Interview: Khalid Abdullah talks to Brough Scott about his racing life

First published in the Racing Post on June 13, 2010

Prince Khalid Abdullah was amused by the memories. "You need to be lucky," he says, as if this could explain the 30 years of glittering success crowned by Workforce's Derby last Saturday. "This year, for example, I have won two Classics with Special Duty while being second." The Prince's smile is a slow one – but he likes it that way.

Courtesy should never be confused with softness, nor shyness with lack of will. For two hours in Paris on Thursday morning, Prince Khalid talked of a racing passion first lit when friends took him to Longchamp back in 1956. Never once did the courtesy or the self-effacing shyness slip, yet neither did the impression alter that the unique achievements of the prince's international Juddmonte empire still depend on having this remarkable owner-breeder at the heart of it all.