Maker sues Zayat for breach of contract and fraud

The trainer Mike Maker has filed a lawsuit accusing Ahmed Zayat of breach of contract and fraud, the latest development in a string of financial controversies enveloping the owner who raced 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

The suit, filed in Jefferson County, Ky., where Maker is based, accuses Zayat of reneging on a deal reached between the two parties in September that would allow Zayat to settle $120,000 in unpaid training bills. The bills stretched back to 2018, when Maker agreed to train a total of eight horses for Zayat Stables, the nom de course of Ahmed Zayat.

In an interview on Friday, Maker said that Zayat failed to make a $10,000 payment in mid-January that was required as part of the settlement. Within days of that missed payment, Zayat Stables was placed in receivership by a Fayette Country judge after Zayat’s lender, the New York-based investment group MGG, accused Zayat of fraud and sued him for $23 million.

“We tried to contact him for a few days after” the missed payment, “but we got no response,” Maker said. “Basically I had had enough.”

In a prepared statement released on Saturday morning, Zayat disputed that he had failed to make a payment according to the settlement schedule with Maker and called the lawsuit “absurd.”

“It is outrageous for Mr. Maker to cry foul given that he agreed to the terms of the [payment agreement], which Mr. Zayat has fully honored in an effort to keep his business afloat and repay each of his creditors,” the statement read. “To suggest he’s done anything less and accuse Mr. Zayat of fraud is scurrilous and defamatory. Mr. Zayat fully expects this lawsuit will be dismissed.”

Maker said that Zayat had failed to pay his training bills for roughly a year prior to the settlement being reached. The parties reached the settlement after Zayat sold a half-share in a horse in Maker’s barn and had requested that the horse be moved.

The suit was first reported by the Blood-Horse.

Earlier this week, attorneys for Zayat filed a motion with Fayette Circuit Court attempting to get the order of receivership nullified. In the motion, Zayat’s attorneys claimed that they were not provided adequate notice to defend their client during the hearing that resulted in the stable being placed in receivership, and they further claimed that MGG had misrepresented the status of negotiations that were ongoing with Zayat over his debts.