Phoenix Thoroughbreds to end racing operations in Britain

Phoenix Thoroughbreds will no longer operate in Britain after the troubled racing organisation dramatically announced it would be pulling out of the country and focusing on other jurisdictions.

The exit comes after intense scrutiny of the group’s founder Amer Abdulaziz Salman, who was last year alleged in a New York court to be a key money launderer for the fake cryptocurrency OneCoin.

The international racing and bloodstock group released a statement on Tuesday outlining that it would be withdrawing from Britain with “immediate effect”, although the Racing Post understands the process may prove to be gradual rather than a sudden removal of the horses it has in training.

Phoenix Thoroughbreds has been a major player in British racing since it first emerged on the scene in 2017, but the self-styled “world’s first regulated thoroughbred fund” has faced questions since Konstantin Ignatov, a convicted fraudster and former OneCoin leader, alleged under oath that Abdulaziz played a major role in laundering funds for a scam that duped $4 billion from victims who believed they were investing in a digital currency similar to Bitcoin, but was in fact a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.

Amer Abdulaziz: big ambitions to conquer international racingCredit: Edward Whitaker

Abdulaziz, via Phoenix Thoroughbreds, categorically denied the allegations but has declined to respond to questions or requests for comment from the Racing Post since the courtroom allegations were first published in November.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Phoenix said it would "halt racing operations across the UK until further notice", but would continue to operate internationally.

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, while the likes of Advertise and Signora Cabello have excelled on British racecourses in the group’s white colours with orange stars.

Abdulaziz, 56, laid out ambitions to conquer international racing after Signora Cabello’s Queen Mary victory 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 has never identified any investors - citing client confidentiality - while no one has come forward independently to state their involvement in the fund.

Furthermore, the Racing Post revealed last year that the group's Luxembourg-based equine fund - which Abdulaziz described in January 2019 as "fully regulated and fully registered" - was in voluntary liquidation and had never been operational after the fund manager approached to run it walked away during the due diligence process.

A statement in January said the decision had been taken to close the fund, “in order to achieve (what we had originally set out to do in early 2016) the creation of one of the first regulated thoroughbred funds in the world”.

A number of racing professionals have cut ties with the organisation since November, the most recent being Tom Ludt, the respected former head of equine at Phoenix Fund Investments, Abdulaziz’s Dubai-based parent company of Phoenix Thoroughbreds.

Ludt, who took a termination agreement to leave his role in June, followed former bloodstock adviser Dermot Farrington and leading trainers Martyn Meade and Bob Baffert in walking away from Phoenix Thoroughbreds.

Speaking to the Racing Post, Ludt said: “The one call we had [with Abdulaziz after the OneCoin allegations emerged], and it was what Dermot Farrington said all along, clarify this and I’m fine, but if you don’t it’s too suspicious for my reputation, so he resigned.

“Each to their own, and I’m not here to judge, but [Abdulaziz has] never given anybody a name. I’ve read the same things that everyone else has about these big firms that are supposedly investors, but nobody has ever seemed to know.”

This season Phoenix Thoroughbreds, and its associated Phoenix Ladies Syndicate, has had runners with John Quinn, Karl Burke, Ed Vaughan, Archie Watson and Peter Chapple-Hyam, who last month saddled Bharani Star to run in the Investec Oaks at Epsom.

The BHA offered no comment on the decision taken by Phoenix to exit Britain, while a spokesman for Horse Racing Ireland said on Tuesday that the regulator was not in a position to comment on the situation.

Internationally, Phoenix has been represented by runners in the UAE, Australia - where Group 1 winners Loving Gaby and Farnan have carried the group’s colours - Ireland, France and the USA, where Grade 1-winner Volatile is the organisation’s flagbearer.

Phoenix Thoroughbreds and Abdulaziz have declined to answer queries submitted to them directly by the Racing Post on numerous occasions since November, including ten questions that were published on Tuesday in a front-page story headlined 'The questions Phoenix Thoroughbreds will not answer'.

In an apparent reference to this article in Tuesday's statement, Phoenix said: "The company has conducted itself appropriately, despite certain media outlets claiming otherwise. It is in no small part down to the unfair treatment from an industry media outlet that this decision has been taken."

While reporting the courtroom allegations from last year and subsequent revelations about Phoenix, the Racing Post has repeatedly offered Phoenix and Abdulaziz the chance to put across their side of the story.

In a statement released last November - the only direct comment Phoenix or Abdulaziz have provided concerning the money laundering allegations - 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."

Abdulaziz could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Read more on this story:

How Phoenix burst on to the scene but became embroiled by OneCoin allegations

The questions that Phoenix Thoroughbreds won't answer

BHA: any investigation into Phoenix Thoroughbreds is up to legal authorities

Top Phoenix Thoroughbreds executive cuts ties after money laundering allegations

Ludt exit latest in string of departures from troubled Phoenix

Phoenix Thoroughbreds founder accused of stealing €100m from global Ponzi scam

Revealed: Phoenix racing fund was never regulated - and is now in liquidation

OneCoin scammers had office in premises operated by Phoenix boss

Meade cuts Phoenix tie after money laundering allegation

New blow for troubled Phoenix as legend Baffert cuts his ties

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