A centennial year to remember

Photos courtesy of the Aga Khan Studs

THERE IS A freedom in not being, like Ray Davies and The Kinks, a dedicated follower of fashion.

Owner-breeders can take a broader view of matters than their commercial counterparts.

A commitment to traditional bloodlines that hold a sentimental value is invariably prominent in the model, where the longer-term view is to produce a racehorse who can deliver over a variety of distances and progress with age. Of course, to maintain a sound business and keep numbers in check, they can’t be slaves to sentimentality, while an investment in new lines is always an option to freshen things up. These are all key ingredients as the Aga Khan Studs have developed and flourished, maintaining top-level relevance still as they celebrate a century in existence.

The green and red epaulettes will be carried to distinction into 2023 by a host of exciting horses, the most prominent older horse being Vadeni.

Having gone so close to joining Zarkava, Dalakhani, Sinndar and Akiyda on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe roll of honour, the Churchill colt will be given a campaign tailored by trainer Jean-Claude Rouget to focus on the venerable Paris contest next season, whereas it was more of an afterthought for the Prix du Jockey-Club victor this term.

There is barely-contained excitement about Tahiyra following her astounding triumph in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, the juvenile filly such an easy Group 1 victor on just her second start. Given her inexperience and how much improvement there invariably is in Aga Khan-bred stock, as so clearly evidenced by Tahiyra’s half-sister Tarnawa, who was also trained by Dermot Weld, the sky does appear to be the limit.

It isn’t just bloodlines that the Aga Khan and his daughter, Princess Zahra, are loyal to. It is staff too and, once they like what they see, they are all-in.

Pat Downes was given the considerable responsibility of running the Irish arm of Aga Khan Studs – which now comprises Gilltown, Sallymount, Sheshoon and Ballyfair – in June 1998, when just 35.

The drawing room at Gilltown that looks out onto the lake and pristine, idyllic landscape, boasts numerous portraits and photos on the walls; it is clear that the Limerick native has repaid the faith.

Downes is centrally involved in all major decisions on breeding and racing along with his French counterpart Georges Rimaud, Nemone Routh, who runs the Aiglemont training centre, the trainers, Princess Zarah and the Aga Khan. The final call belongs to the man Downes fondly describes as HH, short of course, for His Highness.

It was in 1922 that his ancestor, the Aga Khan III, established a footing in Europe, having long pursued his racing interests in India. He had been introduced to British racing by Colonel William Hall-Walker (later Lord Wavertree), who established Tully Stud just outside Kildare town before presenting it to “The Nation” upon his return to England.

It is now the Irish National Stud.

The Aga Khan III’s first two-year-olds ran in 1922 the same year that saw Mumtaz Mahal, the legendary foundation mare, purchased at auction.

His grandson was named Aga Khan IV upon his death, while only 21 and still studying history at Harvard University. He remained there and graduated two years later. While very keen on sport – he represented Iran at downhill skiing in the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria – he knew nothing about racing.

When his father, Aly Khan, who had inherited his own father’s passion for thoroughbred horses, died as a result of injuries suffered in a car crash in 1960, there were many who thought the stock would be dispersed. But, cognisant of what had gone into building the operation and valuing it as a link with his family’s history, the monarch resolved to learn. Now, he is as knowledgeable as anyone.

It was fitting that a landmark centenary year was marked with three Group 1 triumphs.

“It wasn’t just another year, simply because I think it’s something that His Highness would be very, very proud of, the longevity of the activity,” says Downes.

“And as he calls it, it’s a ‘family hobby’, something that his grandfather started. And now, his daughter… there’s four generations there who are totally invested in making this as good as they can, as just purely breeding horses to race them. It’s very pure.

“And it’s something the present Aga Khan did as well with all the Boussac stock, for example, and more recently, the Lagardère stock, and integrated into his own. He’s very much followed the way his grandfather and father rejuvenated the stud book… he did that himself with great success.”

There has to be huge satisfaction in the enduring influence of those decisions and to have a stallion such as Zarak, whose lineage dates back through Zarkava and Petite Etoile all the way to Mumtaz Mahal, must be phenomenally satisfying.

It was touch and go, however. Petite Etoile only produced three foals but one was a filly the Aga Khan named after his daughter. Zahra had just one foal, a filly, and the line, teetering on a precipice, was maintained. Five generations later, Zarkava was winning an Arc and now her son Zarak stands at Haras de Bonneval as a Group 1 winner, a leading European first-crop sire in 2021.

“When Zarkava showed herself to be what she was, HH got a tremendous kick from that because it was, for him, the essence of what he does – nurture a family,”says Downes.

Downes admits to having been very daunted by his new job 24 years ago but “the brief was to produce the soundest horses we can to go racing,” and, while sounding a lot simpler than it is in reality, not being a slave to or constrained by the market, was and remains a godsend.

“I think ‘freedom’ is the appropriate word to use because I suppose over the years, we’ve produced good horses from pretty unlikely sources.

“And probably no better example than Alamshar, certainly in my time here. You’ve got a son of Key Of Luck out of a Shahrastani mare, who’s won an [Irish] Derby and a King George. You just wonder where is he gonna fit in? Because that’s going back to a time when it was just becoming more challenging to stand that profile of horse, Derby winners. And I think it’s got a bit worse since, but it is what it is.”

This march towards precocity and speed to the exclusion almost of all other traits saddens him.

“I think it is absolutely regrettable. And I understand that if I’m a commercial breeder, I’ve got to try to produce what I believe the market wants.

"And so there is that pressure for commercial breeders. But you just think it’s maybe out of kilter a little bit and gone off in one direction a little bit too much.

Tahiyra is the product of another homebred, the home-based stallion Siyouni who, like Zarak, is plying his considerable trade at Haras de Bonneval.

Given the trend of Aga Khan Studs’ progeny to improve with maturity rather than be precocious, one wonders, counter-intuitively perhaps, if there is any fear that Tahiyra was almost too good this year as a two-year-old?

“I don’t think we will ever knock too good!” says a chuckling Downes. “She looks a very exciting filly. And you would think, on everything we know, she should certainly improve some amount. She’s a different sort of model to her sister [Tarnawa]. But she has something that her sister didn’t have, which is an acceleration that is pretty lethal.

“Dermot Weld said to Chris Hayes before he got up on her in the Moyglare, ‘She is an inexperienced filly. When you feel like you want to go, count to five, and then go.’ To be fair to him, that’s exactly what he did.”

Vadeni is likely to be back at Leopardstown next September for the Irish Champion Stakes, but this time as part of a programme that leads to ParisLongchamp. And that is because any doubt about staying a 1m4f was dispelled by a brilliant run as Alpinista’s nearest pursuer in the Arc last October on bottomless ground.

“It was definitely the view of Jean-Claude and Christophe [Soumillon] through the summer that he was a 1m2f horse.

“And I’d say when we got to Leopardstown it was a long time since he’d run at Sandown, and it was probably too long. So he just needed it a bit that day.

“So I think he deserves another crack next year.

There’s a lovely programme there for an older colt.

Hopefully, he could turn up at Ascot next year. Maybe he could go to York next year. There’s a lovely programme there to, hopefully, take him to first week in October.” Unlike Siyouni and Zarak, Sea The Stars is not a homebred. Indeed, he isn’t even owned by the patron of Gilltown, where he stands. There is an arrangement with the Tsui family

whereby he stands at the historic Kilcullen farm and the Aga Khan mares have access to the superstar with the unique record of winning six Group 1s in five months at a mile, 1m2f and a 1m4f, all from John Oxx’s Currabeg quarters over the road.

He has proven a phenom as a stallion, too, with Baaeed and Emily Upjohn representing him in some style this year, while Stradivarius, Harzand, Taghrooda, Sea Of Class, Crystal Ocean, Sea La Rosa, Hukum and so many more have illustrated his tendency to pass on his ability and even temperament.

“I’ve known about Sea The Stars for such a long time, seeing him before he was named,” recalls Downes.

“I saw him on The Curragh one morning with John, in late April or May. He had Mick [Kinane] up on Sea The Stars and Fran Berry was riding a horse of ours, a brother to Azamour called Arazan. They were only doing an easy bit but Mick came back with a smile on his face. And I said to him, ‘What is he?’ He said, ‘Actually, he’s a brother to Galileo.’ And I said, ‘Right.’

“So anytime I was out with John, I would see him and I saw how he progressed. And when he had his first run it was a very typical Oxx first run: needing it, green, finished nicely, then wins easily the next time.

“At the same time our colt was doing quite well also. And we went through the winter thinking Arazan was a possible for the Guineas in Newmarket. And, of course, Sea The Stars’ owners were thinking the same.

“Myself and John were standing up on the stewards’ tower across the track. And we just turned to each other... Just the speed the two of them were going at. I would like to think that Mick wasn’t sure which he was going to ride, on the basis they were both having to go to Newmarket. Arazan was potentially a very good horse, but, sadly, he got pleurisy after that and he didn’t run as a three-year-old at all.

“But that’s racing for you and as we know, the rest is history. I don’t think we’ll ever see another horse repeat those six Group 1s. You could argue that he managed to do what he did because I think Mick always kept a little bit. And John would say he was not the type of horse that would win by far anyway.”

The Arc triumph was probably his greatest performance coming from where he did. And it was notable that this middle-distance behemoth had the trait mentioned earlier in this piece that the commercial market maintains can only come from sprinters.

Oxx always referred to how much work he had to put into the Cape Cross son of Urban Sea, his constitution such that he needed very little time off after his races and would become very unruly unless exercised. It is just as well so that now as a €180,000-a-cover stallion he is kept extremely busy.

“He’s flying it. I’ve kind of called him a bit of an ‘alpha male’ and everything is on his terms. He has a very good routine here. And when the season is over, he’s totally switched off. Come the season, oh you can see it in him. As soon as the first mare is due, he kind of kicks on. But he’s very efficient and gets through a season very, very well. It’s hard to believe when he starts his next season he’ll be a 17-year-old.”

The constant through all this is the willingness of the Aga Khan to delegate and listen, but the strength to make the final call.

It is notable, too, that welfare has always been close to the heart of the Aga Khan operation. Some of the Irish-trained horses have been sent to France after their retirement, where there is an industry-led initiation for retraining racehorses, the Au-Dela Des Pistes, which means “beyond the tracks”. But it goes beyond that, too.

“The numbers have to be kept under control. So between Ireland and France we will sell somewhere between 50 and 65 females every year. And, out of that, there will be decisions that are straightforward enough. But bloody hell there’ll also be some tough decisions to get to the number that we have to get to.

“However, if they’re still with us at 15 they’ll be with us forever. We have practically a separate farm now for our retired mares.”

And there it is in a nutshell. Economic necessity, ruthless decision-making but empathy and allegiance too.

Plus ça change.