Phoenix Thoroughbreds to continue racing in Australia after British exit announced
Phoenix Thoroughbreds are set to continue their racing involvement in Australia after yesterday announcing they would terminate the British arm of their operation with immediate effect.
Phoenix, who have enjoyed elite level success in Australia with dual Group 1 winner Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) and have stallion prospect Prague (Redoute’s Choice) among their high-profile Australian-based team set to contest some of this season’s biggest races, yesterday told ANZ Bloodstock News that business would continue as normal on this side of the globe.
“This won’t have any effect on our Australian operations,” a spokesman for Phoenix Thoroughbreds said when asked if the bombshell announcement in Europe was a precursor to a similar withdrawal in Australia.
ANZ Bloodstock News last week broke the story that Kia Ora Stud had purchased a significant share in the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), a $670,000 Magic Millions Yearling Sale graduate, from Aquis Farm and Phoenix Thoroughbreds, who also bred the valuable colt. On Monday it was announced that the reigning Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner would stand at Kia Ora on his retirement.
Yesterday’s shock move came on the back of allegations made in a New York court last year that Phoenix founder Amer Abdulaziz Salman was a key money launderer for fake cryptocurrency OneCoin, which he categorically denies.
Phoenix Thoroughbreds has been a major player on the international racing scene since it first emerged in 2017, but the self-styled “world’s first regulated thoroughbred fund” has been under scrutiny since the court testimony and revelations that the group’s Luxembourg-registered equine fund was in voluntary liquidation after the fund manager approached to run it walked away during the due diligence process.
A statement on Tuesday said the organisation would “halt racing operations across the UK until further notice”.
In the statement, Abdulaziz was quoted as saying: “This has not been a decision we have taken lightly. However, for the growth and wellbeing of our business and our partners internationally, we have taken the decision to leave the UK for the foreseeable future. It saddens me greatly to have to do this but at this juncture, we believe it is necessary. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us achieve our dreams so far.”
Phoenix Thoroughbreds burst on to the scene in March 2017 with the first of a series of big-money purchases at the sales. The likes of Advertise (Showcasing) and Signora Cabello (Camacho) excelled on British racecourses, while US Grade 1-winner Volatile (Violence) became the organisation’s flagbearer.
Abdulaziz, 56, laid out ambitions to conquer international racing after Signora Cabello’s Queen Mary Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) victory at Royal Ascot in 2018, when he said: “Our ambition in horseracing is to be number one – and we will be. It’s a big ambition but we always set targets and we go for it.”
However, despite the outlay from his equine investment fund, Abdulaziz never identified any investors – citing client confidentiality – with no one coming forward to state their involvement in the fund.
A number of Abdulaziz’s key lieutenants have cut ties with the organisation since November, the most recent being Tom Ludt, the respected former vice-president and head of equine at Phoenix Fund Investments, Abdulaziz’s Dubai-based parent company of Phoenix Thoroughbreds, since the allegations against Abdulaziz became public.
Ludt, who took a termination agreement to leave his role in June, followed former bloodstock adviser Dermot Farrington and leading trainers Martyn Meade in the United Kingdom and Bob Baffert in the USA in walking away from Phoenix Thoroughbreds.
In an statement released last November – the only direct comment Phoenix or Abdulaziz have provided concerning the allegations made against it – the group said: “Phoenix Fund Investments LLC categorically denies all allegations made against it, and its owner, Mr Amer Abdulaziz, in legal proceedings against OneCoin and its conspirators in the US.
“Phoenix Fund Investments LLC believes that the firm and Mr Amer Abdulaziz have acted according to the law at all times, and will vigorously contest all allegations of wrongdoing.”