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
I was thinking more like Arkancide. (Just kidding, of course. Just trying to be funny.)
I was thinking of some kind of conspiracy theory, but more of an in-house Saudi kind.
Oh really? Why, please tell.
Oh really? Why, please tell.
Only because political tensions are running high, he has a lot of connections with the U.S., and he died at age 44 of a heart attack (which a lethal injection could easily induce). But it could be that he ate to many American cheeseburgers, his arteries clogged and blammo...he wakes up dead.
Who knew how right I could be? Three dead Saudi princes, how many more to go? Hatred toward Americans runs much, much deeper than the Saudi's are letting on. I wonder what they are plotting to have to get rid of so many princes? Does anyone know if all the dead princes were active in American activities?
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