Posted on 07/22/2002 11:44:05 AM PDT by kattracks
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jul 22, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, owner of Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem, a nephew of King Fahd and chairman of a Saudi publishing empire, died Monday of a heart attack at a hospital in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He was 44.
Associates of Prince Ahmed in Saudi Arabia and London mourned him as a popular figure and an unpretentious prince.
"On a personal level he was the kindest person I've ever seen - he was a prince without the airs," said Khalid Al-Maeena, editor in chief of the Jiddah-based Arab News, one of nearly 20 publications owned by the late prince's Riyadh-based Saudi Research and Marketing Group.
In addition to War Emblem, the prince owned 2001 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Point Given, as well as Spain, horse racing's all-time female money-winner.
"I'm in shock," Bob Baffert, who trained War Emblem and Point Given for Salman, told the industry publication The Blood Horse. "When you go through a Triple Crown together you get really close. He was like family. His passion for horses was incredible--he lived and breathed them."
The U.S.-educated Ahmed long has had a passion for horses, and spent $900,000 to buy War Emblem just three weeks before the Kentucky Derby, after the horse won the Illinois Derby.
Prince Ahmed - the son of Riyadh governor Prince Salman, who is the younger brother of King Fahd - also was known as a determined and hardworking businessman. He joined the publishing company as chairman in 1989 and under him the company grew tremendously.
Today the company boasts a capital of $160 million and total assets in excess of $533 million.
He also was publisher of the equestrian magazine Fursiah.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Me too. I was pulling for the opposition, just like I'm pulling for the opposition against Saudi Arabia.
She called him "Big Red." Seems as though I remember that when he went to stud syndicate for $6M, that was the highest stud ever at the time. And what a horse.
I've only been to one Kentucky Derby in my life - and that was the one Secretariat won in 1973. Television never did that horse justice. His finishing kick would give ANYONE goosebumps.
I had all of the princely sum of $20 on him to win. He went off as such a fave that I barely got my twenty back.
Michael
No, I am not the famous author of those books of Sufi wisdom.
Yeah, I was thinking of some kind of conspiracy theory, but more of an in-house Saudi kind.
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