10 May 2023 , 16:21
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Racehorse owner Marwan Koukash’s absence from this week’s Chester race meeting has been explained after it was revealed he has been declared bankrupt.
The entrepreneur and former owner of Salford Red Devils rugby league club was dubbed ‘Mr Chester’ because of his passionate support of his local track where he won its feature prize the Chester Cup four times.
Ahead of the last of those wins with Magic Circle in 2018 he vowed to strip down to his pink underwear to collect the trophy, a pledge he was dissuaded from going through with.
Koukash, 69, is listed on the individual Insolvency Register as “currently bankrupt: automatic discharge will be 13 September 2023”. The order was made in September 2022 at Liverpool County Court.
Koukash was born in Palestine but had to flee when his family’s farm was bombed, settling in Kuwait.
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He subsequently moved to Britain, obtaining a PHD in electrical engineering at John Moores University in Liverpool.
He owned hotels operated by Hilton, including the DoubleTree in Liverpool and appeared in the Channel 4 documentary My Millionaire Migrant Boss.
He has won 582 races and at Chester enjoyed 97 wins from over a thousand runners where Bulwark, Address Unknown, Suegioo and Magic Circle won the Chester Cup, and named many of his string after his son Gabrial.
Reshoun, who won at Royal Ascot for Koukash in 2021, is set to run in Friday’s Chester Cup in the colours of Patrick Morris, one of the owner’s former trainers.