Horses

At Epsom Downs. So excited he could barely talk, a big brown man with a grey top hat and a plutocratic paunch jumped up & down in his box, rushed to the turf, squealing "Well done, Freddie! Thank you, thank you, Freddie!" An attendant whispered something into his ear which caused the brown man to recover his dignity, waddle quickly off to the box where King George, Queen Mary, Edward of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York and the rest of the royal family were sitting. There he shook hands with His Majesty, issued a more coherent statement of his satisfaction for members of the Press: "I am delighted to have won, especially as this is the King's Jubilee Year." The big brown man was Aga Sultan Sir Mohammed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan, who had just seen his horse Bahram, ridden by able Jockey Freddie Fox, win the 156th Epsom Derby.

One of the most extraordinary sportsmen in the world, the Aga Khan is the spiritual leader of 60,000,000 Muslems, the 44th lineal descendant of the Prophet Mohammed's Daughter Fatima, an honorary member of the Jockey Club and a member of His Majesty's Privy Council. He is so fond of pleasure that in the last five years his string of race horses, whose upkeep costs him $150,000 a year, have won nearly every important race in Europe, and become, with the possible exception of the Whitney stables in the U. S., the most valuable in the world. Though he rules no territory, the Aga Khan earned the gratitude of the British Government, the right to a salute of eleven guns from British warships by the way in which he influenced the loyalties of his spiritual followers during the War. From his grandfather, kin and onetime crony of Mohammed Shah of Persia, he inherited the best string of Arabian horses in the East. Twice married, the Aga Khan's present wife is the onetime dressmaking daughter of a French innkeeper.

In England, the Aga Khan's only considerable competition as a winning racehorse owner has been supplied by Lord Derby whose Bobsleigh was considered the one horse in last week's Derby which had a chance of beating unbeaten Bahram. When Bobsleigh was scratched, Bahram, a bay three-year-old by Blandford, who also sired the Aga Khan's 1930 Derby winner, Blenheim, went to the post at the phenomenally low odds, for a 16-horse race, of 5-to-4. He broke well, was in fourth place going downhill toward Tattenham Corner, came into the straightaway third, took the lead from Field Trial a furlong from the wire, won by two lengths with a 50-10-1 shot, Sir Abe Bailey's Robin Goodfellow, second.

P: Of the ten major Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes prizes of $148,500 each on the Epsom Derby, seven were won by Americans. Most preposterous winner was a Brooklyn woman named Anna Hyman, wife of the proprietor of a picayune leather company, who has made a practice of investing $20 in every sweepstakes she has heard about, with no success whatever. Informed that Bahram had won, Mrs. Hyman revealed that she had sold a half interest in her ticket for $40,000. Said she: "I'd certainly like to travel on that big ship, Normandie."

At Belmont Park. Any doubt that William Woodward's big chestnut Omaha was the U. S. three-year-old of the year was dispelled last week when that horse won the 67th running of the Belmont Stakes, with Firethorn second, Rosemont third. To Omaha went $35,480 which brought his winnings for the year to $103,000. The victory made him the third horse to win Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in the same season.*

* The others: Sir Bartonin 1919; Gallant Fox, Omaha's sire, in 1930.

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