An owner and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses, Michael Sobell's first major racing winner was London Cry in the 1958 Cambridgeshire Handicap. He hired Gordon Richards as his racing manager and in 1960, Sobell purchased Ballymacoll Stud, a breeding farm owned by Dorothy Paget in County Meath, Ireland. Among his racing stable's successes, Admetus won the 1974 Washington, D.C. International Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, at the time the most important international race in America. At home, Admetus won the Prince of Wales's Stakes and several races in France including the Grand Prix d'Évry and Prix Maurice de Nieuil. He also owned Lancastrian, winner of the Prix Ganay, Reform whose eleven wins included the Champion Stakes and Sallust, winner of the Sussex Stakes.