Ingham Bloodstock, has been sold to the Dubai-owned Darley Stud

In a major shake up of the racing industry, Australia's biggest horse breeding empire, Ingham Bloodstock, has been sold to the Dubai-owned Darley Stud, in a business deal reported to be worth at least half a billion dollars.

A chicken farmer first, Bob Ingham, created the bloodstock enterprise with brother Jack after inheriting a brood mare when their father Walter died more than 50 years ago.

The Ingham's racing dynasty has dominated the track for a generation, owning the biggest breeding facility in the country, employing seven thousand people and breeding some of our country's best loved champions.

Over the passed decade, the Ingham's association with trainer John Hawkes has seen the stable claim almost 60 Group One winners.

In 2007, Bob Ingham was the biggest buyer at the Easter Yearling sale and a couple of years earlier paid a then record $2,5 million for Makybe Diva's little brother who now races as Musket.

Sweet Embrace, the 1967 winner of the Golden Slipper, was the Ingham Stable's favourite, only challenged 30 years later by Octagonal, who won the 1995 Cox Plate and the following month won a staggering four Group One races in less than a month.

Darley, which is owned by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, will take over the Woodlands stud and training properties, and hundreds of racehorses, stallions and broodmares.

The sale is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Board.