Louisville, Ky. ? A Saudi prince with money to burn bought himself a horse last month. It was money well spent.

War Emblem led wire-to-wire to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, earning Prince Ahmed Salman the gold trophy from America’s most famous race.

“It’s been my dream,” said Salman, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the first Arab to win the Derby. “I love you guys in America.”

War Emblem won the Illinois Derby on April 6 in the same wire-to-wire style he used Saturday. Always on the lookout for a good horse to buy, Salman started placing calls.

He liked the colt’s name, and was further intrigued when War Emblem’s trainer at the time, Frank Springer, said the Preakness Stakes was a better fit than the Kentucky Derby.

After doling out a reported $1 million, Salman became the owner of War Emblem. He sent the colt to Bob Baffert, who trained Point Given, Salman’s fifth-place Derby entry last year.

“I thought the price was extremely reasonable,” Salman said. “I think it’s much smarter to buy a horse four weeks ago than to raise them.”

War Emblem was initially sold for $20,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale two years ago.

Active in sales for the last several years, Salman often buys the topper, or the costliest horse in the ring.

He can afford it.

Salman’s racing outfit, The Thoroughbred Corp., earned $8,012,163 in purses last year second-best in North America. The group of international businessmen from Saudi Arabia, Europe and the United States also is among North America’s top 10 breeders.

When he’s not appearing in winner’s circles worldwide, the 43-year-old prince runs a far-flung publishing empire of newspapers and magazines in London and the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah.

A year ago, Salman believed he had a Triple Crown winner in Point Given, who confounded the prince and Baffert with his Derby failure. The colt went on to win the Preakness and Belmont, and was selected horse of the year.

“I thought this was a piece of cake because he proved it in Preakness and Belmont, but things don’t work out sometimes,” Salman said.