FROM STUD AND STABLE KORAL WAS NEARLY CALLED HILLARY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE KORAL WAS NEARLY CALLED HILLARY

Koral, the young jumping star of the year, would have raced under the name of Hillary if a lesser-known animal of that name had not been registered within the previous 20 years.

“Why Koral?” a correspondent asks. Unless it is a little-known variant for Koran, the Mohammedan sacred scripture, the name of Koral for the Grand National Steeples winner does not appear to have an association with a strong persian influence in his pedigree.

Koral is by Kurdistan, which bears the name of a region in North-west Persia.

Kurdistan’s grand-dam, Mumtaz Mahal, was one of five mares that established a fabulous thoroughbred empire for the Aga Khan in the early 1920’5. x After the name Hillary was refused for Koral an application was made for Mahomet, but this was turned down because of the religious significance of the name. The third choice was Koala, and it was not allowed

because there was a brood mare of that name. Koral was the next on the list, and the name was granted. The deeds of Koral and many others sired by Kurdistan have focused fresh interest in and have revived memories of Mumtaz Mahal, a famous name in English racing in the 1920’5. “Munity”

The Aga Khan named his horses with poetry and imagination, and Kurdistan’s grand-dam, Mumtaz Mahal, was the most poetically named of them all. Mumtaz Mahal . . . “Splendour of the Palace.” Mumtaz Mahal was widely known as the “Flying Filly” and the crowds on British racecourses also called her “Mumty.” She was foaled in 1921 and was by the unbeaten flier, The Tetrarch out of Lady Josephine by Sundridge from Americus Girl by Americus. Americus was bred in California and was originally named Rey del Caredes. He was renamed after he was bought by the Tammany boss Richard Croker and sent to England. Brilliant Start

The Aga Khan bought Mumtez Mahal as a yearling in 1922. As a two-year-old she won her first five starts by wide margins before a second under 9-3 in the Imperial Produce Plate. At three years she ran second in the One Thousand

Guineas and subsequently won the King George Stakes at six furlongs and the Nunthorpe Stakes over five furlongs. She was at one of the Aga Khan’s studs in Ireland when she sired Mahmoud, which is a variant of the name of Mohammed. But in 1930 she was sent to France and she was the only mare of importance left on the farm when the Nazis pillaged it in 1940. Mumtaz Mahal’s advanced age—she was 19—saved her from being shipped to Germany. She died two years later. While in France Mumtaz Mahal foaled Rustom Mahal, which was to become the dam of Kurdistan and, what is of greater significance overseas, of Abernant, winner of 14 races and £26,394, and a very successful sire.