THE AGA KHAN WANTS SOLARIO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17878, 21 June 1926, Page 5

THE AGA KHAN WANTS SOLARIO.

AN OFFER OF £IOO,OOO . MADE FOR THE HORSE. LONDON, June 10. “It is certainly true,” said the Aga Khan in reph’ to an inquiry as to •whether he had offered a record sum for the four-year-old horse Solario (the winner of the Ascot Gold Cup). “I want Solario for the stud,” he added. “I have forty good mares, and badl>* need a first-class stallion.” These mares are at the Aga Khan’s stud in Ireland. They include the famous Mumtaz Mahal, Teresina, Taja Mahal, and a number of others by The Tetrarch. There is little doubt that the offer is £IOO,OOO. .Sir John Rutherford, owner of the horse, previously refused an offer of £70,000, and Sir John sa3's now that he intends to keep Solario, whom he bought as a 3-earling for 3500 gns., outbidding the Aga Khan for him. Solario last season won the St. Leger, the Princess of Wales Stakes, and the Ascot Derby Stakes, while he captured the Coronation Cup at Epsom on Thursday. The racing correspondent of “The Times” recenth’ described Solario as “the greatest horse now in training, and one of the greatest of all time. He should make an ideal sire, comparable to the great sires of the past.” Solario is b\* Gainsborough, son of Bay'ardo. and winner of the Derby, St Leger and Two Thousand Guineas, from Sun Worship by Sundridge (son of Amphion), from Doctrine by Ayrshire (son of Hampton), from Axiom by Peter. If the offer of the Aga Khan of £IOO,OOO for Solario be accepted, it will be easily’ a record price for a thoroughbred. Mr J. B. Joel gave £40,000 for Prince Palatine. Mr lc Blanc . purchased F lying 1* ox for 37,500 guineas. Sir William Bass gave £31,500 for Cyllene and Diamond Jubilee was sold at that figure to an Argentine breeder. Papyrus was sold after his disastrous American trip for £35,000. He would probably have been worth at least £50,000 if he had never crossed the Atlantic. Larger than any of the foregoing was the price paid b3’ Senor S. J. Unzue, of the Argentine, when he purchased the English horse Tracery from Mr August Belmont (U.S.A.), for £53,000.