Busy Dubai World Cup Card for Phoenix Ownership Groups

The butterfly effect landed in the form of a steady buzzing vibration from the phone of Phoenix Thoroughbreds founder Amer Abdulaziz.

The nearly constant sound March 24 was triggered thousands of miles away by the retirement of a future Pro Football Hall of Famer. Granted, that NFL player was New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, and Abdulaziz was six days away from watching his grade 1-placed Gronkowski start in the Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1).

"All of these people were texting me to ask if Gronkowski had really been retired or if he would race in the Dubai World Cup first and then be retired," said Abdulaziz, a Dubai-based businessman who developed a taste for American football while attending college at the University of California at Berkeley—becoming a fan of the San Francisco 49ers. "I had to explain to everyone that it was the football player retiring and not the horse."

Any confusion March 30 will be pleasant enough as it figures to involve keeping up with the many horses entered on the Dubai World Cup card by Phoenix Thoroughbreds—a Thoroughbred racing investment fund launched in 2017 that has horses in the U.S., Dubai, Europe, and Australia—and the spinoff Phoenix Ladies Syndicate, a similarly structured ownership group formed last fall that aims to increase racing participation by women across the United Arab Emirates.

Phoenix Thoroughbreds has a pair of runners entered in the $12 million main event: Gronkowski, who gave Justify  a bit of a scare in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) before settling for second, and Axelrod, last year's Indiana Derby (G3) winner. The connections also will send out Sands of Mali (co-owned by The Cool Silk Partnership) in the $2 million Al Quoz Sprint Sponsored by Azizi Developments (G1).

Fast-starting Phoenix Ladies Syndicate has entered a trio of runners in the UAE Derby Sponsored by Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group (G2): Florida-bred Walking Thunder and Kentucky-breds Golden Jaguar and Superior.

"The goals were very high," Abdulaziz said. "We wanted to start with a bang. … The dream was so big that we kept adding people to the team, and from there we also started the Phoenix Ladies Syndicate. So both groups are growing."

While in college, Abdulaziz began exercising horses at Golden Gate Fields for some trainers and fell in love with the sport. He eventually worked with Prince Ahmed Bin Salman's The Thoroughbred Corp. When it came to Phoenix, he wanted to offer a different approach to ownership.

"We wanted to do it differently than just buying a couple of horses and prospecting," Abdulaziz said. "So the idea was that we wanted to be in the horse business, so we thought, 'Why not set up a fund?'"

Pamela Cordina, who manages Phoenix Ladies Syndicate, said the ownership fund has five women participating from the UAE and aims to add more women from around the world.

"I think what makes it unique is the energy the ladies bring to it," Cordina said. "The ladies do not all come from an equine background, so this has been a unique platform—it's a networking platform for them as well. I think that is the main strength of it.

"The success we've had also certainly has helped us."

Abdulaziz said Phoenix will continue to search out top horses at sales but down the line would also like to breed top horses. He noted that while many people don't yet realize it, Phoenix Thoroughbreds has already started breeding horses in Australia, stands five stallions, and has shares with some stallions in Kentucky. His vision is for Phoenix to reach the highest of heights.

"The focus is on quality," Abdulaziz said. "People talk about Coolmore families and Darley families—this is what we're trying to do. Three or four more years down the road, we want people to be saying, 'Oh, these are Phoenix Thoroughbreds families.' So that's the idea we have."

Cordina, an investor relations manager at Phoenix Fund Investments, said as they saw growth in the Thoroughbred ownership fund, they noticed not many women were joining.

"When we were working on Phoenix Thoroughbreds, we noticed there was a lack of participation of female gender, especially in this area but in general around the Thoroughbred industry," Cordina said. "As we were building, I became more eager for this. The boss man said, 'If this is a challenge, you take the challenge.' That's how it started. We didn't have expectations to have such success in our first season."

She credited trainer Ahmad bin Harmash, who conditions all three of Phoenix Ladies Syndicate's UAE Derby runners, and buyer Alessandro Marconi, who purchased all three at last year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.