Michael Tabor

Michael Barry Tabor (born 28 October 1941) is a British racehorse owner. As a partner in Coolmore Stud, he is one of only four racehorse owners to have won both the Epsom Derby and the Kentucky Derby.

Tabor has extensive business interests outside of horse racing, spanning hotels, property and entertainment. Tabor regularly appears on the Sunday Times Rich List of the richest people in Britain. 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. Tabor's grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, originally called Taborosky, who had moved to London from Vilna, then under the control of the Russian Empire, now the capital of Lithuania. He was educated at East Ham Grammar School, leaving when he was 15 to get a job in the local Co-op.

Horseracing

Tabor's first horse was Tornado Prince, bought for £2,850 in 1973 who went on to win seven races, including a novices’ hurdle at Ascot in 1974.

He bought several more, including Royal Derbi, trained, as was Tornado Prince, by Neville Callaghan in Newmarket. Royal Derbi won the Irish Champion Hurdle in 1993.

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 Belmont Stakes and the Travers Stakes, narrowly missing the American Triple Crown when he was beaten by less than a length in the Preakness Stakes. Tabor had been looking for a horse to race in America and had been pointed for advice to John Magnier by a mutual friend, J.P. McManus. 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 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 later with Derrick Smith, who became involved in the mid-2000s. Speculation in the press linked him to bets of tens of thousands of pounds.

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 for a reported £27 million. "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." In addition, Tabor, Magnier, McManus, and another Irish associate and Sandy Lane owner, Dermot Desmond, 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, and McManus also own a large stake in the Mitchells & Butlers pub chain. 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 football club, whom he has supported since he was a boy.

Personal life Tabor divides his time between Monte Carlo, and Barbados. He has been married to Doreen since 1975. They have a son, Ashley Tabor-King.