Saeed bin Suroor has proved he's no puppet - and he can still pull the strings when he gets a good one

When Saeed bin Suroor arrived in Britain in the mid-90s he seemed to be considered little more than a figurehead for Godolphin. As Lammtarra, Swain and others were strutting their stuff, it was assumed by many that a former policeman didn’t have much to do with training them.

Yet almost 30 years later Bin Suroor has outlasted all the assistants and his 500th worldwide Group or Graded winner, from Mawj in last Saturday’s QEII Challenge Cup at Keeneland, is a commendable achievement by any standard.

The funny thing is that while he has long been a recognisable face, he’s just as much of an enigma. Bin Suroor trained a few horses himself in Dubai before catching the eye of Sheikh Mohammed and has been in the ruler’s employ ever since, forever the company man deflecting praise and scrupulously managing to give away very little about himself.