Blenheim

Epsom racecourse and the sponsor Betfred are to be saluted on their decision to run this year's Derby 'In Honour of His Highness Aga Khan IV'. No family has been a more constant competitor in the Derby over the past century than the Aga Khans. Most recently, HH Aga Khan IV, who died in February, headed the family's racing operation for 65 years, during which time he earned the respect and affection of professionals and public alike thanks to his unique blend of passion, knowledge, sportsmanship, courtesy and dignity.  ...

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...

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...