NEAR HALF-MILLION

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 23

NEAR HALF-MILLION

BAHRAM'S WEALTHY OWNER

There is a prevalent idea that H.H. the Aga Khan, whose unbeaten colt Bahram won his seventh race in last Wednesday's Derby, has dissipated some of his fabulous wealth on the English Turf, but this is a completely erroneous view. He certainly has been known to pay 17,000 guineas for a yearling and huge prices for brood mares, but since 1922, when he first began to race horses in England, his winnings in stakes have reached about £450,000 as the result of victories in more than 300 races, and he should well be able to show a balance on the right side of the ledger.' He is indeed one of the lucky owners, arid though he has gambled heavily on his purchases his judgment has been proved astute and very accurate. On five occasions already his Highness has been at the head of winning owners in England, and he is almost certain now to be there again at the end of this year.. So far he has failed to win the One Thousand Guineas, in which Mumtaz Mahal and Firouze Mahal ran seconds, but ho has captured every other classic. Diophon and Bahram won the Two Thousand, Blenheim and Bahram the Derby, Udaipur the Oaks, and Salmon-Trout and Firdaussi the St. Leger; and besides these wins he has secured numerous minor placin<*s in the classics. He established his own stud in England in 1925, and horses he has bred there have earned well over half his aggregate winnings. It is said ttmt he is a very mild bettor, but he usually has a little on his favoured runners. The following are the Aga Khan's winnings since he began racing in England till the close of last year:— Races won. Slakes. £ v 1922 13 18,133 15)23 22 33,409 1924 19 44,507 . 10ir, 28 H2.954 192G 15 14,774 1027 21 21,918 1925 14 20,u70 1959 35 39,886 1930 23 41i,2!i9 1931 27 19,484 1932 28 57,778 1933 21 19,311 1934 45 04,897 Total 428,940 The amount of his earnings to date this year is not ascertainable, but they > must already be over £20,000. It is I therefore probable that yesterday's

cable was wrongly transmitted, the £430,000 mentioned being sent for £450,000 owing to a five being read as a three.

Bahram, the Derby winner, must now have won something like £30,000 in stakes. His "five wins last year were worth £11,758,', and his Guineas and Derby successes would have added about £18,000. The value of last year's Two Thousand to the winner was £8272 10s and the Derby £9352, but the Derby is usually in the five figures. Blandford, who died six weeks a^b, has now sired four winners. of the Derby, namely, Trigo (1929), Blenheim (1930), Windsor Lad (1934), and Bahram. So great was his success as a sire that last year English writers hailed the Swynford horse as the new "Emperor of Stallions," a title bestowed on the famous Stockwell in 1866. Beginning in 1927, his stock in England and Ireland had won 202 races and £193,035 in stakes up to the end of last year. His figures for last year were 26 winners of 58 races, worth £75,706 16s, a record. In addition, he had a good year in France, where his son Brantome,- like Bahram still unbeaten, was hailed as "the colt of the century."

With this Derby triumph, Blandford has sired the winners of thirteen classic races in England and Ireland. The term "classic race" in England, where it originated, applies only to the Two

and One Thousand Guineas, the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger, and to similar events in other countries. •

Bahrain, whose-name was given as Bahman in Volume 29 of the General Stud Book, is out of Friar's Daughter, by Friar Marcus (son'of Cicero) from Garron Lass, by Roseland (son of William the Third) from Concertina, by St. Simon from Comic Song, by Petrarch from Frivolity, and tracing back to Miss' Agnes," a member of the Bruce Lowe No. 16 family and who was the direct ancestress of Ormonde, Sceptre, Vedas, Sardanapale, Bonny Jean, and „ Handicapper. ■ Frivolity bred a number of winners, including Miss Edwards, but Bahram's fourth dam, Comic Song, never raced. As the result of a mating with St. Simon, Comic Song became the dam of Concertina, who was also put on one side for breeding and eventually threw Garron Lass, a daughter of the July Stakes winner Roseland. This mare died after having two foals, the second being Bahram's dam, Friar's Daughter, who cost the Aga Khan 250 guineas as a yearling. A previous offspring of Friar's Daughter was the unlucky Dastur, a son of Solario, and who was second in all three classics three years ago.