Michael Barry Tabor (born 28 October 1941) is a British businessman, bookmaker, gambler and owner of

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorses Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

. Tabor regularly appears on the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday new ...

'' of the richest people in Britain. In 2012 his fortune was estimated to be £550 million; two years previously the business magazine '' Management Today'' had suggested it was $2 billion.Gwyther, Matthew
"The MT Interview: Victor Chandler"
'' Management Today'', 10 July 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2012. According to the ''Sunday Times Rich List'' in 2019 his net worth was estimated at £629 million.

Early life

Michael Tabor was brought up in Forest Gate in east London, the son of a glassmaker.Muscat, Julian
"Life's a gamble"
Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder, 2 July 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Tabor's grandparents were

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

immigrants, originally called Taborosky, who had moved to London from

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...

, Russia.Cunningham, Peter. "The Cockney horse trader",

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

, 23 March 1997
Link to article on InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (login required).
Retrieved 14 October 2012.Reilly, Jerome

The Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

, 17 June 2001. Retrieved 12 October 2012. He was educated at East Ham Grammar School, leaving when he was 15 to get a job in the local

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. He was nearly a hairdresser, enrolling at the Morris School of Hairdressing in Piccadilly, but instead turned to bookmaking. Tabor's father had for a time been in partnership with a bookmaker at

Romford Greyhound Stadium Romford Greyhound Stadium, referred to as Coral Romford Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in Romford town centre in the London Borough of Havering in east London which is owned and operated by the Ladbrokes Coral group. The ...

and Tabor himself became interested in gambling in his teens, spending Monday and Friday afternoons at Hendon's

greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgenc ...

stadium in north London and regularly attending the track at White City.Edmondson, Richard
"Tabor harvests rich dividends of relentless journey"

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

, 26 October 2000. Retrieved 1 October 2012.

Bookmaking business

Tabor worked for commission agents and credit bookmakers before setting up in business for himself in 1968. He borrowed £30,000 from a financier to buy two bankrupt betting shops from Andrew Gordon, retaining the name Arthur Prince and expanding the business until he owned a chain of 114 shops. In 1995 he sold the business to

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

for a reported £27 million."Owner Profile: Michael Tabor"
Racehorseowner.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012. "There's an old saying I like," Tabor said, "which is that good punters make good bookmakers. I have found that to be very true."

Betting

Tabor gained a reputation as a shrewd, daring and successful gambler, whose actions could dramatically affect the odds being offered on a horse.Reid, Jamie. "Tabor stakes claim to a football fortune: A former bookie wants to put £30 million into West Ham.",

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

, 31 January 1997
Link to article on InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (login required).
Retrieved 14 October 2012.Nevin, Charles. "The bookie's runners",

, 29 May 1997
Link to article on InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (login required).
Retrieved 14 October 2012. Speculation in the press linked him to bets of tens of thousands of pounds. His later horseracing associate, Derrick Smith, told

The Racing Post ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting publisher which is published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60 ...

that when he was working with

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations a ...

in the 1980s they had to stop taking Tabor's bets.Muscat, Julian. "'To have a horse who is being mentioned in the same context as Nijinsky- it's unbelievable'",

, 14 September 2012
Link to article on TheFreeLibrary.com.
Retrieved 14 October 2012.

Horseracing

Tabor's first horse was Tornado Prince, bought for £2,850 in 1973. He bought several more, including Royal Derbi, trained, as was Tornado Prince, by Neville Callaghan in Newmarket."Owners: Michael Tabor"
,

British Horseracing Authority The British Horseracing Authority, also known simply as the BHA, is the regulatory authority for horse racing in Great Britain. It was formed on 31 July 2007, after the merger of the British Horseracing Board (BHB) and the Horseracing Regulato ...

. Retrieved 1 October 2012. His great successes as an owner, however, came in association with the expert Irish horsemen connected to the

Coolmore Stud Coolmore Stud, in Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland, is headquarters of the world's largest breeding operation of thoroughbred racehorses. Through its racing arm, Ballydoyle, Coolmore also has raced many classic winners and champions. The operat ...

of John Magnier. In 1994 Tabor paid more than $400,000 for the promising two-year-old thoroughbred Thunder Gulch. The horse went on to win the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

, the

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nickname ...

and the

Travers Stakes The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to internati ...

, narrowly missing the

American Triple Crown In the United States, the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, commonly known as the Triple Crown, is a series of horse races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The three r ...

when he was beaten by less than a length in the

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Graded stakes race, Grade I race run over a distance of ...

. Tabor had been looking for a horse to race in America having moved to Miami, Florida, and had been pointed for advice to John Magnier by a mutual friend,

J.P. McManus John Patrick McManus (born 10 March 1951) is an Irish businessman and racehorse owner. His career lasted from the 1980s to the 2010s. He was one of the biggest shareholders of Manchester United, until his stake was bought out by Malcolm Glazer ...

. Demi O'Byrne, the bloodstock adviser to Magnier, advised Tabor on his purchase and Magnier bought half of Thunder Gulch to stand at stud at Coolmore's Kentucky annexe at Ashford. Tabor joined the Coolmore partnership. His money allowed Magnier to become once again a major buyer in the top yearling sales, a role he had not played since the mid-1980s when he had acted in conjunction with

Robert Sangster Robert Edmund Sangster (23 May 1936 – 7 April 2004)

and other associates. In 1995 they bought three of the top four yearlings at the

Keeneland Sales Keeneland Sales is an American Thoroughbred auction house in Lexington, Kentucky founded in 1935 as a nonprofit racing/auction entity on 147 acres (0.59 km2) of farmland west of Lexington, which had been owned by Jack O. Keene. A division of ...

and paid 600,000 guineas for the leading lot at Tattersalls' Houghton Sale. That colt,

Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, went on to win the

2,000 Guineas The 2000 Guineas Stakes is a Group 1 flat race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres) and scheduled to take place each year ...

at Newmarket."Coolmore: the growth of an empire"
the-racehorse.com, 26 April 2006. Retrieved 12 October 2012. Tabor became the owner and co-owner of an extraordinary catalogue of some of the world's best racehorses, generally owning the Coolmore horses in a three-way partnership with Magnier and his wife Sue, and with another former London bookmaker, Derrick Smith, who became involved in the mid-2000s. His

Desert King Desert King (31 March 1994 – 11 August 2021) was a Thoroughbred racehorse. Desert King won the Irish Derby Stakes and Irish 2,000 Guineas and was the sire of 13 stakes winners with 34 stakes wins including Makybe Diva (GB). He was a bay son ...

won the

Irish 2,000 Guineas The Irish 2,000 Guineas is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres), and it is ...

and the

Irish Derby The Irish Derby ( Irish: Dearbaí na hÉireann) is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of ...

in 1997, while

took the

at Newmarket that same year to give Tabor his first victory in an English Classic. Montjeu won the Irish Derby and the

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, France, over a distance ...

in 1999, while Tabor won The Derby in 2001 and 2002 with

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

and then

High Chaparral High Chaparral (1 March 1999 – 21 December 2014) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from September 2001 to October 2003, he ran 13 times and won 10 races. His win in the Racing Post Trophy made him one ...

, the latter horse also winning the

and the

Breeders' Cup Turf The Breeders' Cup Turf is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race on turf for three-year-olds and up. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships. The race's curre ...

. Tabor won the Derby again, with Pour Moi in 2011 and with

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...

in 2012, the year that horse also took the 2,000 Guineas and the

at the

Curragh The Curragh ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside th ...

, though he missed out on the English Triple Crown by finishing second in the

St Leger The St Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a ...

. Tabor was also the breeder, as well as the owner, of

Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of ...

, winner of numerous

Group One Group One, Group 1, Grade I or G1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. In Europe, the level of races for Thoroughbred racing is determined using the Pattern race system introduce ...

races, and in 1995 his

Hurricane Run Hurricane Run (2002–2016) was a world champion Irish-bred thoroughbred racehorse. He was the second French-trained horse, after his sire Montjeu, to win both the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He ...

was voted the world's top-ranked racehorse by the

International Federation of Horseracing Authorities The Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings (LWBRR), known as World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings (WTRR) before 2012, are horseracing's equivalent to World Rankings by other major sporting organizations such as ATP Tennis Rankings, World Golf R ...

. His Derby victories made Tabor one of only four men to have raced a winner of both the Epsom and the Kentucky Derbies; the others are

Paul Mellon Paul Mellon (June 11, 1907 – February 1, 1999) was an American philanthropist and an owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall ...

John W. Galbreath John Wilmer Galbreath (August 10, 1897 – July 20, 1988) was an American building contractor and sportsman. Born in Derby, Ohio, he grew up in Mount Sterling, Ohio, where he graduated from high school. He then graduated from Ohio University ...

and Prince Ahmed bin Salman. Tabor acknowledged the superiority of his Irish associates in their judgment of horses, telling ''

'': "I enjoy going round looking at the horses and I like to think I've got a fair idea. But I don't know a lot really and a little knowledge is dangerous." Discussing the economics of Coolmore's extremely successful breeding operation, Tabor said: "I get enormous pleasure out of the horses but, it goes without saying, that you're trying to make stallions. You need a stallion, maybe a stallion and a half, every year."

Other business interests

In May 2014 Tabor assumed a 100% control of

Victor Chandler International BetVictor is an online gambling company headquartered in Gibraltar. Founded in 1946, it offers products such as sports betting and online casino. The company is currently owned by Michael Tabor. History The company was founded by William Chan ...

after Victor Chandler sold his interest in the firm. His racing associations have also extended into other areas of business. With Magnier, Derrick Smith and J.P. McManus, Tabor is one of the co-owners of the luxury Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados.Finch, Julia
"Revealed: the other two billionaires with a stake in Mitchells & Butlers"

, 13 December 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2012.Finch, Julia
"Mitchells & Butlers: the giant pub company with no one to call 'time'"

, 18 September 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2012.Foster, Mike
"Rich List 2011: The financiers"

Financial News ''Financial News'' is a financial newspaper and news website published in London. It is a weekly newspaper, published by eFinancial News Limited, covering the financial services sector through news, views and extensive people coverage. ''Fi ...

, 9 May 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2012. In addition, Tabor, Magnier, McManus, and another Irish associate and Sandy Lane owner,

Dermot Desmond Dermot Desmond (born 14 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €2.04 billion and is ranked by the ''Sunday Independent'' as the ninth-richest person in Ireland. Early life and education Desmond was b ...

, collectively owned 60 per cent of the Next Generation chain of fitness clubs sold to London & Regional Properties for around £200 million in 2006. Tabor, Magnier, Smith, McManus and the currency trader Joe Lewis also own a large stake in the Mitchells & Butlers pub chain. This group of businessmen is also reported to have profited extensively from currency speculation, activity sometimes attributed to their association with Lewis. In 2008 the company

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...

, founded by Tabor's son, Ashley, took over GCap Media, owners of

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

, and Classic FM. That move was backed with £375 million from investors including Magnier, McManus, and Tabor. The deal made Global Radio the largest radio group in the United Kingdom. Tabor's other business dealings include an investment in two London hotels and a failed attempt in 1996 to buy

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

football club, whom he has supported since he was a boy."Tabor's warning for West Ham"

, 31 January 1997. Retrieved 1 October 2012.

Personal life

Tabor divides his time between

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, and Barbados. He has been married, to Doreen, since 1975. They have a son, Ashley Tabor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabor, Michael 1941 births Living people Sportspeople from London British businesspeople British Jews British racehorse owners and breeders Owners of Epsom Derby winners Owners of Kentucky Derby winners Owners of Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners