“The Toughest Game Played Outdoors”

We are all the products of our environment. Tim Thornton could see as much, when he saw a foal that had been delivered at sea trying to walk on dry land for the first time. “He was, like, six weeks old,” he recalls. “It was so funny to see him get off that ship, rocking everywhere, giving it the sea legs.”

But then that's pretty well how Thornton himself might have felt, as one born and bred for horses, had he ever been torn away to work in some other walk of life.

Even today, seven years after retiring from a long career with Airdrie Stud, he still has around 15 mares–many in partnership with his old buddy Tony Holmes–on a 330-acre farm established by his father in 1946 outside Paris, KY. This was where Thornton first learned about horses, and this is where he continues to find them a daily source of wonder and discovery. In between, for three decades as general manager of Airdrie, he could be entrusted with any and every responsibility, especially while his employer Brereton C. Jones had one or two other claims on his attention. For the Governor of Kentucky knew that here was a man whose innate flair for horses had been honed to a degree uncommon even in the Bluegrass–and never more so, indeed, than in the remarkable 14,000-mile voyage that had induced such a comical stagger in that sea-born foal.

It was Humphrey Finney who had urged Carter Thornton to send his son Tim, on graduating college, to complete his equine education a little further afield.

“Dad wanted me to come here and work right off,” Thornton recalls. “But he said okay, and let me go to England and work at the National Stud there. And then Humphrey got me onto this ship, from Southampton to New Zealand: 170 horses, the most ever gone to sea. It was pretty amazing.”

A couple of years previously, Thornton had taken a rather smaller number through the Panama Canal with Charlie Nuckols.

“That gave me the appetite, that's why I wanted to do it again,” he says. “But I didn't know it was going to be 60 days of sea. Going through Panama was only two weeks, but going around Africa took forever.”

And with so many more horses! They ranged from an 18-hand Clydesdale to miniature ponies.

“There had only been 14 head going through Panama,” Thornton recalls. “But that wasn't even a livestock ship, they were just strapped on the back. The waves would come over, it was just wood crates and a couple times we had to fix the wood back down. That was much more dangerous than the big ship. Those 170 were all below deck and air-conditioned and in steel pipe pens.”

Nonetheless, confinement and rolling seas brought obvious risks to a creature that must colic instead of vomit. Hence a low-energy diet, bran mash and so forth.

“I mean, one would get colicky every once in a while, but luckily nothing bad,” Thornton says. “But because of the disease factor, they wouldn't let us stop anywhere. Our first stop after England was Perth. From Perth we went over to Sydney and unloaded some more. And from there we went another 1,200 miles to New Zealand and unloaded the last. It was a good experience. Wouldn't want to make a living of it, but it was something to see.”

Topping off this unique lesson was the chance to escort a Thoroughbred from the hold to Ra Ora Stud for Sir Woolf Fisher, and then to stay on for six months working at Widden Stud (and becoming fast friends with “Bim” Thompson).

He had seen quite another world, then, by the time he returned to Threave Main–and another world is just how the family farm, in that era, might strike the younger generation today. For it was still possible in the 1960s for a small family operation to maintain a thriving stallion program. At a time when people referred to 20 mares as a full book, even the factory farms couldn't monopolize the mare population. As a result, the Thorntons were routinely able to stand half a dozen stallions including The Doge, sire of Hall of Famer Swoon's Son, and the imported British sprinter Tudor Grey (GB).

Carter Thornton had himself made an equally uncommon start in the game, aged just 19 when invited to succeed his grandfather–who had himself first learned his horsemanship with draft horses–as manager of Fairholme Farm for Robert A. Fairbairn, who had been part of the syndicate that imported Blenheim and Sir Gallahad. What names! One way or another, then, several generations of horse lore were condensed into the energetic young man from Threave Main who caught the attention of Kentucky's new lieutenant governor in 1988.

“Hopefully he would go on to be governor, so knew he wasn't going to be around that much and was looking for a manager,” Thornton explains. “He knew me, from breeding mares over there and so on, and knew I'd been around stallions a lot. Main thing, he knew I was honest; and he knew I was a hard worker. And we just got along real good. Couldn't have been a better relationship. He was a great boss but has become a great friend. I mean, I consider him almost like kin. And we always owned a couple of horses together. He'd do that with you. We had fun.”

And the things that made Jones a great boss, according to Thornton, were exactly the same as those that served him so well as governor.

“Definitely,” he says. “I mean, everybody loved him, from the people running the state to the grooms at Airdrie. Because they knew he's honest and he treated you fair. His word was his bond. And he expected that from everybody else too. That's why he always had good people around him. And that's kind of like my dad was, too.”

That trust became the foundation of Thornton's long tenure at Airdrie. During his employer's terms of public service, he found all manner of responsibilities delegated his way.

“Pretty much I did it all,” he acknowledges. “Recruiting, all that kind of thing. I was hands-on, every part of the farm. But we had a real good stallion manager, Kelly McDaniel, who was there forever. Really good guy. Another unbelievable guy was the broodmare manager Mark Cunningham, an Australian who's been there 40-something years now. He's really down-to-earth and you can't run him off the farm. He's a worker, and a very good horseman. And then we had a real good yearling manager, Richard Royster. Brery's philosophy was that if you did a good job, he didn't bother you. He knew you could do it. And it was the same for me: if my people are doing a good job, I don't bother them. That's a successful way to run a farm.”

All that said, Thornton stresses that it was Jones who always had his hand on the tiller; Jones, even with all his other distractions, whose inspired stallion recruitment and syndication were the foundation of the farm's half century of success.

“He couldn't afford the $15-million horses,” Thornton says. “But he was such a good promoter and even though he had to buy cheaper, he always had the best-looking horses in Central Kentucky. Never had an ugly horse in the barn. And that was something he could promote, because they'd have good-looking foals that would sell. And he did it over and over. So people started getting in line to buy shares. He was really at the cutting edge of syndicating and making the first-year horse popular. And he was an unbelievable salesman.”

Moreover Jones would put his money where his mouth was, building up an unusually large broodmare band of his own to support the stallions. He ran an aggressive program, but the farm has always retained an unchanging bedrock of trust and probity.

“Brery had some battles, but he wouldn't back up, believe me,” Thornton observes. “He's the most genuine, honest person and has really been so good for the horse business. And though he had a few clients, 95% of those horses were his. That's what amazed everybody. He had, like, 150 mares. That was a lot back then. And it was so much more fun just to deal with your own horses, rather than with clients!”

The ultimate vindication of this strategy, of course, was three homebred GI Kentucky Oaks winners in eight years.

Larry Jones, Rosie Napravnik and Brereton Jones after Believe You Can's victory in the GI Kentucky Oaks | Getty Images

“That's probably one of the things I'm proudest of,” Thornton says. “All three RNAs. Unbelievable. That was always one of the good things about him, he wasn't afraid to race. He was pretty much a commercial breeder, but he'd set a value on them and if they didn't bring that, he would race them. And he's been so lucky with smaller fillies. With the smaller ones, it's not as hard on their joints. But you lead one up to the sale ring and see what happens. It's weird. Seems like every good filly Brery's had has been smallish. So he's always upped the ante, on the reserve, if they're small because he figures they can run. Especially after Proud Spell (Proud Citizen). She was a game, sweet girl.”

Thornton's own continued engagement with the marketplace means that he can proudly monitor the legacy he built up with his former employer. Every few pages, in every catalogue, one of the stallions they made will be right there in the second or third generation–notably Harlan's Holiday through Into Mischief, and Indian Charlie through Uncle Mo.

“Probably one of my favorite horses, Indian Charlie,” says Thornton. “I can't get enough Indian Charlie mares. He was such a good sire, and such a nice horse to be around. He always put such a pretty horse on the ground. Stretchy, good-looking horses. And he's even doing it now, through those mares. Half their foals end up big, stretchy horses like him. It's amazing, all that coming from that gene.”

Indian Charlie | Barbara Livingston

Not so amazing, mind you, when you see the parallel genetic heritage handed down from one generation of Thorntons to the next.

Thornton's father, setting aside wartime service training air pilots, gave him a direct link to another era; to an age when yearlings were walked from Winchester to be loaded onto the train to be sold at Saratoga. You're looking at four generations of hardboot lore stretching to a great-grandfather who'd started out with draft horses and ended up selling Hoop Jr. for Fairbairn. Another Kentucky Derby winner, Canonero II, was subsequently raised here at Threave Main for breeder Edward B. Benjamin.

“But the horse was crooked so Mr. Benjamin got rid of him,” Thornton says with a shrug. “He brought $1,200 as a weanling. Just shows, you never know.”

Yes, well, that's never going to change! But nor will the benefits secured for horses by those who do the job right; who have the patience to do things the way their forefathers did, without cutting corners. That's why this man and this land continue to outpunch their weight. With his old employer, Thornton co-owned 2015 GI Mother Goose S. winner Include Betty (Include); and more recently he raised one of the richest Thoroughbreds in history in G1 Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road (Quality Road).

“A lot of things are done a lot fancier than back in the day,” Thornton reflects, before trying to explain what has been lost in the process. “Just old values. Tried-and-true things that work. Some of the best experiences are right here. Growing up on this farm and learning from dad, and running a bunch of horses, with not very much help, just us doing it all ourselves, hands on.

“In the '50s and '60s we always had five or six studs here. Cheap horses, $2,500 to $3,500 horses. But back then, you could make money breeding a horse like that. It was good living. We raised tobacco, and cows. Still like a cow. And I bale all my own bedding. Saves a lot of money. It's definitely an old-school farm. We're kind of proud of it, because there's not that many left.”

His father was such a thoroughgoing horseman that summertime he would go off and train at places like Delaware and Monmouth, especially fillies that could be bred someday. Some won stakes, like the 18-for-41 sprinter Plumb Gray or another daughter of Tudor Grey, Little Tudor, who won the Debutante S. at Churchill.

“Just hard-knocking horses,” says Thornton. “But the farm and the track, back then, were together. For years it was just the trainer and the owner would go around and buy horses. Now you've got all these agents, scared of their jobs. Every hair's got to be perfect in line, or they won't touch it. And they let so many good horses go by.”

That's a market environment that makes it hard for farms on this scale to remain viable. Though his nephew Eric Buckley ran Threave Main for several years, nowadays it is Thornton's daughter Jessica who channels the family horsemanship into a fifth generation as a reproductive veterinarian.

“There's not many family farms left really,” Thornton says. “We're kind of proud of being one, but it's tough with these big conglomerates taking over. It's getting harder and harder to play ball. The purses are really good, that's what's keeping the yearling market going. But the bottom line is you need quality. We try to upgrade every year, get rid of two or three [mares] and buy one. But it's so expensive. You can't breed your cheap horse anymore and make a living. The labor situation's gotten so tough, and you got put a lot more into the stud fees to compete.”

He has seen things become similarly challenging for trainers who try to maintain the same hardboot standards; and doesn't see many of the same stamp as Larry Jones, who trained all three of those Oaks winners.

“He's just a down-to earth, no-nonsense horseman,” Thornton says. “Kind of like me, hands-on and old school. He trained for me a little bit, too, but he's cutting back. Got a farm down in Henderson, fixed up real nice. But he can flat train a horse.

“You can't get any labor and the cost of operating is just getting out of hand as far as smaller guys to make a living. You can't do it. And it's gotten to be these big conglomerates that are doing it. Can't knock them. But you don't have to like it.”

As a result, though, very few general managers today will handle stallions daily the way Thornton always did. He loved to have just a couple of other people around, letting Mother Nature govern as much of the covering process as could be safely allowed.

So, yes, Thornton might strongly resemble a particular president; and he may have shown Silver Hawk to the late Queen of England, while discussing each other's corgis. But he already has the highest status he could wish for, as a horseman's horseman.

“I'm very lucky to have been among horses all of my life,” he says. “You'll always learn something every day. I went to Airdrie in '88 and was there 30 years. We had a lot of changes. We had a lot of fun. They say time flies. I mean, Bret [Jones, Brery's son] was raised up when I was over there and now he's running it. That's amazing, to me, but he's a great boy. He's got a lot of his daddy in him. He's doing a good job and I'm so happy for him. He was smart enough to buy into Girvin. Who would have known Girvin was going to do what he has? But he's on fire now. It's a good feather in his hat.

“He can't pay the crazy money, either. But if it was an exact science, nobody would be in the business. If you don't like this game, you don't need to be in it because it's the toughest game played outdoors. Dealing with Mother Nature, and livestock, the lows can be very low. But the highs are very high. I'm lucky to be bred and raised into it, and lucky to be still going seven days a week. I love it.”

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A Century of Excellence

One hundred years after the Aga Khan III made his first purchase at the Tattersalls July Sale, the bloodstock empire he built, and which has been carefully cultivated by his grandson, HH the Aga Khan IV, continues to thrive. Over the next three days we look back over the history of one of the most influential owner/breeder operations in the history of the Thoroughbred, with edited highlights from the Aga Khan Studs' centenary brochure, written by Emma Berry and John Berry.

 

They say that the future belongs to those who plan for it. That maxim definitely applies to the Aga Khan Studs, the foundations of which were laid only after lengthy and careful planning. The Aga Khan III bought his first horse in Europe (Paola) at Tattersalls' July Sale in Newmarket in 1921, but he had been working towards that moment for two decades.

The late Aga Khan was already a leading owner in India by the time that he first visited England in 1898. The first race-meeting which he attended in Britain was the Epsom Spring Meeting, and he returned to the historic course a month later for the Derby. He was then granted a Royal Household Badge for the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, and was soon a devotee of the British turf.

By the time that the Aga Khan III finally started to buy the fillies who would become the foundation mares of his stud, he was more than ready to put his plans into action. He had visited Colonel Hall-Walker's stud (now the Irish National Stud) at Tully in 1904 and his plans had started to solidify.

Other key characters in the establishment of the stud were the Hon. George Lambton and William Duke. Lambton's commitments to Lord Derby meant that he had to decline the request to train for the Aga Khan III, but he agreed to help in the selection of the yearlings and recommended that Dick Dawson, then based at Whatcombe, should train them. In France, William Duke was commissioned both to buy and train his horses there.

The Aga Khan III did not merely hand the reins to his advisors when it came to buying the horses, but played a key role in the selection himself. The results were stunningly successful, right from the outset.

The enterprise began at the Tattersalls July Sale in Newmarket in 1921 with the purchase of two fillies: a daughter of The Tetrarch, subsequently named Paola, and a filly by Bridge Of Earn, named Bombay Duck. The Aga Khan III and Lambton did not have to wait long before receiving confirmation that their judgement was sound. Paola won the Cheveley Park Stakes and finished second in the Middle Park Stakes before taking the Coronation Stakes at three, while Bombay Duck won the Richmond Stakes.

A filly bought later that autumn turned out to be the first of several crucial foundation mares for the Aga Khan Studs. Teresina, by Tracery, was third in both the 1,000 Guineas and St Leger and at four won three races including the Goodwood Cup and the Jockey Club Stakes. She subsequently did even better at stud, breeding nine winners including the 1930 Irish Oaks heroine Theresina, in turn the dam of St Leger winner Turkhan.

Teresina was, however, arguably not the best bargain from the St Leger Sale. A daughter of Flying Orb was bought for 5,000 guineas and named Cos. She became England's best two-year-old filly of 1922, when she won six of her seven races including the Queen Mary Stakes – on debut – and Imperial Produce Stakes. As a three-year-old Cos raced three times for two wins and second place in the 1,000 Guineas. At stud she bred four winners, including Costa Pasha, who won the Chesham Stakes, Hopeful Stakes and Middle Park Stakes, and Mrs Rustom, who landed the Ham Produce Stakes, Gimcrack Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes.

The dream start which Cos gave to the late Aga Khan's British ownership venture was continued later in the meeting when his second runner, Tricky Aunt, made a winning debut in the Windsor Castle Stakes. By the end of the season, largely thanks to the exploits of Paola and Cos, he finished ninth in the list of winning owners.

In 1924, the Aga Khan III achieved the unprecedented feat of being champion owner in both Britain and France, an achievement made even greater by the fact that it was only his third year racing horses. By 1925, he had completed the clean sweep by becoming champion owner in Ireland, with statistics that are easy to recount: one winner of one race! That race, of course, was the Irish Derby, won by the Dick Dawson-trained Zionist, a son of Spearmint who had been bought for 2,400 guineas as a yearling.

Thereafter his success in the two countries went in different directions. Success bred success in England, whereas in France he disbanded his stable when William Duke decided to return to the USA in 1925. He was soon, though, racing there again, giving his French operation plenty of impetus by buying Haras de Saint-Crespin and all its stock from the executors of the late M. Edouard Kann. His principal motivation in this transaction was to secure the Bridaine mare Uganda, which proved to be an inspired decision as she bred the 1932 Oaks heroine Udaipur, who in turn bred the Gold Cup winner Umiddad.

The Tattersalls St Leger Yearling Sale in 1922 turned out to be a crucial event in the establishment of the Aga Khan Studs. The policy remained the same, with the acquisition of fillies who had the potential to be foundation mares augmented by the acquisition of a handful of colts. Remarkably, the few colts bought contained two subsequent British Classic winners. A colt by Grand Parade, named Diophon, provided the Aga Khan III with his first Classic triumph by landing the 2,000 Guineas in 1924. Later that season Salmon-Trout, a son of The Tetrarch , won the St Leger.

The previous month's yearling sale in Deauville also yielded a Classic winner in the shape of Pot-Au-Feu who landed the Prix du Jockey-Club in 1924.

Worth Her Weight In Gold

If those purchases were to prove more than satisfactory, how can one describe the filly by The Tetrarch bought at the same sale? Admittedly, the daughter of the Coventry Stakes heroine Lady Josephine was expensive (she was knocked down to Lambton at 9,100 guineas, which at that point was the largest sum paid for a yearling in the 20th century), but she turned out figuratively to have been worth her weight in gold. Named Mumtaz Mahal by her new owner and subsequently nicknamed 'The Flying Filly' by the racing public, the beautiful grey showed herself to be an outstanding two-year-old, topping the Free Handicap after easily winning five races including the Queen Mary Stakes, the National Breeders' Produce Stakes, the Molecomb Stakes and the Champagne Stakes. The following spring she led the 1,000 Guineas by 10 lengths at the bushes, only to run out of stamina and surrender the lead close home to Plack. Returned to sprinting, she recorded brilliant victories in the King George Stakes at Goodwood and the Nunthorpe Stakes.

Supreme though Mumtaz Mahal was as a racehorse, it is as a broodmare that she earned true immortality. It is not merely that she ranks the most influential broodmare ever to have graced the Aga Khan's studs – she can be viewed as arguably the most influential broodmare ever to have graced any stud.

Seven of Mumtaz Mahal's foals won. None was quite as special as their mother, although Mirza, a son of Blenheim, was just about as fast. However, her fillies came into their own after their retirement to the paddocks. Mumtaz Mahal ranked as the Aga Khan Studs' most notable matriarch throughout the 20th century and remains thus in the 21st, with her descendants including Petite Etoile, Shergar and Zarkava.

While the early years of the Aga Khan III's ownership revolved around racing horses whom he had bought, the main aim of breeding his own stock started as soon as the first batch of fillies retired to the paddocks. To this end, he bought several properties in Ireland to form the core of his studs. First came Sheshoon Stud, in 1923, with Ballymany Stud purchased shortly afterwards.

Blenheim Provides A Notable First

Just as Cos had got the ball rolling for the Aga Khan III as an owner with her debut victory in the 1922 Queen Mary Stakes, so was she a key player in the formative years of his career as a breeder. His best two-year-old of 1928 was her homebred Gainsborough colt Costaki Pasha, winner of the Chesham Stakes at Ascot followed by the Hopeful Stakes and then the Middle Park Stakes. The ease of his Middle Park Stakes victory ensured that he ended the year as joint-second top weight in the Free Handicap, only 1lb behind the top-weighted Tiffin.

Although Costaki Pasha's three-year-old season was disappointing, the Aga Khan III still ended the 1929 season as leading owner in Britain, his cause greatly helped by a tremendous crop of two-year-olds. Four of them were earmarked by Dick Dawson for Ascot. Two of the quartet had already run and won (Blenheim, who had been bought from his breeder Lord Carnarvon as a yearling; and Qurrat-Al-Ain, who been an expensive yearling at 12,500 guineas) while Rustom Pasha (a homebred colt by Son-In-Law from Cos) and Teacup would make their debuts.

The dream became reality when all four won. On the Tuesday Qurrat-Al-Ain justified odds-on favouritism in the Queen Mary Stakes; on the Wednesday Rustom Pasha dead-heated for the Chesham Stakes; on the Thursday Blenheim won the New (now Norfolk) Stakes; on the Friday Teacup won the Windsor Castle Stakes.  The four horses made varying progress as that season and the next went on. Qurrat-Al-Ain was largely disappointing although she did win the Coronation Stakes 12 months later, whereas Rustom Pasha developed into one of the best three-year-olds of 1930, winning the Eclipse Stakes and Champion Stakes.

It was Blenheim, though, who went on to the greatest glory. Rustom Pasha and Blenheim both lined up for the 1930 Derby and, although Rustom Pasha went off the shorter-priced, Blenheim galloped his way to immortality by giving his owner his first victory in the greatest race of all. The excitement of the occasion was perfectly summed up by a contemporary report which related that the crowd gave “a striking display of enthusiasm when the Aga Khan, hat in hand, and laughing like a happy schoolboy, led the colt through a lane of humanity to the unsaddling enclosure”.

While Blenheim, of course, had been bred by Lord Carnarvon, the Aga Khan III was still able to taste Classic glory with a homebred that year when Theresina won the Irish Oaks. Theresina, incidentally, was arguably not the most distinguished of Teresina's offspring, her Classic triumph and subsequent great achievements as a broodmare notwithstanding. That honour could be said to have fallen to Alibhai, a son of Hyperion who was sold as a yearling in 1939 to race in the USA. He reportedly broke the track record at Santa Anita for four furlongs in training before suffering a career-ending injury while still unraced, but he subsequently became one of the best stallions in the States, most notably siring 1954 Kentucky Derby winner Determine. Alibhai was one of two Hyperion colts bred by the Aga Khan Studs who became leading sires in the States, the other being Khaled, responsible for 61 stakes winners headed by the mighty Swaps.

French Foundations

By this stage, the bulk of the Aga Khan III's British string was trained in Fitzroy House in Newmarket by Frank Butters, who had taken over the horses when their owner and Dick Dawson had parted company in 1931. That was one of two major changes to the Aga Khan III's operation that year. The other concerned the French studs. From the outset, the Aga Khan III had set great store by the dosage system of pedigree analysis formulated by Lt-Colonel Jean-Joseph Vuillier.  The two men never actually met until 1925 but, when they did, the Aga Khan III immediately hired him as his breeding advisor and manager of his stud farms in France. The latter held the position until his death in 1931, when Vuillier's protégé Robert Muller was put in the charge of the farms while Madame Vuillier continued to provide advice.

The new partnership of the Aga Khan III and Frank Butters was an instant success, a glorious season in 1932 highlighted by two British Classic victories. Udaipur won the Oaks and Coronation Stakes, while Firdaussi won the St Leger and the Jockey Club Stakes. Butters ran four of the Aga Khan's horses in the St Leger and they finished first, second, fourth and fifth.

Greater glories were soon to follow, most notably via two of the greatest Derby winners: Bahram and Mahmoud. Each holds a particular place in the record books.

To this day, only two horses have won the British Triple Crown and subsequently retired unbeaten: Ormonde in 1886 and Bahram in 1935. Bahram and his half-brother Dastur were sons of the Friar Marcus mare Friar's Daughter, who bred 11 winners including Fille d'Amour (who finished fourth in the Oaks in 1929 and subsequently bred the 1943 Irish Derby winner The Phoenix) and Sadri who, exported to South Africa after failing to win in Britain, won the Durban July Handicap in 1941.

Mahmoud's claim to fame is that he set a new record time for the Derby (2:33.8) when scoring in 1936. That record stood for 59 years until Lammtarra won the race in 2:32.31. Mahmoud was a son of Mumtaz Mahal's Gainsborough filly Mah Mahal, who also bred Mah Iran (dam of Migoli, winner for the Aga Khan III and Butters of 11 races including the Dewhurst Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes and Champion Stakes in 1947; and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1948) and Petite Etoile's dam Star Of Iran.

Nasrullah The Wartime Hero

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the Aga Khan III greatly reduced his involvement owing to the uncertain wider global outlook. In 1938 he sold 18 yearlings at Tattersalls and 17 in Deauville, but still made the occasional purchase.  Most notably, that autumn he bought a colt by Hyperion out of the Friar Marcus mare Sister Stella. Named Stardust, he was one of two top juveniles in 1939, winning Britain's most valuable two-year-old race (the National Breeders' Produce Stakes at Sandown) while the homebred Turkhan (a son of Bahram and Theresina) won the Coventry Stakes at Ascot. The following season Turkhan won the St Leger and Irish Derby, while Stardust finished second in both the 2,000 Guineas and St Leger. In time, Stardust's legacy became secure thanks to his son Star Kingdom, a breed-shaping stallion in Australia.

Far and away the most distinguished horse raced by the Aga Khan III during the Second World War, however, was Nasrullah. Wartime restrictions meant that Nasrullah raced only on Newmarket's July Course adjacent to the Heath on which he was trained. If one were being charitable, one could say that Nasrullah knew the area too well because he quickly learned that trying hard in his races was voluntary.  His record was good but it was generally felt that had his resolution matched his ability he would have been a true champion and very possibly a Triple Crown winner. Ultimately, though, Phil Bull's observation in Best Horses of 1943 turned out to have been very prescient: “If conformation and innate ability count for anything he may make the name for himself as a stallion which his unfortunate temperament prevented his making for himself as a racehorse”.

As the war neared its conclusion, the pendulum swinging in favour of a return to normality in the allied countries, racing began the long journey back to health. In 1944 the Aga Khan III was able to enjoy the sterling efforts of his Butters-trained three-year-old Tehran, a son of Bois Roussel from the Solario mare Starfalla, in the wartime Triple Crown races: third in the 2,000 Guineas, second in the Derby and first in the St Leger. Also enjoying Tehran's success were the beneficiaries of the Indian Armies Comforts Fund as the Aga Khan had pledged at the outset of the war to donate all his winnings in England for the duration of the hostilities to this charity.

Another highlight in 1944 was the triumph of Umiddad in the Gold Cup (run on Newmarket's July Course early in July). In what was to be his last race, Umiddad gave his all for Gordon Richards to get the better of the previous year's Cesarewitch winner Bright Lady at the end a protracted battle.  As a visibly exhausted Umiddad was walked around afterwards, the consensus of opinion among racegoers was that had Nasrullah possessed even half the determination of Umiddad, he would have shown himself to have been the best horse ever raced by the Aga Khan.

The Aga Khan III's best horse in the immediate post-war years was Migoli, a son of Bois Roussel from Mumtaz Mahal's Bahram granddaughter Mah Iran who excelled at both two and three before winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as a four-year-old in 1948.  The Aga Khan III's smart bunch of homebred juveniles in 1947 included the Nasrullah colts Noor and Irish Derby winner Nathoo as well as the Nearco filly Masaka. The latter proved to be as frustrating as her paternal half-brother Nasrullah. She won the Oaks by six lengths but either side of that run just about refused to race in the 1,000 Guineas and refused to race altogether in the Coronation Stakes. Banished by Butters to Ireland, where she joined the Aga Khan's Irish trainer Hubert Hartigan, she won the Irish Oaks with her head in her chest, ridden by the National Hunt jockey Aubrey Brabazon.

That same year the Aga Khan III celebrated his fourth Derby victory, as part-owner of the Richard Carver-trained My Love, having bought a 50% share from the colt's breeder Leon Volterra for £15,000 after he had won the Prix Hocquart. This proved to be money well spent as My Love's next two races resulted in victories in the Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris.

The homebred two-year-old crop of 1949 was even more special, including Britain's best colt, Palestine, and best filly, Diableretta, a great granddaughter of Mumtaz Mahal.  The former won his first six races, starting odds-on favourite each time. Diableretta was beaten on debut but then won her next seven races including the Queen Mary, July, Cherry Hinton and Molecomb Stakes.  

Sadly, the 1940s ended on a very low note. Frank Butters had been a superb trainer for the Aga Khan III as well as “a very dear friend … for whom we all in my family have the greatest affection”.  Towards the end of 1949, Butters was knocked off his bicycle in Newmarket's High Street. He survived but suffered irreparable brain damage that effectively ended his active life, although he lived for another eight years.

Tomorrow: A time of transition 

The 100-year history of the Aga Khan Studs can be viewed via the online brochure. 

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