The Aga Khans and the Derby

[Wandering Eyes]

Epsom racecourse and the sponsor Betfred are to be saluted on their decision to run this year's Derby 'In Honour of His Highness Aga Khan IV'. No family has been a more constant competitor in the Derby over the past century than the Aga Khans. Most recently, HH Aga Khan IV, who died in February, headed the family's racing operation for 65 years, during which time he earned the respect and affection of professionals and public alike thanks to his unique blend of passion, knowledge, sportsmanship, courtesy and dignity.  

The Aga Khan's grandfather, HH Aga Khan III, joined Europe's ranks of racehorse owners in 1921 when, advised by the Honourable George Lambton, he bought his first yearlings. When he started to have runners (at Ascot, of course!) the following summer he was instantly successful. His first runner Cos took the Queen Mary Stakes and Tricky Aunt won the Windsor Castle Stakes. Later in the summer Bombay Duck won the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood.  That first bunch of yearlings, so astutely bought by Lambton, then threw up Classic contenders in 1923: Cos finished second in the 1,000 Guineas and Teresina finished third in both the Oaks and St Leger.

Even better was to follow. HH Aga Khan III's second batch of yearlings, bought in 1922, was headed by the most influential mare who would ever grace the Aga Khan Studs, 'The Flying Filly' Mumtaz Mahal.  Also in that bunch was the 1924 2,000 Guineas winner Diophon and the same year's St Leger hero Salmon-Trout.  Both colts ran in the Derby but finished unplaced behind the 17^th Earl of Derby's Sansovino.

The following year HH Aga Khan III first came close to winning the great race when the well-named Zionist (a son of the Roi Herode mare Judea, and subsequently winner of the Irish Derby) finished second to Henry Morriss's 2,000 Guineas winner Manna. 

Five years after owning his first Derby place-getter, HH Aga Khan III owned his first Derby winner when Blenheim scored at Epsom. By this time, the Aga Khan was already breeding a large proportion of his horses. His homebred three-year-olds that year included the Eclipse and Champion Stakes winner Rustom Pasha (a son of Cos) and Irish Oaks heroine Theresina, who was by Diophon out of Teresina. However, Blenheim had been bought as a yearling from his breeder, the 6^th Earl of Carnvaron.

HH Aga Khan owned two more Derby winners in the 1930s, both home breds. First came the 1935 Triple Crown hero Bahram, a son of the Friar Marcus mare Friar's Daughter whom the Aga Khan's trainer Dick Dawson had bought on the Aga Khan's behalf for 250 guineas at the St Leger yearling sale in 1922. The following year the great race fell to the brilliant grey colt Mahmoud, trained like Bahram by Frank Butters in Fitzroy House, Newmarket. Mahmoud, a son of Blenheim, was the first foal of Mah Mahal, who was by Gainsborough out of Mumtaz Mahal.

HH Aga Khan III owned two more Derby winners after the war: My Love (whom he raced in partnership with the colt's breeder Leon Volterra) in 1948 and Tulyar in 1952. He bred the latter, a son of his homebred wartime St Leger winner Tehran, in partnership with his son Prince Aly, father of HH Aga Khan IV, from the Nearco mare Neocracy, who subsequently produced the 1959 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Saint Crespin.

Tragically, Prince Aly Khan, a passionate sportsman and talented horseman, only enjoyed a brief term as head of the family's racing operation, was fatally injured in a car crash in 1960 only three years after the death of his father. His premature passing placed the 23-year-old HH Aga Khan IV at the head of the bloodstock empire. Initially hesitant, the latter then decided to take up the mantle seriously and with enthusiasm.  Over the next 65 years he guided the Aga Khan Studs to an ever more eminent position in the bloodstock world, gracing winner's enclosures on great occasions all around the globe – including on Derby Day at Epsom five times.

HH Aga Khan IV must have had high hopes of winning his first Derby in 1977 when the brilliant Blushing Groom, trained by his friend and mentor Francois Mathet, started favourite after an impressive victory in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains. However, he turned out to be less effective over a mile and a half, weakening in the closing stages to finish third to The Minstrel.

 

HH Aga Khan IV at Epsom after Harzand's win with HM Queen Elizabeth II and Pat Smullen | Racingfotos

 

Four years later there were no stamina worries when the mighty Shergar, a fifth-generation descendant of Mumtaz Mahal, justified odds-on favouritism to become the widest-margin Derby winner in history, scoring by 10 lengths. Other great days followed. In 1986 Shahrastani lowered the colours of the great Dancing Brave, holding off the latter's flying finish by half a length before, like Shergar, strolling home in the Irish Derby a month later.

In 1988 Kahyasi, wearing the Aga Khan's green and brown hooped 'second' colours (which had been his grandfather's principal livery) won the great race with the owner's first string, the 2,000 Guineas winner Doyoun, finishing third. Kahyasi's seventh dam Qurrat-Al-Ain, winner at Ascot of the Queen Mary Stakes in 1929 and the Coronation Stakes in 1930, had been bought as a yearling in 1928 by HH Aga Khan III. In 2000 Sinndar won a Derby notable for the fact that both winner and runner-up (Sakhee) subsequently won a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

The Aga Khan didn't quite reach the winner's enclosure in 2003 when Alamshar, also descending from Mumtaz Mahal, came from a long way back to finish third to Kris Kin.  Subsequent events, though, suggested that he was owner/breeder of the two best colts in Europe that summer. Alamshar won the Irish Derby next time out, beating his owner's first string Dalakhani, who had just won the Prix du Jockey Club and who went on to take the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the autumn. Alamshar then won the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

HH Aga Khan's final Derby triumph came in 2016 with Harzand, another to complete the Derby and Irish Derby double. He did not have a runner last year in the final Derby of his lifetime but he enjoyed a good Epsom even so because Ezeliya won the Oaks. It is very fitting that this year's Derby will be run in his honour and if his daughter Princess Zahra were to find herself stepping forward to receive the winner's trophy on behalf of the Aga Khan Studs' runner Midak, she would be doing so accompanied by cheers of approval from the entire racing world.

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