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Prince's death leaves a hole in racing Posted: Tuesday July 23, 2002 1:27 PM
When I heard on Monday afternoon that Prince Ahmed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had died of an apparent heart attack at age 43 in Riyadh, I saw snapshots. I saw Prince Ahmed trundling through the crowded Churchill Downs paddock this past May after winning the Kentucky Derby with War Emblem, a 20-1 shot he bought for $900,000 just 23 days before the race. I heard Kentuckians shouting at him: "Congratulations, Preee-unce!" I saw the Prince laughing. I saw him on the infield at Pimlico after War Emblem won the Preakness, first kissing the jet-black colt on the nose and then leading him around on a shank, no easy task with such an ill-tempered colt. Afterward, I listened as he told me the story of being given his first racehorse by his father, King Fahd, when he was 10 years old, and watching the horse win a race. A friend of the Prince's told me that after his wife gave birth to four daughters, the Prince told friends, "I'm a broodmare sire." The Prince also explained that not all princes are wealthy. "There are common princes, too," he said. "Are you one of those?" I asked. "No," he said, laughing hard enough to split the back of his unspeakably expensive suit. Earlier, he had said that perhaps he liked War Emblem so much because the colt was black "like oil." Comments like that illustrate why Prince Ahmed's Triple Crown run (which ended when War Emblem stumbled out of the gate in the Belmont last month) was tinged with controversy. These are sensitive times in America, and the Prince, as everyone in racing called him, cut to the heart of those sensitivities. He was a rich Saudi Arabian. He operated a huge business empire that included ownership of newspapers that printed anti-American articles. Enough said. When he did not come to New York for the Belmont, citing "family issues," there was much skepticism, presuming that his absence was security-related. (In truth, we'll never know; his party did have rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria that went unused.) Here is what largely was overlooked: Throughout the Triple Crown run (and for much of his career as an owner), Prince Ahmed's behavior was acutely American in style. He celebrated big. He showed his joy at success. And he gambled. I don't care how much money a man has, buying a rancorous, one-dimensional colt barely three weeks before the Kentucky Derby and taking him to Churchill is a gamble. These are all qualities that Americans love. (Of course, Prince Ahmed spent the better part of a decade in the United States, attending three colleges; he knew his way around U.S. culture). There is a story that Prince Ahmed's people tell. After his heavily favored Point Given failed to win the 2001 Kentucky Derby, the Prince retired to the bar at the Louisville Hyatt, where he heard a group of people complaining that they had lost money on his horse. So the Prince bought their drinks for the rest of the night and ended up chatting with them. Maybe true, maybe not ... but believable. For as long as Prince Ahmed stayed in the racing game, his presence would have divided American emotions. At the racetrack, fans seemed to genuinely embrace him. Away from the track, on the op-ed pages and talk shows, there was more anger. It's not likely that this would ever have changed significantly. Yet his value to the sport of racing was unquestioned. Prince Ahmed was willing to spend big money in the sales ring. He liked to race good horses in big races. His personality and his stock attracted attention for a sport that needed it. He made noise. Horse racing is a quieter place today. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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