Amer Abdulaziz | Horse Racing Free Tips

Racing NSW Freezes Phoenix Prizemoney

Action has been taken in Australia against Phoenix Thoroughbreds for the first time since the organization's founder Amer Abdulaziz was accused of money laundering in the U.S. in November of 2019, with Racing New South Wales Chief Steward Marc Van Gestel telling ANZ Bloodstock News that it will freeze all prizemoney won by Phoenix horses until the “matter has been resolved in the U.S., or until such time that it's been resolved to our satisfaction.”

Abdulaziz was named in a U.S. federal court trial in November 2019 as allegedly being involved in a money laundering operation and as having stolen €100-million from OneCoin, a sham cryptocurrency he purportedly helped to run. Abdulaziz and Phoenix Thoroughbreds have denied the allegations.

Phoenix announced in August of 2020 that it would no longer race horses on the UK, and the following month was formally banned by the British Horseracing Authority. France Galop reportedly also placed a ban on Phoenix horses last August, though a formal announcement was never made. Around the same time, Australia's Racing NSW, Racing Victoria and Racing Queensland announced investigations were underway, with Racing NSW the first to take action. Phoenix Thoroughbreds is not banned from racing horses in NSW, but for now cannot collect prizemoney.

“Our decision to freeze prizemoney is on the basis that there is an allegation against them, and in those circumstances, until such time that it is resolved, the prudent course of action is to freeze prizemoney until it's resolved,” Van Gestel said. “Everyone is entitled to procedural fairness. We conducted an investigation on the matter, it doesn't happen in five minutes, it's something we've got to be diligent about, and once we had completed that, when we were in a position with the evidence that we had before us, we've made the decision to freeze prizemoney.”

Phoenix has enjoyed racecourse success in Australia with Group 1 winners like Loving Gaby (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}) and Farnan (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}), the latter of which it also bred. Phoenix purchased three seven-figure colts by Not A Single Doubt in partnership with Tony Fung at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

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Grade 3 Winner Lady Apple Retired, Will Be Bred To Quality Road

Phoenix Thoroughbreds' multiple graded stakes winner Lady Apple has been retired to the owner's broodmare band.

A visit to be covered by Lane's End's super sire Quality Road lies in the immediate future for the daughter of Curlin, who signed off her racing career with a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic on Sunday.

A winner of six of her 19 starts, she banked over $1 million in prize money thanks largely to her four successes at Grade 3 level.

Raced in partnership with KatieRich Farm for the early part of her career, she got off the mark at the fifth time of asking with victory in a maiden special weight at Oaklawn Park. From there, the Steve Asmussen trainee didn't look back, winning her next two starts culminating in the G3 Fantasy Stakes. That success qualified her for the Kentucky Oaks where she ran a stormer to finish in third.

She returned to winning ways on her very next outing by taking the G3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows before again bouncing back from defeat to claim the Remington Park Oaks, another Grade 3. Arguably her best win was her last as she beat Grade 1 winners Serengeti Empress and Street Band to win the 2020 running of Houston Ladies Classic. Although that proved to be her final trip to the winners' circle she placed twice more in stakes races before her owners called time on her career on Monday.

“She has been a fantastic race mare for us and she'll be an excellent addition to our breeding operation,” said Phoenix Thoroughbreds CEO Amer Abdulaziz. “She has a top-class pedigree with a race record to match while the cross with Quality Road looks very exciting. We are seeing some excellent results from our breeding operation around the globe and adding horses such as Lady Apple can only add to that.”

By Curlin, Lady Apple is the highest-profile of 10 winners produced by her dam Miss Mary Apples. The 5-year-old is also from the same family as Kentucky Derby winner Affirmed and Grade 1 winner Senor Pete.

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Phoenix Not Permitted to Race in UAE

Phoenix Thoroughbreds and Phoenix Ladies Syndicate have been barred from racing in Dubai, the Racing Post reported on Thursday. Phoenix, which is already prevented from racing in the UK and France, does not have any runners in Dubai yet and last raced in the UAE in 2020. In November of 2019, Phoenix's founder, Amer Abdulaziz Salman was named in an alleged money laundering and fraud scandal in New York in connection to the crypto currency Ponzi scheme OneCoin. Phoenix denies all claims.

“We have the horses in the stable but we're not able to run them,” trainer Satish Seemar, who trains for Phoenix in Dubai, told Racing Post.

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Ed Vaughan Makes The Move To The U.S. For Phoenix Thoroughbreds

Two months after sending out his last runner in Britain, Ed Vaughan has restarted his training career in the United States, where he will have the continued support of owners Phoenix Thoroughbreds.

Vaughan, 47, announced in July that he would be winding up his stable in Newmarket after 16 years, declaring that rising costs and declining prize money levels were making running a training business increasingly unviable.

The 47-year-old signed off when his final runner, Hackness Harry, won at Kempton – but, in an interview with The Owner Breeder, revealed he has set up a new base at Keeneland in Lexington. He hopes to have his first runners in the new year on the Tapeta all-weather surface at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

Among a team that could reach a dozen are three horses he was training for the controversial Phoenix Thoroughbreds team, who had separately announced they were quitting Britain amid intense media scrutiny over the organization's funding sources.

“Moving to the US had been on my mind for a long time,” Vaughan told Owner Breeder magazine. “I just needed to work the logistics out. Fortunately some horses that I trained in England have come over to Kentucky.

“It's obviously very exciting,” he went on. “It's a new chapter and it's like I'm starting all over again. I'm definitely not worried though. I've had good support from the right people and the move makes sense.

“With prize-money the way it is in Britain, it just became increasingly difficult to continue training. We'll be racing for some proper prize-money in Kentucky.”

Vaughan trained more than 200 winners in Britain, landing his biggest success this year when Dame Malliot won the Group 2 Princess Of Wales's Stakes in July.

His was one of 11 British stables to train for big-spending Phoenix, the self-styled “world's first regulated thoroughbred fund” which launched in 2017 with strings in the US and Australia as well as Europe.

However, by the time Vaughan handed in his licence, Phoenix had been barred from having runners in France and Britain over concerns about its funding which stemmed from allegations made in a New York court that CEO and founder Amer Abdulaziz was a key money-launderer for a fake $4 billion cryptocurrency scam. Abdulaziz has categorically denied the claims.

Phoenix said 3-year-old maiden War Cross, a $200,000 son of War Front, unraced Kingman filly Lady De Peron, a 275,000gns buy, and Miss Chess, owned by the affiliated Phoenix Ladies Syndicate, had been shipped to the U.S. from Newmarket. Other horses could follow.

“We are delighted that Ed will remain part of the Phoenix team,” Abdulaziz said. “He is an extremely talented trainer and valued advisor who we are sure will be a success in the US. It's doubly pleasing that we can give him some talented horses to work with that he already knows so well. We are very excited for Ed as he embarks on this next chapter of his career.”

This story originally appeared on Horse Racing Planet and is republished here with permission.

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