Mumtaz Mahal

Family 9c

1921 g. f. The Tetrarch - Lady Josephine (Sundridge)

Instructed by the Aga Khan III to secure the best for his fledgling racing stable, George Lambton returned to Doncaster Sales in 1922 where he bid the sizeable sum of 9,100gns on a filly by The Tetrarch from Lady Sykes who would become not only become one of the greatest horses to carry her owner’s colours but also a mare whose immense influence continues to stretch across the breed.

“I advised Mr Lambton to buy some excellent mares, and he picked out some fine ones, like Mumtaz Mahal and Cos,” recalled the third Aga Khan in his memoirs. “My immediate success, I am convinced, was due to the fact that I began my European racing career with two of the greatest trainers of all time to look after my horses, [French trainer] William Duke and Richard Dawson.”

Mumtaz Mahal was the subject of widespread fascination on the track, her popularity no doubt driven by her incredible speed and colouring as a spotted grey filly in the image of her sire The Tetrarch. “I thought her one of the best animals I ever saw in my life,” recalled Lambton.

It is racing folklore how trainer Dick Dawson ‘nearly fell off his hack’ when he gave Mumtaz Mahal her first bit of strong work in early May as a two-year-old. Giving 28 pounds to Friar’s Daughter, later the dam of Triple Crown winner Bahram, Mumtaz Mahal left her rival trailing. Word leaked out and so she was made a short-priced favourite when lining up for her debut in the Spring Plate at Newmarket, which she duly won in track record time over the subsequent Oaks heroine Straitlace. That was followed by a 10-length success in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot ahead of similarly easy wins in the National Breeders’ Produce, Molecomb and Champagne Stakes. 

The winning run came to an end on heavy ground in the Imperial Produce Plate, a performance that ominously suggested a mile might ultimately be beyond her; those fears materialised the following spring when she finished third in the 1000 Guineas, only surrendering her advantage as she hit the rising ground.

Later sent back sprinting, normal service was resumed with wins in the King George and Nunthorpe Stakes, both achieved in her usual ‘jump and run’ style. 

Mumtaz Mahal - or ‘Mumty’ as the public had come to call her - was retired to stud amid a host of superlatives. But the story was just beginning. 

‘The Flying Filly’ became a wonderful producer for the Aga Khan, and then also one of those rare mares whose influence is never far away.

In a snapshot of her reach, the likes of Shergar, Zarkava, Nasrullah, Mahmoud, Royal Charger, Petite Etoile, Oh So Sharp, Verry Elleegant and blue hens Alruccaba and Eight Carat each stem directly from the mare. 

Sussex Stakes winner Badruddin (by Blandford) and Coventry Stakes scorer Mirza II (by the Aga Khan’s Derby winner Blenheim), both of whom stood at stud, were the most accomplished of her foals. 

None of her daughters, while some of them talented, gained black-type. They did however excel at stud.

Mumtaz Begum, a sister to Mirza II, left an indelible mark as the dam of champion sire Nasrullah, a wartime Champion Stakes winner who may have added further to his record had temperament not intervened. She was also granddam of another influential sire in Royal Charger.  

Mah Mahal was reportedly regarded by some jockeys to be the fastest filly of her time, despite winning only two races. At stud, she gifted the Aga Khan with his 1936 Derby winner Mahmoud and later became granddam of his 1947 Arc hero Migoli. Both were later successful sires, especially in America; indeed the cross of Migoli over Mahmoud produced the 1957 Belmont Stakes winner Gallant Man. 

Migoli’s dam Mah Iran was also granddam of Prince Aly Khan’s Petite Etoile, another flying grey filly whose Classic career with Sir Noel Murless took in wins in the 1000 Guineas, Oaks, Champion Stakes and Eclipse Stakes.

Then there was her final daughter Rustom Mahal (whose sire was the Eclipse Stakes winner Rustom Pasha, out of Cos), who foaled the brilliant sprinter Abernant, later a champion sire.

For the Aga Khan Studs, the line has remained the gift that keeps on giving, as George Lambton perhaps envisaged when he outbid Percy Bewicke for Mumtaz Mahal over a century ago.

Mumtaz Begum became the ancestress of Shergar via the branch stemming through Prince Aly Khan’s 1959 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Ginetta, herself one of the best sired by the stud’s Derby winner Tulyar. Mumtaz Begum also featured twice in the background of the Aga Khan IV’s 1973 Poule d’Essai de Poulains winner Kalamoun, a son of the Nasrullah-line horse Zeddaan from the Rivaz branch of the Mumtaz Begum family. Rivaz, the 1945 Queen Mary Stakes winner, also sits behind champion Mandesha. Irish Derby and King George winner Alamshar is another high-flying Aga Khan-bred member of the Mumtaz Mahal clan.

Yet perhaps the most satisfying is Zarkava given that she descends from Zahra, the sole daughter produced by Petite Etoile. The product of 10 generations of Aga Khan breeding, she retired as an unbeaten champion with victories in the Arc, Poule d’Essai des Poulains, Prix de Diane, Prix Vermeille and Prix Marcel Boussac to her credit and is now forging her own legacy at stud as the dam of leading sire Zarak. 

Today, the influence of Mumtaz Mahal remains strong within the stud as the source to close to 20 mares. They include Zarkava’s Listed-winning daughter Zarkamiya, dam of Group winner Zarigana.