Bahram was a bay horse with a white star and strip[2] foaled at the HH Aga Khan III's stud farm on The Curragh, Ireland.

[6] The Aga Khan originally registered the colt as "Bahman"[7] but renamed him in honour of his cousin, who was killed in the torpedoing of the SS Sussex in 1916.

[9] Bahram made his debut in the valuable National Breeders Produce Stakes at Sandown Park Racecourse in July for which he started a 20/1 outsider.

The race was run in bright sunshine, despite previous heavy rain, and was attended by a crowd estimated at 500,000 including King George V who was celebrating his Silver Jubilee.

[20] On Bahram's retirement, he was described as the "Horse of the Century" by his owner, an assessment with which the Daily Mail concurred,[10] although The Times regarded him as inferior to Windsor Lad.

[22] At the end of the 1935 racing season Bahram was retired to Egerton Stud in Newmarket where he stood at a service fee of 500 guineas per mare.

[19] Bahram was also the damsire of Noor who competed successfully in England as well as in America where he would be inducted into the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

[23] Following the German occupation of France during World War II, the Aga Khan fled France to the safety of Switzerland, and in September 1940, sold Bahram for £40,000 to an American syndicate made up of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., Alfred G. Vanderbilt II, James Cox Brady, Jr. and Sylvester Labrot, Jr.

[19] In 1946 Bahram was sold for a reported $130,000 to a stud farm in Argentina where he met with only modest success before his death at 24 years of age in 1956.