At Epsom Downs

"Everybody said Mahmoud would not stay the course, but by judicious handling I made him stay." This statement was made last week not by Jockey Charles Smirke, who had just ridden Mahmoud to victory in the Derby at Epsom Downs, England, but by the 44th lineal descendant of the Prophet Mohammed's daughter, Fatima: Aga Sultan Sir Mohammed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan, Mahmoud's haunchy, paunchy brown-skinned owner, who was still waving his silk hat to show his enthusiasm. To balance his excited hyperbole the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of 60,000,000 Moslems and owner of what, with the possible exception of the Whitney stables, is the finest string of race horses in the world, promptly followed it with an understatement: "My ambition was to win the Derby thrice and I have done it in 13 short years." The Aga Khan has been trying to win the Derby since 1923 but he has won it thrice in seven starts. His Blenheim won in 1930, his Bahram a year ago.

Mahmoud is a son of Blenheim. Smirke is the jockey who, on Windsor Lad in 1934, equaled the record--2 min. 34 sec.-- for the 1/2;-mile Derby course. Last week, after a delay at the post which alarmed radio announcers scheduled to follow the account of the race at 3 p. m. with the departure of the Queen Mary (see p. 17) at 3:15, the field got away smoothly. On a track baked rocky hard, following the Aga Khan's instructions, Jockey Smirke rode a waiting race. First Carioca, then Mrs. James Shand's Thankerton took the lead. Coming into the straightaway, big. grey Mahmoud, whom over-skeptical bookmakers, considering him a mere sprinter, had rated at 100-to-8, began to run. He crossed the finish three lengths ahead of Taj Akbar, most highly favored of the Aga Khan's three entries, with a new record, 1/5 sec. better than the old one. Thankerton was third, unlucky Lord Astor's Pay Up, the favorite, fourth.

Last year the Aga Khan was especially pleased with Bahrain's victory because it was Jubilee year. Last week's Derby, though bookmakers estimated that more money had been bet on the race than ever before, was the gloomiest since the War. The huge crowd--perching on the tops of automobiles or busses, milling about fortune tellers' tents in the central enclosure, raising a great grey haze of dust above the Downs--was less rowdy than usual. The glass-enclosed box, where the Aga Khan last year received congratulations from his King, was banked with flowers and conspicuously empty.

Visiting the U. S. as usual for a week before the Derby was Sidney Freeman of the London bookmaking firm of Douglas Stuart, Ltd., to buy up Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes tickets that might win prizes. After the race was over, Broker Freeman cheerily announced that--unlike the last two trips, which resulted in substantial losses for his firm--his $750,000 purchases had brought '"Duggie" a handsome profit. Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes tickets cost $2.50 each. Of this, $1 goes into the Hospital Fund and operating expenses, the remainder into prizes. Twenty major prizes, a total of $3,304,780 went to U. S. ticket-holders last week. Most preposterous winner was Mrs. Austin Jackson, Newark Negro, who won $50,000 on Thankerton. Afraid of being kidnapped, she bolted her door, locked her windows, pulled down the shades, refused to come out for three days.

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