Racing: Maktoums ease back

(First Edition)

THE SUGGESTION that the Maktoum family would boycott this week's sales at Keeneland, Kentucky, seems rather at odds with their final spending figures, dollars 8,905,000 (pounds 6.1m) in two days which secured 26 yearlings at the world's premier sale.

Although they accounted for 18.18 per cent of receipts at the sale, the Maktoums were not the dominant force of the past. Up until 1991 they regularly accounted for 40 per cent of revenue. Both the sale's million-dollar buys - colts by Dayjur and Mr Prospector - were made by Americans.