it's about determining which of his sons is the hottest and to do so, we need pictures, lots of pictures ! Hehehehe , just kidding... Now what makes you think that we want the updated pics of Hamdan and Rashid, just to compare their muscle builds :P ? Okay, well maybe just to compare them once in a while..... ahem But seriously, it would be kinda nice to see some recent pictures of the Princes on his site. Perhaps it is like every father, they still see their grown children as little - maybe he likes those better.

Yeah Sheikh M is said to be a Humanitarian........ I'm sure it wouldn't be the first request to add new pictures of his sons :P .

Bibi :flower:

[Lalla Meriem]

They are Emirs because they rule Emirates. Simple enough. Emir is actually Arabic for Prince and Emira for Princess. Atleast according to all the translators I used it is.

Bahrain only recently became a Kingdom. Just a few years ago, in fact. Before he was just another Emir.