Oozing class: HH the Aga Khan

Cover image: courtesy Scoop Dyga

HH Aga Khan IV has been one of the towering figures in the racing world for over half a century. For much of that time his influence in the antipodes has been limited, notwithstanding that several of his horses have found their way to Australasian studs, including Adraan (GB) (Zeddaan {GB}) and Nediym (Ire) (Shareef Dancer {USA}).

More recently, however, he has been a bigger player Down Under, largely thanks to an alliance with Arrowfield which has seen horses moving across the equator in both directions, such as Redoute’s Choice shuttling to France and The Autumn Sun’s dam Azmiyna (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) coming to Australia.

We were reminded yet again last weekend of the quality of the Aga Khan’s stock when his French-trained 3-year-old filly Edisa (USA) (Kitten’s Joy {USA}) won the US$750,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational S. at Belmont Park in New York.

What is often overlooked, however, is that racing and breeding play merely a small part in the life of one of the most influential people in the world.

HH Aga Khan IV is the worldwide Imam (leader) of the Nizari Ismaili sect of the Shia Muslims. He is the 49th Imam, going back in direct lineal succession to the Prophet Mohammed, whose cousin and son-in-law was the first Imam.

At first glance this makes it hard to understand why he is only the fourth Aga Khan (Senior King). This situation stems from the current Aga Khan’s great-great-grandfather (the 46th Imam) presenting himself and his followers to a British garrison in Kandahar in August 1841, having made the trek eastwards from the Ottoman Empire.

The upshot of this arrival was that the Imam became a significant figure firstly in the British Raj and subsequently throughout the British Empire, officially recognised by the British government as His Highness the Aga Khan. Hence his being HH Aga Khan I.

A racing empire

HH Aga Khan I was a keen racing man who became a leading figure in the vibrant racing scene in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the decades leading up to his death in 1881. However, it was his grandson the third Aga Khan (the grandfather, rather than father, of the current fourth Aga Khan, the title skipping a generation) who sowed the seeds for the current Aga Khan’s worldwide racing empire.

Advised by the Hon. George Lambton, HH Aga Khan III started buying yearlings in England in the years following the First World War, the plan being to set up his own studs. The plan succeeded even more splendidly than anyone could have dared hope.

Thanks largely to the quality of some of the fillies selected by George Lambton (most notably Mumtaz Mahal (GB) (The Tetrarch {Ire}) who was bought for 9,100 guineas at Tattersalls’ St Leger Yearling Sale at Doncaster in 1922 before becoming firstly one of the fastest fillies and then one of the most influential broodmares in history) HH Aga Khan III became one of the two most influential and successful patrons of the British turf (along with the 17th Earl of Derby) during the inter-war years.

He bred and raced such legendary horses as Blenheim (Ire) (Blandford {Ire}), Bahram (GB) (Blandford {Ire}), Mahmoud (Fr) (Blenheim {GB}), Nasrullah (Ire) (Nearco {Ity}) and Tulyar (Ire) (Tehran {Ire}).

HH Aga Khan III lived until the age of 79, dying in July 1957. He had lived a long life, distinguished in both religion and politics including being voted President of the League of Nations in 1937 and playing a significant mediatory role in the independence and partition of the Indian subcontinent after the Second World War.

He was succeeded not by his son Prince Aly Khan (who later that year, despite his famously sybaritic lifestyle, was appointed Pakistan’s representative at the United Nations) but by Prince Aly Khan’s son Karim, who was aged only 20 at the time and who has now been HH Aga Khan IV for 62 years.

HH Aga Khan IV’s grandfather had been a great racehorse owner and breeder; and his father had been a talented amateur rider and successful owner/breeder, most notably racing the great Petite Etoile (GB) (Petition {GB}), Britain’s Horse of the Year of 1959 whom he had bred in partnership with his father from the Bois Roussel mare Star Of Iran (GB), a grand-daughter of Mahmoud’s three-parts sister Mah Iran (GB) (Bahram {GB}), herself a grand-daughter of Mumtaz Mahal. HH Aga Khan IV has now guided the family’s bloodstock empire into the 21st century in magnificent style.

Reviving the family stud

Through the 1960s and ‘70s, the Aga Khan set about revivifying his family’s studs, consolidating the breeding operations in France and Ireland around the thoroughbred families which he had inherited as well as buying new blood, most notably acquiring the stock of the late Marcel Boussac in the late ‘70s and the late Jean-Luc Lagardere in 2005.

The previous Aga Khan’s philosophy had always been that the three key ingredients of a racehorse were “speed, speed and more speed”, notwithstanding that he regularly mopped up Derbys and St Legers. The current Aga Khan’s studs were initially notable for short-distance stallions such as Zeddaan (GB) (Grey Sovereign {GB}) and his son Kalamoun (GB) but overall they have come to specialize in producing horses who excel from 1600 metres to 2400 metres (and beyond).

Most obvious among HH Aga Khan IV’s big winners have been his five triumphs in the Derby, courtesy of Shergar (Ire) (Great Nephew {GB}) in 1981, Shahrastani (USA) (Nijinsky {Can}) in 1986, Kahyasi (Ire) (Ile De Bourbon {USA}) in 1988, Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge {USA}) in 2000 and Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in 2016;

His four victories in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, with Akiyda (Fr) (Labus {Fr}) in 1982, Sinndar in 2000, Dalakhani (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) in 2003 and Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar {USA}) in 2008; his seven wins in the Prix du Jockey-Club with Charlottesville (GB) (Prince Chevalier {Fr}) in 1960, Top Ville (Ire) (High Top {GB}) in 1979, Darshaan (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}) in 1984, Mouktar (Ire) (Nishapour {Fr}) in 1985, Natroun (Fr) (Akarad {Fr}) in 1987, Dalakhani in 2003 and Darsi (Fr) (Polish Precedent {USA}) in 2005;

And his six wins in the Irish Derby with Shergar in 1981, Shahrastani in 1986, Kahyasi in 1988, Sinndar in 2000, Alamshar (Ire) (Key Of Luck {USA}) in 2003 and Harzand in 2016. Similarly notable was the triumph of the French-trained Lashkari (GB) (Mill Reef {USA}) in the inaugural running of the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the USA in 1984.

In France’s mile Classics, the Aga Khan has won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains seven times, courtesy of Zeddaan in 1968, Kalamoun in 1973, Blushing Groom (Fr) (Red God {USA}) in 1977, Nishapour (Fr) (Zeddaan {GB}) in 1978, Ashkalani (Ire) (Soviet Star {USA}) in 1996, Daylami (Ire) (Doyoun {Ire}) in 1997 and Sendawar (Ire) (Priolo {USA}) in 1999; and he has taken the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches four times, with Masarika (Ire) (Thatch {USA}) in 1984, Zalaiyka (Fr) (Royal Academy {USA}) in 1998, Zarkava in 2008 and Ervedya (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) in 2015.

He has landed the Prix de Diane seven times, with Shemaka (Ire) (Nishapour {Fr}) in 1993, Vereva (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}) in 1997, Zainta (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}) in 1998, Daryaba (Ire) (Night Shift {USA}) in 1999, Zarkava in 2008, Sarafina (Fr) (Refuse To Bend {Ire}) in 2010 and Valyra (GB) (Azamour {Ire}) in 2012.

Gallery: Some of the champion racehorses from Aga Khan | Images courtesy Aga Khan website

Homebred champions

Over the years HH Aga Khan IV has bred, raced and stood some great stallions and many of his best winners have been by his own horses. His homebred champion 2-year-old Siyouni (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}) is currently the star of his French roster at Haras de Bonneval, while Gilltown Stud in Ireland always has good horses in its stallion barn.

However, he has also become renowned for producing top-class horses from other people’s stallions who are far from the forefront of fashion. As an owner/breeder he is not obliged to consider the popularity or otherwise of the sires whom he uses to sell yearlings; and as a public figure he (like HRH Queen Elizabeth II) presumably feels pressure to be seen not to be lavish in his expenditure on his horses, so patronising less expensive stallions is a prudent policy.

Breeding Mandesha (Fr) and Caradak (Ire) by Desert Style was a classic example as was using Key Of Luck to produce Alamshar, and Zamindar to produce Darjina (Fr) and Zarkava; while Night Shift was an old horse when he bred Azamour (Ire).

Obviously it helps that HH Aga Khan is using mares from his time-honoured families on such stallions, but even so it is impossible not to conclude that his understanding of pedigrees and his appreciation of the compatibility or otherwise of different mares and stallions is second to none.

Aga Khan-bred horses are rightly respected worldwide; while broodmares hailing from Aga Khan families (such as the former outstanding NZ-based Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}) and the former Lanwades stalwart Alruccaba (Ire) (Crystal Palace {Fr}), (both descendants of Mumtaz Mahal) have often proved metaphorically to be worth their weight in gold.

If you see a horse raced by the Aga Khan (which means one bred by him as it is very rare for him to buy a yearling) you know that he, like his breeder, will have a background oozing class.