Frankel & Lester Piggott: New racing hall of fame welcomes first inductees
Legendary racehorse Frankel and record-breaking jockey Lester Piggott have been announced as the first two inductees in a new racing hall of fame.
Month: April 2021
View From The Eighth Pole: Ownership Of Oaks Contender Crazy Beautiful Has Horse Industry Looking The Other Way
When post positions are drawn Monday for the 147th running of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, one of the leading contenders will be Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Crazy Beautiful, a Liam's Map filly trained by Kenny McPeek, who bought her as agent for $250,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale.
Within weeks of that sale, the man who would become Crazy Beautiful's owner – Amer Abdulaziz of Phoenix Thoroughbred III – would be identified under sworn testimony in federal court as a conspirator to launder some of the estimated $4 billion scammed from people around the globe in a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme known as OneCoin.
Dubai-based Abdulaziz was named by Konstantin Ignatov, whose sister, Ruja Ignatova, is said to be the mastermind behind OneCoin (she has disappeared but the story of her and OneCoin is told in the BBC podcast The Missing CryptoQueen). Konstanin Ignatov pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering and is now cooperating with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York that is prosecuting several cases related to OneCoin.
Ignatov said that not only was the Phoenix Thoroughbred founder laundering OneCoin funds, Abdulaziz stole 100 million euros from the operation and spent the money on racehorses, according to investigative journalist Matthew Russell Lee, who reports on courtroom activities at the Southern District of New York.
Ignatov testified in the trial of attorney Mark Scott, who was convicted of money laundering and bank fraud in connection with OneCoin and like Ignatov is awaiting sentencing.
When Scott was arrested and interviewed by the FBI in September 2018, he admitted to closing a OneCoin fund in Ireland and wiring the money to a “financial adviser” in Dubai named “Amar something” who ran the Phoenix Investment Fund.
The government showed that more than 185 million euros were transferred to Phoenix between February and April 2017. In a forfeiture letter to the judge in the Mark Scott trial in which the government is seeking $393 million in funds from Scott, acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss could not have been more clear in her assessment of Abdulaziz.
She wrote: “Scott subsequently transferred approximately 185,000,000 euros from the Bank of Ireland to the accounts of another one of Ruja's money launderers named Aamer Abdulaziz.”
A government exhibit in the Mark Scott trial showed the various wire transfers involving OneCoin funds
Through an agent, Abdulaziz first starting buying high-priced horses in early 2017 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale of 2-year-olds in training. By year's end he had spent more than $20 million and was building a massive worldwide portfolio of bloodstock holdings that included horses for both racing and breeding.
That spending continued into 2018 when Abdulaziz' profile was elevated beyond the insular world of bloodstock sales. Phoenix Thoroughbred struck a deal to have NFL star tight end Rob Gronkowski take part ownership of a namesake colt, Gronkowski, running in that year's Belmont Stakes won by Triple Crown winner Justify.
By now, nearly everyone in racing had heard of the big-spending Phoenix operation, which Abdulaziz had hailed as the “world's first regulated Thoroughbred fund” that was designed to show a profitable return to its investors. Except no one seemed to have any idea who the actual investors were or why they would put their trust in someone who was a relative unknown until he started spending tens of millions of dollars to buy horses.
The following March while in Dubai for the World Cup, British television host Nick Luck conducted an interview with Abdulaziz, who directed some comments to skeptics.
“People are always asking, 'Who are these guys? Are they serious? Are they going to be there next year?'” Abdulaziz said. “I can tell you now, on your show, we are here to stay.”
Luck responded: “The other question they always ask is, 'Where's the money coming from?'”
“It's a registered fund,” said Abdulaziz. “Transparency is very important. If anyone has any doubt we are more than happy to have them come and sit with us in our office. … There are third party regulators.”
It has since been reported that Phoenix was not regulated in Luxembourg, as Abdulaziz has said.
“Most of the people we have managed to bring to the fund so far are pension funds, insurance companies or high net worth individuals from Europe, America or Australia,” Abdulaziz told Luck. “We would like to give our investors the opportunity to come to the races, network with a lot of people, open doors for them.”
Yet those investors were never identified or seen at major racing events where Phoenix horses competed. When Crazy Beautiful won the Gulfstream Park Oaks, trainer McPeek confirmed, none of the people in the crowded winner's circle were affiliated with Phoenix Thoroughbred.
None of the people in the crowded winner's circle after Crazy Beautiful's Gulfstream Park Oaks victory was affiliated with Phoenix Thoroughbred, according to trainer Kenny McPeek
Abdulaziz told Luck in 2019 that Phoenix has a half dozen other funds, including a hospitality fund worth “about a billion dollars.” He said that he has another fund “where I have all the basketball players involved with me in the U.S.”
Since the initial revelations about Phoenix and Abdulaziz were first made in United States federal court proceedings, horse racing regulators around the world have begun to restrict the operation's activities. According to published reports, authorities in France, the United Kingdom and even his home country, the United Arab Emirates, have said Phoenix can not race horses there. Most recently, Australian authorities said they will freeze any prize money won by Phoenix out of concerns over where its funds came from. Sources have said several horse sales in Europe will no longer accept Abdulaziz' money.
No U.S. racing regulators or racetracks have yet banned Phoenix and major sales companies Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland have not said Abdulaziz and his money are not welcome.
The standard answer from these organizations is: Amer Abdulaziz has not been indicted or convicted of any crime.
And that is true. It is also true that Abdulaziz has vehemently denied any illegal activity and has threatened to take legal action against anyone who says otherwise.
It is also true that Amer Abdulaziz, who once was so prominent at American racetracks and sales grounds, has not traveled to the United States since these OneCoin money laundering revelations were made in federal court. He knows the fate that very likely awaits him. If federal charges were to be filed against Abdulaziz, there is no extradition treaty between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, so Dubai serves as a safe haven for him.
Class-action suits have been filed against OneCoin and more criminal cases are pending. This case is not going anywhere soon. Will Phoenix Thoroughbred assets get dragged into the case? That's anyone's guess.
American regulators and Thoroughbred industry businesses have been looking the other way ever since the money laundering allegations were first made against Abdulaziz and Phoenix in November 2019. It's not a good look for an industry that routinely seems to value money over ethics.
That's my view from the eighth pole.
The post View From The Eighth Pole: Ownership Of Oaks Contender Crazy Beautiful Has Horse Industry Looking The Other Way appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
The Week in Review: 31 Shades (and Counting) of Derby Gray
Gray horses have been in a GI Kentucky Derby rut the past 15 years. No fewer than 31 consecutive grays (or roans) have gone to post without winning on the first Saturday in May (or September) since Giacomo roared home in front at 50-1 in 2005.
That's the longest Derby drought for grays in terms of consecutive starts since 1930, when Churchill Downs began compiling detailed records related to horse colors. There's an asterisk as to whether it's the longest stretch in terms of years. There was a 17-year gap between Decidedly (1962) and Spectacular Bid (1979), but during that span, fellow gray Dancer's Image (1968) crossed the finish wire first, then was subsequently disqualified for a controversial Butazolidin positive.
This Saturday's torch-bearers to snap the streak are juvenile champ and 'TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality (Tapit) and GI Florida Derby runner-up Soup and Sandwich (Into Mischief).
Gray horses have a special place in racing lore, with both negative and positive connotations largely rooted in superstition. You've probably heard the phrase, “They say a gray won't earn its hay” around the backstretch. Yet you know full well that Derby-winning Hall of Famer Silver Charm (1997) did okay in the earnings department, bankrolling $6.9 million in purses.
“Never bet an unknown gray” (a horse picked out of the program without first seeing its coat color) is another alleged trackside taboo. “Gray horses for gray days,” suggests that horses of the fairer color have some unexplained edge in the mud (someone with access to a more extensive database than me, please run a long-term query).
Some natural selection theorists have proposed that grays evolved as faster horses in the wild because their distinctly lighter color made them more visible to predators. Purportedly, this enabled surviving grays to pass along some form of superior speed to their offspring.
The modern era of fascination with gray Thoroughbreds traces to the advent of television. Can you imagine the heady rush of witnessing “The Gray Ghost” streak around the track as a luminescent blur on your cutting-edge, black-and-white, rabbit-ears set back in the early 1950s?
That would be Native Dancer, who racked up a jaw-dropping 21-for-22 lifetime record. But his one race that gets talked about the most is when the sport's first TV hero suffered his only career loss–in the 1953 Derby.
Other high-profile grays who tasted Derby defeat include Holy Bull (1994) and Skip Away (1996), both of whom still managed to win 3-year-old championship honors. Tapit lost the 2004 edition prior to rising to prolific status as a stallion.
This column has mentioned four of the eight gray or roan Derby winners since 1930 (those two separate color distinctions got merged into one descriptor by The Jockey Club in 1993). Care to pause before reading the next paragraph to name the remaining four?
You probably got champion filly Winning Colors (1988) right off the bat. The others were Monarchos (2001), Gato Del Sol (1982) and Determine (1954).
Safest Surfaces?
Two stories in the news last week involved racetrack safety on the mid-Atlantic circuit. On Apr. 20, the chairman of the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) went on the record as wanting Charles Town Races to consider installing a synthetic surface (read it here). Two days later, the idea of going to synth at Laurel Park was batted around at the Maryland Racing Commission meeting after it was revealed that a dirt-track repair project there was likely to take about 40 days to complete (story here).
During the WVRC meeting, chairman Ken Lowe, Jr. asked Mick Peterson–the director of the Racetrack Safety Program, who is familiar with the work at both tracks–to tell the board at which track in North America he'd choose to train and race a Thoroughbred if he owned one.
Peterson answered that provocative question by citing positive safety profiles for three tracks on the continent.
“For the last three years, the safest racetrack in North America has been Del Mar,” Peterson said, noting that the record stands out considering “how many strikes they have against them.”
Peterson explained that Del Mar's dirt track annually gets used by “way too many horses.” Plus, he added, the seasonal meet is traditionally preceded by a county fair that allows the dirt to be compacted by heavy equipment that would ideally never cross most racetrack surfaces.
“But what they've got going for them is it never rains and the weather varies about five degrees the whole year,” Peterson said. “That's huge.”
Peterson said the recently installed Tapeta surface at Turfway Park also rates highly, and he gave a positive assessment of its predecessor, Polytrack.
“They were giving Woodbine [Tapeta since 2016] a run for the money on being the safest racetrack in North America,” Peterson said. “And that's with [Turfway] running some lower-level horses during the winter…. Running during the winter, that synthetic track has been incredibly successful there.”
Lowe seemed to be nudging Peterson to share his advocacy for switching to synthetic at Charles Town. But Peterson stopped short of doing so, underscoring that synthetic racing surfaces are not his specific area of expertise.
“There are definitely some biomechanical issues that a number of the horsemen have identified, the hind-end and soft-tissue injuries on synthetic,” Peterson said. “I don't think they're perfect right now. I think there's ways that we can improve them and improve the maintenance of them. But you just look at Turfway on their synthetics, I mean that's just incredible the record they've had over the last 10 years.”
Retreats from Racing in Illinois
During the same Apr. 22 earnings conference call in which Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) tried to spin it as a positive that it was abandoning its plans to build a $300-million hotel and historical horse race (HHR) gaming facility on the first turn of its flagship racetrack, the CEO of the corporation that put an end to racing at both Hollywood Park and Calder Race Course termed it “all good” as the process continues to sell Arlington International Racecourse for non-racing purposes (full story here).
“With respect to the Arlington Park land sale, a preliminary bid date has been set, and as those bids come in in the second quarter, we'll evaluate them and figure out next steps,” said CDI's CEO Bill Carstanjen. “The ultimate conclusion of that process is something I can't responsibly predict for you because we'll have to see the nature of the bids…. This is what it takes to run a complex process to sell a big piece of land with a lot of value like that one.”
As for whether CDI would seek to transfer its Arlington license to another part of Illinois, Carstanjen said the corporation would take a wait-and-see approach to determine, “whether there's opportunities to move the racetrack elsewhere in the state as well.”
Arlington's opening day is Friday. Another Illinois track opens for the season Tuesday, but you might not recognize the name when you see it on the simulcast calendar.
“FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing” is the track formerly known as Fairmount Park.
Obviously, Fairmount's recent decision to toss 95 years of naming history into the nearby Mississippi River isn't as harmful as CDI's decision to entirely wipe away a cherished 94-year-old racetrack itself. But both decisions speak to the disquieting nature of horse racing's supposed “partnerships” with corporate gaming entities.
The post The Week in Review: 31 Shades (and Counting) of Derby Gray appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Get Paid Off With Gapped Unsuited Connectors In Limit Texas Holdem
It may come as a surprise that some of your best pay offs result from unsuited gappers.
Under what circumstances do you attempt starting hands that typically should be thrown away. The hands we specifically are referring to are 5/7u, 6/8u, 7/9u and 8/10u.
The first condition is that the game is limit texas holdem.
As a practical matter we enter the pot knowing we are taking on over cards. Our objective is to see the flop as inexpensively as possible and no limit poses too many problems to achieve that end.
Player style is a critical element in attempting these kinds of hands.
Preferably we look for tables characterized with a good deal of limping, whether it take the form of tight passives or calling stations. If a maniac or tight aggressive remain in the hand it’s best to wait for next time. Then again you might be aware of a tight aggressive player tendency to slow play big pocket pairs in which case you would want to stick around.
You want your card value entry point to be no less than 5/7u.
We know we are behind in the hand, however, the seven helps since there are more ways to make a straight with this card than any other card in the deck.
If the flop hits you with these types of cards it is very unlikely that anyone will put you on a monster.
This is especially true if you are playing outside of the blinds. Imagine flopping 3,4,6 and your opponent(s) has a big pocket pair or any two big desirables that warrant continued play.
OK, what if the flop misses you entirely with As, Kd and 10h?
No problem! You get out and cheaply too. It was worth the shot for concealment purposes alone.
We prefer no less than three players including you.
The reason for this is we want at least two premium hand types squaring off. The hope is that at least one of their outs lay dead in the other player’s hand and all of your outs are live.
Your read on your opponents will dictate how you play the hand for the maximum pay off.
Chances are that if you are up against limpers you will simply bet out and not try anything fancy. On the other hand, if a tight aggressive has been slow playing a big pocket pair evidenced by his raise on the turn you should be able to extract a few more dollars.
The pay offs are nice and in limit doesn’t cost a lot to get involved. My last endeavor involved 6/8u out of the big blind. Two other players slow played big starters and the flop came 10, 8, 8 rainbow. That was fun and rewarding.
Put this into practice and take down the big ones.
