51 Facts About Ahmed Zayat

Ahmed Zayat was born on August 31,1962 and is an Egyptian-American businessman and owner of Thoroughbred race horses.

Ahmed Zayat is the CEO of Zayat Stables, LLC, a Thoroughbred horse racing business which bred and owns the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Ahmed Zayat was born in Cairo, Egypt to a wealthy family, and grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood where he learned to ride horses.

Ahmed Zayat filed bankruptcy proceedings in 2010 when a bank called a note due and tried to foreclose on his horses.

Nonetheless, Ahmed Zayat generated considerable positive publicity on social media for his efforts to save his racehorse Paynter from life-threatening health problems, a successful struggle that earned the colt the 2012 NTRA Moment of the Year Award and Secretariat Vox Populi Award.

Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt in 1962 to an affluent family and grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.

Ahmed Zayat's father, Alaa al-Zayat, was a prominent doctor and professor of medicine, a personal physician to Anwar Sadat.

Ahmed Zayat competed in show jumping during his early teens, winning national titles as a child in the under-12 and under-14 age divisions.

Ahmed Zayat moved to the United States at the age of 18, and earned an undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University.

Ahmed Zayat obtained a master's degree in public health administration from Boston University.

Ahmed Zayat returned to Egypt in 1995 and formed an investment group, which purchased the Al-Ahram Beverages Company in 1997, outbidding Anheuser-Busch and Heineken International.

Al-Ahram had been owned by the Egyptian government and Ahmed Zayat had helped find American investors to take over government-owned businesses that had been nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser back in the 1950s.

Ahmed Zayat was modernized from a run-down operation to a publicly traded business that sold in 2002 to Heineken International for $280 million, more than three times its pre-acquisition valuation, in what was then the largest corporate buyout in Egyptian history.

Ahmed Zayat continued to run Al-Ahram until 2007, but periodically returned to the United States, where he started buying racehorses and formed Ahmed Zayat Stables in 2005.

Ahmed Zayat still owns other business interests in Egypt, including being the majority shareholder of Misr Glass Manufacturing, which is Egypt's largest maker of glass containers.

Ahmed Zayat donates to schools and charities, including those that help special-needs children.

Ahmed Zayat Stables owns approximately 200 horses at any one time.

Ahmed Zayat made a number of big-ticket sales purchases early on including a horse he named Maimonides, purchased at Keeneland as a yearling in 2006 for $4.6 million.

But, in the first of Ahmed Zayat's many racing disappointments, the colt's promising racing career was cut short by injury after two races.

The horses of Ahmed Zayat Stables began to earn race purses in 2006.

In 2008, Ahmed Zayat was North America's leading owner by earnings.

Ahmed Zayat Stables ranked second in the nation for earnings in 2007, third in 2009, fourth in 2010 and fifth nationally in 2011.

Between 2006 and 2014, Ahmed Zayat Stables ranked in the top ten leading owners by purse money won in six of those years and always in the top 20.

Ahmed Zayat has horses at all stages of the racing process, stallions, broodmares, young horses in training and active racing stock.

Ahmed Zayat's daughters were the inspiration for the names of two race horses, stakes-winner Point Ashley, who in turn inspired daughter Ashley's costume jewelry business name; and Littleprincessemma, dam of American Pharoah.

Ahmed Zayat Stables keeps about 30 broodmares and their foals in Kentucky along with roughly 20 yearlings.

Ahmed Zayat has entered horses in the Breeders' Cup races 16 times, with his best result a fourth-place finish in 2007.

Ahmed Zayat has experienced significant highs and lows in his quest for Triple Crown classic wins.

Three times Ahmed Zayat's horses placed second in the Kentucky Derby.

In 2010, Ahmed Zayat campaigned Eskendereya, winner of the Wood Memorial and considered the favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

In 2011, Ahmed Zayat entered Nehro, who finished second to Animal Kingdom.

Ahmed Zayat authorized the highest quality of care for the horse, and following abdominal surgery and several months of rehabilitation, Paynter successfully returned to racing in 2013.

Ahmed Zayat's racing stable survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and he faced a number of legal issues associated with his penchant for betting large sums of money on horse racing.

In December 2009, Ahmed Zayat was sued by Fifth Third Bank for an alleged $34 million in unpaid loans.

Ahmed Zayat had taken out multiple loans from the bank totaling over $38 million between 2007 and 2009.

Fifth Third alleged that Ahmed Zayat was in default because he failed to make two payments in 2009.

The bank alleged that Ahmed Zayat had lost $52 million between 2006 and 2008, that he had not reported a previous Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy he had filed under the name Ephraim David Ahmed Zayat, and the bank attempted to foreclose on his horses.

Ahmed Zayat filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in February 2010.

Ahmed Zayat stated that the problem was that the Lexington branch of the bank worked with the Thoroughbred industry and was willing to restructure his loans, while the bank's corporate headquarters in Cincinnati wanted to get out of the equine lending business altogether.

When he thought the bank was willing to restructure its loans, Ahmed Zayat withdrew 67 horses he intended to sell at Keeneland's 2009 September and November sales and instead purchased 24 more yearlings.

Ahmed Zayat had paid Fifth Third $4.3 million from the proceeds of the sale of breeding rights to Zensational, all of which left him low on cash when the bank called in its loans.

Ahmed Zayat said the bank was using "scorched earth" tactics and accused it of trying to put him out of business, explaining that had he known the bank would not extend his loans, he would have sold enough horses to make his payments.

Ahmed Zayat agreed to pay off his unsecured creditors over two years, without interest, and pay off Fifth Third by 2014.

Ahmed Zayat claimed that he had no knowledge of the Jelinskys' illegal acts.

Ahmed Zayat stated that he thought the brothers were professional gamblers and that they had financial need.

Ahmed Zayat stated that he had been visited by federal agents who played tapes where the Jelinsky brothers discussed how they had cheated Ahmed Zayat out of money by giving him bad betting advice.

The plaintiffs alleged that Ahmed Zayat was allowed to bet on credit, which was a violation of state law.

The records containing Ahmed Zayat's name were later redacted, but an internal email indicated that Ahmed Zayat had wagered a total of at least $8.3 million.

On March 10,2014, a lawsuit against Ahmed Zayat was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Ahmed Zayat's suit alleged breach of contract, claiming that Zayat failed to pay off a $1.65 million line of credit in 2004.

Ahmed Zayat's lawyer described the suit as "a meritless claim", filed a motion to dismiss in 2015 alleging lack of evidence, and argued that the statute of limitations of six years had run.