War Emblem's owner (The Sheik) is dead.

[Total Square]

War Emblem's owner dies of heart attack
July 22, 2002
SportsLine.com wire reports





JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, owner of Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem, and a nephew of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, died Monday of a heart attack at a hospital in the capital of Riyadh. He was 44.

Prince Ahmed also was chairman of a Saudi publishing empire, owning nearly 20 publications.

His associates remembered him as a popular figure.

"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.

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.

Ahmed was known as a hands-on decision maker in the publishing company. He also founded a multimillion-dollar cooking oil company, Nabati, in Dammam, in the kingdom's eastern province.

Last year, Prince Ahmed's elder brother, Prince Fahd, died of a heart attack. Ahmed is survived by a wife and four children.

[alysheba88]

Saw that., Stunning. Only 44. All that money and gone just like that.

[Total Square]

as the sign in my favorite restaurant of all time said

'good health is great wealth'

[ramonscottsports.com]

This guy must've had 44 great years. Or at least 30 or so.

rs

[Fatl]

What a huge loss to racing, I still can't believe it myself.



TS: BTW Salman was a Prince, not a Sheik. I think you might be thinking of Godolphin (which btw loss one of the brothers earlier this year in a car crash)