Tulyar was the 1952 Derby winner, presumably named after a place in Persia, India or somewhere else in the purview of his owner-breeder the Aga Khan – the supreme leader of the millions of Ismaili Muslims across much of Asia.
Tulyar was a late foal and his early two-year-old form (form figures 030) was average, though in the autumn he perked up to win two nurseries over a mile. At the end of the season he was rated 19 pounds below the season’s leading juvenile. Aly Khan, the Aga’s son, pressed him to sell the horse, but they could not find a buyer at the price asked for.
In the spring he won at Hurst Park and then the Ormonde Stakes at Chester before taking the Lingfield Derby Trial. At Newmarket jockey Charlie Smirke infuriated his trainer Marcus Marsh by working him on a turf gallop baked hard in the rainless spring, instead of the more forgiving peat moss gallop alongside, as ordered. But the horse was perfectly all right and Smirke was now confident the prevailing firm ground held no terrors for him. So much so that he sent a telegram a day or two before the race saying “Hope on Wednesday at 3:40, I will be saying ’what did I Tulyar’.” He won the Derby, followed by the Eclipse, King George and St Leger. Tulyar was unbeaten in seven races as a three-year-old, earning £75,000 – a record for any horse in any single year in Britain – yet the Aga was peeved that he had missed the 2,000 Guineas (with his consent) because Marsh thought he needed further.
The Aga had always been quick to sell his Epsom Derby winners to other countries and in 1953 Tulyar was sold to the Irish National Stud for £250,000. In response to criticism of his customary procedure, he refused a higher bid from the USA to keep the colt available to European breeders. Nevertheless, questions were asked in the Irish Parliament about whether this was a good use of public money. There was more controversy when, three years later, he was sold to the USA for £240,000. His record as a stallion was fair.
A new diesel locomotive was named after him in 1961.
LINGFIELD
Tulyar was honoured with a race run at Lingfield’s Derby Trial meeting between 1975-85 and humbler median auction maiden races on the turf in May 1991 and at all-weather meetings in September 2008-10.
NOTTINGHAM
The Tulyar Nursery began at Nottingham’s new fixture on 8 September 1973, when the Oyster Maid (qv) and Sterope (qv) races were initiated, despite none of them having a connection with the city. Tulyar was the first of the three to succumb; it was last run in 1986
Sources include:
Bahram and the Aga Khan III (Peter Corbett)
https://www.agakhanstuds.com/History/FamilyTradition/6/en