Frozen funds: Ownership status unresolved but Brookdale Racing keen to get back to ‘business as usual’

Normal operations for the Bahraini-based Brookdale Racing’s Australian thoroughbred portfolio will continue as it awaits final clearance on the transfer of ownership and payment of prize money won by two high-profile three-year-olds.

Queensland-based David Lucas, who oversees the Australian bloodstock interests of Brookdale Racing, said the outfit was keen to get things back to normal after the VRT this week halved a $20,000 fine imposed on owner Nader AlaAli.

AlaAli had been found guilty of providing misleading evidence after it was learned that he is the brother-in-law of Phoenix Thoroughbreds founder Amer Abdulaziz Salman, who is serving 15 months in a US jail for his role in the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency scandal.

Brookdale Racing bought out Phoenix Thoroughbreds’ Australian bloodstock interests at a valuation of $3.17 million, the VRT heard.

The Straight published an article in February last year suggesting AlaAli was likely the brother-in-law of Abdulaziz Salman. It was later reported by the Racing Post, which prompted Racing Victoria’s integrity team to open an investigation.

Brookdale Racing was fined $20,000 in November, but on appeal, the VRT reduced it to $10,000 in a judgment handed down on Monday.

Lucas said Brookdale Racing had accepted the decision.

“Look, we tried our best (to have the penalty overturned in full). We don’t believe that we should have (been fined),” Lucas said. 

“It’s not as though we were a jockey pulling up a horse … nothing we’ve done impacted upon anybody, to be totally honest.

“It’s business as usual from now on.” 

While Lucas is relieved the matter has been dealt with by the VRT, the judgment hasn’t fully resolved it.

Racing Victoria confirmed to The Straight that the freezing of prize money earned by two horses – Navy Pilot and Just Like Gaby – would continue until the ownership is changed from Phoenix Thoroughbreds to Brookdale Racing.

The pair, trained by Ciaron Maher, wear Brookdale’s maroon silks but Phoenix Thoroughbreds is still listed as their owner. This is despite Amer Abdulaziz’s much publicised incarceration in the Loretto Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security facility in Pennsylvania.

At the time Brookdale acquired Phoenix’s bloodstock interests, leading to the transfer of ownership, Navy Pilot and Just Like Gaby were domiciled in NSW. 

It means it is up to Racing NSW to process the paperwork and that has not yet occurred with Brookdale Racing’s legal representative set to make a case following the VRT’s judgment to have the two racehorses officially transferred into AlaAli’s ownership.

This issue has been a known problem for racing authorities for at least 10 months, but has yet to be resolved.

Brookdale Racing sold I Am Invincible mare Cordina, a two-time-winning half-sister to Golden Slipper-winning stallion Farnan and fellow sire Sandbar, at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale to breeder Patrick Hodgens for $400,000 earlier this month.

Phoenix was also listed on Racing Australia as Cordina’s owner until her sale at Chairman’s.

It will also offer stock at next week’s Magic Millions National Sale on the Gold Coast.

Navy Pilot, a last-start winner at Bendigo on May 2, jumped out at Cranbourne earlier this week with the rising four-year-old carrying an entry for the Stradbroke Handicap. He finished sixth in last year’s Caulfied Guineas.

Three-time-winning four-year-old mare Just Like Gaby, a valuable daughter of Group 1 winner Loving Gaby, is also in training with Maher at Cranbourne for Brookdale Racing.

Loving Gaby was the most valuable member of Brookdale’s broodmare band, but she died suddenly last November.

She has a weanling colt by Wootton Bassett, while Tallow, the dam of Cordina, Farnan and Sandbar, has a weanling colt by Golden Slipper-winning stallion Shinzo.

Brookdale Racing will have about 23 broodmares go to stud later this year.

It also has extensive bloodstock interests in the US, which included Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.

In August last year, Brookdale offloaded its 50 per cent stake in the Kenny McPeek-trained Thorpedo Anna to Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John Sikura.