zayat stables | Horse Racing Free Tips

Catching Up with 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic Winner American Pharoah

The sport's first Triple Crown winner since 1978, American Pharoah famously went through Fasig-Tipton's Select Saratoga Yearling Sale in 2013 only to be bought back by his breeder to race as a homebred. He spent eight months at Taylor Made Farm before the sale; Mark Taylor, who has had his hands on a lot of nice horses, distinctly remembers him.

“It's kind of a microcosm of this industry: when you think you have it figured out, you don't have it figured out. He was born at Vinery, then went to Tom Van Meter. We got him in December of his weanling year; he stayed with us through the Saratoga sale, so we had him December through August.

“This is no revisionist history; he was not the highest-regarded yearling on our farm.”

Taylor continued: “He was a very, very nice horse, very well balanced. Great body, great muscle, very correct, huge walk, touch long in his pasterns. I've looked back on our notes and he got into Saratoga on his physical. He was a nice horse, but he went up there and, really, everybody looked and said, 'Zayat Stables bred this horse, they're not going to give him away. I'm not really going to risk that much on a Pioneerof the Nile right now.' If you look back on it, Pioneerof the Nile had 2-year-olds when he was a yearling. We must have had 20 people ask what the Zayats would take for this horse; they really did want a lot for the stage Pioneerof the Nile was at in his career and we didn't get him sold.

“In the end, we had the Triple Crown winner right there in front of us, right in front of all the best judges of horseflesh, and no one took a swing. It was amazing. It's a cautionary tale that you have to give every horse a chance.”

American Pharoah (2012 bay horse, Pioneerof the Nile–Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman)

Lifetime record: Horse of the Year, Ch. 2yo colt, Ch. 3yo colt, MGISW, 11-9-1-0, $8,650,300

Breeders' Cup connections: B/O-Zayat Stables, LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Victor Espinoza.

Current location: Coolmore America/Ashford Stud, Versailles, Ky.

The post Catching Up with 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic Winner American Pharoah appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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New Court Filings in Zayat Bankruptcy Proceedings

The trustee overseeing owner, breeder Ahmed Zayat's personal bankruptcy proceedings made several court filings Tuesday to recover roughly $90,000 in allegedly fraudulent payments to various law firms.

According to the court filings, Zayat was insolvent at the time the transfers were made, and therefore, the law firms who are the defendants in the suits received more than they would have done through the Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings “had the Transfer[s] not been made.”

Trustee Donald Biase alleges in his court filings that the largest transfer of money Zayat fraudulently made was $42,812.32 to Rabinowitz, Lubetkin and Tully.

Zayat also made separate $20,000 payments to law firms Landrum & Shouse and Lavely & Singer respectively, and another $7,500 to Becker & Poliakoff, the suits allege.

Biase suggests that the monies stipulated might not be the total amounts Zayat allegedly paid to each company, his attorney writing in all filings that Biase is seeking to recover both the stipulated transfers “and such other Transfers that may be unknown to the Trustee.”

TDN reached out via email to each of the law firms listed as defendants in the filings but didn't hear back from any before deadline.

When reached by phone Tuesday, Zayat declined to comment.

This latest round of legal crossfire constitutes just the latest twist in a long, complicated and often-times convoluted war of financial attrition, as creditors have sought to reclaim millions from Zayat and his now-disbanded Thoroughbred racing and breeding stable, one most famously attached to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

In his own Chapter 7 filing in 2020, Zayat admitted to owing some $19 million to 132 non-secured creditors, the majority of whom consisted of Thoroughbred trainers, horse farms, bloodstock businesses, veterinarians, and equine transportation companies.

Towards the end of last month it appeared as though events had drawn to a close with the approval of two settlement plans in separate bankruptcy cases. Neither settlement delivered significant compensation to these 132 non-secured creditors though.

In Zayat's personal bankruptcy case, the trustee in June negotiated a $1.5 million settlement to be paid by the debtor's brother, Sherif Zayat, one which allows Zayat and his family to continue to live in an eight-bedroom, 7,714-square-foot home in Teaneck, New Jersey, that is currently assessed at $2.6 million.

In July, the court-appointed trustee in the involuntary bankruptcy case negotiated a settlement in which Zayat and his family members divvy up $5 million between MGG Investment Group and the trustee.

MGG is the lender that alleged in a 2020 lawsuit that Zayat and his family members fraudulently obtained $30 million in loans, then never repaid a large chunk of that debt.

Of that Zayat Stables settlement, only $30,000 was earmarked for the unsecured creditors who are legally much further down the payment ladder of priority.

In each of the court documents filed Tuesday, Biase seeks judgment against the defendants “for the avoidance and recovery” of the amounts allegedly transferred, for the defendants “to immediately pay to the Trustee the sums owed,” the interest owed and costs of suit, and “for such further relief as the Court may allow.”

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Filing Could Trigger Foreclosure on Zayat’s $3.5M Home

On the same day that the federal judge overseeing Ahmed Zayat's two intertwined bankruptcy cases ordered the 13th consecutive extension of time for the trustee poring over Zayat's racing stable finances to file a complaint objecting to the dischargeability of any debt, the company that services the mortgage on Zayat's $3.5-million New Jersey home on Friday filed a separate motion asking the court to remove the automatic stay on that property.

Such a request, if granted at a Feb. 1 hearing, could pave the way for the financial institution to initiate foreclosure proceedings against Zayat.

Citing the $1.86 million outstanding on the loan plus liens totaling $2.91 million, lawyers for Fay Servicing, LLC, wrote in a Jan. 7 motion in United States Bankruptcy Court (District of New Jersey) that “it is self-evident that the debtor lacks any equity in the subject property [and] the debtor has failed to make any showing that the property is required for reorganization under the Bankruptcy code.”

The filing specifically asks for relief “including but not limited to allowing [Fay] to enforce its remedies to foreclose upon and obtain possession of the Property.”

In a riches-to-rags case brimming with fraud allegations that has languished in federal court for an unusually long 16 months, the owner and breeder of Triple Crown champ American Pharoah is seeking legal clearance to get out from under $19 million in debt.

Many of those creditors are Zayat's former Thoroughbred trainers, plus numerous breeding, boarding, horse transportation and veterinary entities.

When Zayat first filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 8, 2020, he wrote in court documents that he owned only $300 in cash and $14.22 in two checking accounts.

Yet he and his wife continue to own and live in a 7,714-square-foot home in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Six days after Zayat filed his personal bankruptcy claim, Zayat's former financial advisor and several other entities initiated a separate “involuntary bankruptcy” petition against Zayat's family owned racing stable.

Involuntary bankruptcy proceedings, although relatively uncommon in U.S. courts, are designed to protect creditors, not debtors, and are often filed against companies (as opposed to individuals) as an attempt to get paid when it is believed that a firm is rapidly burning through assets and/or financial malfeasance is alleged.

Donald Biase, the trustee assigned by the court to find out if Zayat is being truthful about his alleged state of impoverishment in his personal bankruptcy petition, has repeatedly told the judge in the case that Zayat and his family members are refusing to cooperate in his legal attempt to trace millions of dollars in possibly fraudulent transfers.

In July, Biase wrote in a court filing aimed at uncovering hidden assets that “Documents obtained by the trustee from third parties strongly suggest that the Debtor still possesses significant assets in Egypt.”

Zayat has repeatedly denied that he has engaged in any illegal activity or that he is hiding money. He has also insisted that neither he nor his family members are trying to hinder the work of either of the trustees who are assigned to vet his personal finances and business operations.

Beyond not having his Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection granted by the court if he isn't being truthful, Zayat faces a possible federal investigation and/or charges if the U.S. Department of Justice believes crimes have been committed.

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Kentucky Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Farms From MGG/Zayat Case

A Kentucky appeals court has upheld a lower court's dismissal of several Thoroughbred entities from a civil suit between MGG Investments and Zayat Stables. The Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the actions of Fayette County Circuit Court, which determined the New York investment firm could not sue the purchasers of stallions, mares, and stallion shares sold by Zayat.

MGG sued Zayat Stables in early 2020 after the investment firm said the stable failed to pay back a $23 million loan. Among its accusations against the Triple Crown-winning owner, MGG claimed that Zayat had sold off assets without informing MGG or giving the company the money it was entitled to from those sales. MGG had named Yeomanstown Stud, Hill 'n' Dale, LNJ Foxwoods, Orpendale, and others who had purchased bloodstock assets from Zayat.

Zayat Stables was put under the care of a third-party receiver, and as of early 2021 was down to two horses. Zayat Stables owners Ahmed Zayat has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy since the start of the MGG lawsuit.