Super agent Kia Joorabchian is shaking up racing – and lands 150-1 Royal Ascot winner

Kia Joorabchian had been waiting for an Ascot winner even longer than the King. Actually, not just an Ascot winner, a first place in any of the grand racing occasions had long appeared beyond his reach. 

The man who made his name as the agent who brought Carlos Tevez to English football (and then became embroiled in an almighty legal row about who actually owned the player) has put a king’s ransom into his pursuit of racing glory. But finally, after close to two decades of hefty financial layout in charge of his Amo Racing operation, on Ladies Day he made it. And when Valiant Force equalled Nando Parrado in 2020 as the longest-odds winner in Royal Ascot history, galloping home in the Norfolk Stakes at a frankly incredible 150-1, Joorabchian looked like a man who could barely believe it was happening.

“We’ve kept trying for a long time, kept going,” he said, as he bounced around the winners’ enclosure, embracing anyone who stood in his way in an extravagant bear hug. “We keep fighting back and we have broken our duck in our own way.”

Our own way indeed. Joorabchian is an unusual racehorse owner, one who has challenged the orthodoxy of the sport by introducing outside methodologies. This, in short, is the man who brought a little football business into the traditions of the Flat. While most owners tend to stick with trainers through thick and thin, win or lose, Joorabchian tends to treat his as a football club chairman might a manager: lose too often and you’re out.

Reckoned by those who have worked with him to be among the most demanding of owners, he is more than happy to sever ties with anyone who does not deliver. Over the years of near misses and might-have-beens, of second places and unlucky defeats, there have been plenty with whom he has parted company. There was a measure of his approach in his entries for Ladies Day: his seven horses had six different trainers. It is called spreading your bets. 

But now, under the Irish trainer Adrian Murray, his methodology had finally paid off. “I can’t believe it.” Koorabchian said. “I’m completely speechless for once.”

Not that he was slow to point out who was responsible for the victory, generously pointing in Murray’s direction.

“The credit goes to these guys, the trainer, the groom, the workers,” he said. “They are up at 4am every morning, working, working, working. They deserve it.”

They certainly do. Joorabchian has five horses under training at Murray’s yard in County Westmeath. He first contacted the Irishman two years ago and he and Tom Pennington, his racing manager, have been in touch almost every day since, checking on progress, making sure things are developing.

“I have to thank Kia,” a delighted Murray said. “He’s tough, but a very good man.”

Murray had certainly done some work on Valiant Force, a two-year-old running his third race. The colt took an early lead from the stalls and stayed there across the five furlongs. Ahead for all 1,000 of the kilometre dash along Ascot’s straight, he concluded the race in just under a minute of pace, power and perfect application.

“We loved him all the time, always knew that he could do it,” Joorabchian said with a grin.

As Rossa Ryan eased the horse into the winners’ enclosure after the race, the owner pointed at the jockey and shouted: “Told you so.” Ryan beamed back and said: “You were right.”

It was an intriguing exchange, given that Joorabchian had terminated Ryan’s contract as Amo Racing’s leading rider as recently as last September. At the time he had claimed he had Ryan’s best interests in mind. Maybe he had, given that the young Irishman, now riding as a freelance gun for hire, was aboard his first winner at Ascot.

This was a transfer that worked, clearly. Not that Joorabchian, who still acts as agent to Aston Villa’s Philippe Coutinho among others, was keen to pursue any parallels between his two sports.

“Was this horse your best signing since Carlos Tevez?” he was asked. “Please, I can’t think of football at this time,” he replied.

Maybe the time to ask him was after the third race, the Ribblesdale Stakes, when his horse Maman Joon, trained by Richard Hannon of Marlborough, delivered a result more typical of his past racing history. It came last.