American Pharoah

Ahmed Zayat's legal problems continue to grow. Trainer Mike Maker filed a complaint in Jefferson County (Kentucky) Court Thursday seeking $120,921 over what he alleged are unpaid training bills. Maker's complaint was filed less than two weeks after a Kentucky court ordered Zayat's assets into receivership, the result of claims by an investment group that says Zayat owes it $23 million. Maker's complaint was first reported by BloodHorse. According to the complaint, Maker trained as many as eight horses for Zayat Stables, which was falling behind on paying its training...

Ahmed Zayat has filed a motion asking the same court that appointed a receiver to oversee the assets of his Zayat Stables to dissolve that order and instead allow the stable to resolve its dispute with MGG Investment Group in some other matter. The filing came five days after a Fayette County (Ky) Circuit Court judge ordered Zayat's assets into receivership, a response to a $23-million civil lawsuit lodged by the investment firm, MGG Investment Group, LP. MGG had alleged that Zayat had defaulted on his loans and had improperly...

The $23-million lawsuit by a lender against Ahmed Zayat and his financially troubled Zayat Stables, LLC, was nearly four years in the making. But a series of red-flag events over the last four months put the alleged fraud more alarmingly into focus, sparking frantic efforts by the plaintiff to get the troubled racing and bloodstock business into court-mandated receivership before the equine assets used to secure $30 million in loans were potentially sold off and hidden. Although the major allegations in the civil lawsuit filed by MGG Investment Group, LP,...

Additional reporting by Lucas Marquardt When the assets of Zayat Stables, LLC, were ordered into receivership by a Fayette Circuit Court judge in Kentucky on Wednesday as part of a $23 million lawsuit by a lender alleging fraud and loan defaults, the judgment caused reverberations within the Thoroughbred bloodstock and racing world beyond those felt by Ahmed Zayat and his family. (Click here to read the TDN story.) Specifically, questions began to swirl about what would happen to the Zayat horses either at farms or currently in training in New...

A Fayette County, Kentucky judge granted a motion at an emergency hearing Wednesday to put Zayat Stables and its horses into receivership, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by New York-based MGG Investment Group alleging that owner Ahmed Zayat had sold shares in Triple Crown-winning stallion American Pharoah that were being used as collateral against loans made by MGG to Zayat. MGG's lawsuit alleges that Zayat defaulted on his loans in September, and seeks at least $23 million from Zayat. According to the Herald-Leader, Zayat sent...

Kahlid Abdul Rahim's Bitcoin Passion (Ire) (American Pharoah) was backed down to 2-1 favoritism amongst a well-bred field at Tampa Sunday off a series of five-panel drills at Payson Park, and the money proved prescient as he overcame some greenness in a powerhouse performance worthy of 'TDN Rising Star'-dom. Hopping up at the start, the chestnut found a midpack spot along the rail early behind splits of :23.71 and :48.45. He came off the inside heading into the second bend, but leading local rider Antonio Gallardo hadn't yet given him...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-SA, $55K, Msw, 3yo, f, 6 1/2f, 3:30 p.m. ET Trainer Bob Baffert unveils two more members of his extremely well-stocked stable in the form of a pair of pricey OBS acquisitions. Merneith (American Pharoah) was a $350,000 Fasig-Tipton November weanling turned $600,000 OBSMAR graduate after a :20 4/5 breeze in Ocala. Her dam Flattermewithroses (Flatter) became a stakes winner when breaking her maiden at 53-1 in the 2012 Voodoo Dancer S. over seven yielding turf furlongs at Belmont. Reem (Danza), a $74,000 Fasig-Tipton October...

1st-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, f, 5fT, 12:00 p.m. ET Debby Oxley's FEELING FUNNY (American Pharoah) was well meant when entered in a five-furlong turf test at the Hallandale oval Dec. 22, however, failed to get the job done after the race came off the turf and had to settle for third as the 6-5 favorite. The $875,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad has been training sharply at Palm Meadows for Mark Casse since then, including a four-furlong move there in a bullet :47.10 Jan. 5. Out of stakes winning Funny Feeling (Distorted...

January can be cold, bitter, and snowy in Lexington, but the weather was unseasonably warmer during Keeneland's Horses of All Ages sale, which made life easier for inspecting broodmares and short yearlings on the sales grounds and stallions at the nearby stud farms that power the industry here. Most of the major farms offer daily lunchtime stallion shows during sales week--the food, by the way, varies from farm to farm--but decent weather means outdoor showings and greater flows of traffic, which add some conviviality absent from the proceedings when shows...

Tingling with a bit of pride at the final rankings of the 2019 Freshman Sires, we're crossing our fingers that things will remain steady in the future. That's because six of the Top 10 were listed as the ones we liked best based on various biomechanical programs which DataTrack uses to project such possibilities. Our task is to lay the odds on how the sires of these youngsters are likely to compete over the long term. We began to assemble statistics to see if there were any discernible trends in...

Keeneland's five-day January Horses of All Ages Sale begins on Monday, and the catalogue includes plenty of pedigrees to pique the interest of European shoppers. We ran through the catalogue and picked out a selection to highlight from Book 1 of the sale on Monday and Tuesday. Just the second short yearling to go through the ring on Monday is a daughter of Kitten's Joy (hip 4) who is a half-sister to Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), winner of the G1 Melbourne Cup and G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. They are...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, post time: Noon ET The well-related BEAR ALLEY (Will Take Charge) gets his career underway for the partnership of West Point Thoroughbreds and Albaugh Family Stable. A $525K acquisition out of the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale, the March foal is a son of Unbridled Empire (Empire Maker), dam of GISW and GI Pegasus World Cup Turf-bound Arklow (Arch) and the latter's year-younger MGSW close relative Maraud (Blame). Bear Alley, who is therefore bred 3x3 to Unbridled, has a 2-year-old...