Will a woman run the Aga Khan’s racing stable?

The new Aga Khan doesn’t have much interest in horse racing – unlike his father who died this week at age 88 – but that doesn’t mean the family’s massive influence in the sport of kings and imams will disappear.

For nearly 70 years, the old Aga Khan was spiritual leader of the world’s 20 million Isma’ili Muslims but was perhaps best known for his vast racing ownership and breeding empire – based in France but with interests in many other countries, though not South Africa.

Aga Khan IV owned the most famous racehorse of all time, Shergar, who won the 1981 Epsom Derby by 10 lengths and was later kidnapped for ransom – possibly by the Irish Republican Army – and vanished off the face of the earth in one of the most enduring of crime mysteries.

The successor, Aga Khan V, aka Rahim, 53, appointed on Wednesday, has shown little of dad’s devotion to the thoroughbred, concerning himself mainly with running the Aga Khan Development Network, a multibillion-dollar worldwide organisation employing more than 80,000 people doing good deeds.

Devotion to racing

The brothers are also not horsey. One’s a filmmaker, the other a photographer. But their elder sister might be riding to the rescue of the horses.

Zahra Aga Khan, 55, was not allowed to inherit the leadership of the Isma’ili Muslims, but she did inherit her father’s devotion to the racing thoroughbred.

Zahra sits on the committee of France Galop, the governing body of racing in La Republique.

She is a keen horsewoman and has had plenty of success with runners in her own colours – green and brown, mimicking her father’s famous green and red – and getting her first feature race success in 1996 with the filly Daralbayda at Saint Cloud. Importantly, the princess has sat in on key discussions about stallion mating choices with her late father and managers of the Aga Khan Studs international network.

Whether she will be permitted to take over the running of this enterprise remains to be seen.

Prix du Jockey Club and the Ascot Gold Cup

Interestingly, when Aga Khan IV became Hazar Imam of the Shia Nizari Isma’ili Muslims in 1957, he wasn’t interested in horses either.

Sensationally, his grandfather Aga Khan III, bypassed his father Aly, a flamboyant, high-society playboy, and named 20-year Prince Karim as successor to his worldly and spiritual duties.

The grandfather was a racing nut: 13 times champion owner in France. Speculation about the equine empire being sold off evaporated when the stable enjoyed a sudden purple patch of big-race victories, including the Prix du Jockey Club and the Ascot Gold Cup. The young man ended 1957 as champion owner in France. Piqued interest turned into an obsession and the racing business just grew and grew.

Having spent his childhood in Kenya, he went to high school in Switzerland, before attending Harvard University in the US.

(The family gets around a lot. Most Isma’ilis live in Pakistan, Syria, Iran, South Asia, East Africa and the US, while the headquarters are in Portugal. Family members are citizens of the UK, Switzerland, France and Canada. The Aga Khan has national awards from dozens of countries worldwide, though not South Africa.)

Bridge builder

The family has a 1,300-year dynasty within the sect and is believed to be in a direct line of descent from the prophet Muhammad.

Aga Khan IV proved a wise choice of his grandfather, becoming a successful business magnate and philanthropist – as well as dedicated imam. A defender of Islamic culture and values, he built bridges between Muslim societies and the West despite – or perhaps because of – his reticence about becoming involved in politics.

Isma’ilis worldwide are said to turn to the Aga Khan in matters of faith and daily life and are asked to donate up to 12.5% of their income to the Aga Khan as steward. Roughly estimated to be worth $10-million, the Development Network spends money in more than 30 countries.

A network of hospitals bearing the Aga Khan’s name are ubiquitous in places where healthcare was once lacking for poor people − including Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

The Aga Khans have obviously been notably wealthy people in international society. However, the racing and breeding operations are not an idle-rich frippery and are said to be profitable, with the old boy having run a very tight ship – constantly buying and selling broodmares and stallions.