Death of Provideo's owner-breeder Ahmed Foustok at 87

Ahmed Foustok, the owner of Cedar Tree Stud at Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire who bred and raced the prolific Provideo, has died at the age of 87.

Foustok was born on January 3, 1937 in Beirut, Lebanon to a Saudi family, with his father being a champion owner in Arabian racing in Lebanon and Egypt. 

A civil engineer and property developer based in London and Florida, his first good horse was Abdu, who won nine races as a two-year-old in 1978, including the Harry Rosebery Stakes.

Foustok owned two Group winners in Britain, Brondesbury, who won the 1982 Norfolk Stakes, and On Stage, who landed the 1983 Palace House Stakes. He was also the owner-breeder of Raami, who won the 1984 Scottish Derby.

All those horses were trained by Bill O'Gorman, as was his most famous horse, the homebred Provideo.

Provideo won 16 races in 1984, equalling the British record for most victories by a two-year-old, and was voted Horse of the Year. 

He won the first race of the season, the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster under Tony Ives, and while he did not run in any major races and was more than a stone below top class, he also landed the Star Stakes at Sandown and Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy at Ripon, both Listed races and with Ives aboard, among 16 wins from an incredible 24 starts that year.

The record had been established by The Bard in 1885, and was equalled by another O’Gorman-trained runner, Timeless Times, in 1990.

Foustok bred and raced In Excess with O’Gorman, winning at Lingfield, Leicester and the King Charles II Stakes at Newmarket, before selling him to Jack Munari. In Excess went on to win four Grade 1s in the United States and leave a lasting legacy at stud as the sire of Indian Charlie, in turn sire of Coolmore America’s Uncle Mo.   

Foustok was also the owner-breeder of the William Jarvis-trained Farhana, who won two Listed races, the Prix Servanne at Maisons-Laffitte under Olivier Peslier, and the Sandy Lane Handicap at Haydock with Richard Hills. 

He bred Provideo, Raami, In Excess and Farhana, among others who carried his silks of emerald green and red check, emerald green sleeves, at his Cedar Tree Stud, near Newmarket.

O’Gorman said on Friday: “Ahmed was unusually easy to deal with as an owner. If I thought that we should do something, he invariably accepted it, and we never had any ‘somebody said’ moments. 

“That did make the Provideo record chase much easier; many owners go to pieces when a glitch occurs in a public plan but he would always say, ‘If you think he's all right, carry on’. 

“He would invariably visit the yard on a Saturday morning and spend an hour or so just looking at his horses and talking to their lads. And he was a prompt payer – so, all in all, he was probably the perfect owner.”

Foustok’s brother, Mahmoud, who was killed when run over while jogging in Florida in 2006, was a much bigger owner, with studs in France and the US. His best horses included Green Forest (European champion juvenile in 1981) and Silver Hawk (third in the 1982 Derby), and he had several Classic winners in France.