Billionaire Royal Prince and Boxer Who Is Friends With Conor McGregor Makes Big Moves in the Horse Racing Market.
Conor McGregor has created a reputation for himself in MMA that is second to none. When you are the highest-paid athlete in the world, you’re bound to get familiar with the very cream of global society. So, it comes as no surprise to us that one of McGregor’s friends is a member of the Bahraini royal family. His name is Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al Khalifa.
Why has Sheikh Khalid made headlines recently?
What is more interesting than the Bahraini royal’s friendship with Conor McGregor is his interest in combat sports as well as horse racing. In the ring, Sheikh Khalid is known as ‘the Prince of Pain’ and has made a prodigious boxing record. His boxing match videos are on YouTube. Aside from that, the Prince of Pain also serves as an officer in the Bahraini military.
Over the past few weeks, Sheikh Khalid has made headlines for some entirely different reasons. He has made investments in the British horse racing circuit and moved his own brand, titled KNK Racing, into the top 10 racing operations list in the world.
One of his prized and dearly-purchased horses named Eldar Eldarov, named after a Bahraini MMA fighter, came in first at the Saint Leger race at Doncaster on September 11. This earned KNK racing 446 £100,000 which almost covers the price of purchasing the horse itself.
One of his other top-performing purchases in the horse racing circuit includes the blazing-fast Sekheer who is among the favorites to land the next year’s 2000 Guineas race. KNK racing also owned the late Coroebus who consistently earned top spots in prestigious races before his fatal fall a couple of weeks ago during a prestigious race.
How Well Has KHK Racing Done in 2022?
KHK Racing has only made 27 runs and secured 8 winners in all on the Flat in Britain so far this year but earned £712,321 in return. For context, Godolphin, a decades-old racing operation owned by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed. They have 578 runs and 161 winners for earnings above £6.4m.
So, we can say Sheikh Khalid is making some high-value purchases and seeing returns from them this year. Since the Prince has an active interest in combat sports including mixed martial arts, we can expect some attention to go towards the sport from his investments and purchase decisions.
Sheikh Khalid has also made significant investments in growing MMA in the Middle East as a whole. His efforts have garnered praise from McGregor who lauded the Prince’s efforts for bringing more attention to the sport.
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