32906 Middlebelt Rd

It took American Pharoah barely
two minutes and two seconds to
win the 2015 Kentucky Derby.

known as the sport of kings. Many of the
families in it are old-time families, like
the Vanderbilts." It's a high-stakes world.
In some ways, Ahmed's approach to
this old world was new He uses computer
analytics to study aspects of breeding,
buying, training and racing horses. He
also decided to develop a more broadly
based business than most of his competi-
tors. "There are people who only race
horses, who only breed them, people
who have only broodmares, people who
have only stallions, people who only have
babies, or buy babies and sell them,"
Joanne says.
"He decided that he would have a
much more eclectic stable. We have every
end — we have broodmares, racing
horses, stallions and babies:'
And so Zayat Stables was born.
Experts at their stables decide which
horses to keep and which to sell, which
to train for turf and which for grass, and
which to pair with which trainer. "Each
racehorse — every horse — has a person-
ality:' she adds. "We have to know what
kind of personality it is:'
The stable, only eight years old, started
big and has stayed big.
"We bought 25 horses the first time
Joanne says. "We probably have one of
the biggest stables in North America. We
keep the babies — anywhere from 20 to
25 of them — in a stable in Florida, and
then they go to the trainers to learn how
to become a racehorse:'
It is a family business; the Zayats' old-
est child, Justin, 23, "has worked in the
business since he was in 10th grade:'
He is now graduating from New York
University, and "he is our stallion and
racing manager. He and my husband
work hand-in-hand doing financial anal-
ysis and race analysis:' says Joanne, who
also works in the business.
The next oldest child, Ashley, who is
married to Glenn Weiss, owns a costume
jewelry business called Point Ashley —
named after her family's first winner, a
horse also named Point Ashley, after her.
Benjamin is a sophomore at the Frisch
School, and Emma is an eighth-grader at
a Jewish day school in Teaneck.
The Zayats try to give their horses
names that have some meaning, "some-
thing to do with our lives or our friends:'
Joanne says. "Justin decided that he
wanted to do a contest with the fans.
They could submit names, and we would
pick one.
"A woman from Arkansas submitted
American Pharoah." He's named in hom-
age to Ahmed Zayat, who was Egyptian
to start with and is American now
The anonymous horse-namer was
clearly very good with history and allu-
sion, but she misspelled Pharaoh, trans-

posing the o and a. After the family chose
it, "Justin cut and pasted the name from
her email, and sent it to the Jockey Club:'
"We never thought about it — and now
people ask if there is a reason for that
spelling," Joanne says. "But it was just cut
and pasted!"
American Pharoah was particularly
dear to the Zayats even before he won
the Triple Crown because he is the
stable's first second-generation winner.
"American Pharoahs dad, Pioneer of the
Nile, was our very first home-bred win-
ner, and he was the runner-up in the
Kentucky Derby:' Joanne says. "He was
nipped at the wire" — in other words,
his victory was snatched from him. "We
bred him with Little Princess Emma"
— named after the family's younger
daughter — "and American Pharoah got
revenge for his father:'
What is it like being Orthodox Jews at
races? "There is no conflict," Joanne says.
"Most of our big races are on Saturdays,
so we walk to the track:'
They stay at nearby hotels and get
kosher meals, including full Shabbat din-
ners, from a caterer, or they stay in an
RV — 45 feet long, with two bathrooms,
a full kitchen and dining area and sleeps
six to eight people.
"Shabbos is still Shabbos. You are still
getting gefilte fish for dinner:' she says.
"I think that when you are true to
yourself, and you have a strong value
system, people respect it. This is a free
country, and people get that:'
Joanne says that she likes that horse
racing is a family thing. "We all travel
together for all the big races," she says.
"We go together as much as we can. It is
not just a business. We are close to our
trainers and their families. That's part of
what makes it nice.
"Yes, ifs big business, but ifs also a
humanistic thing. We all know each
other's kids. We have watched each other's
kids grow up:'
Their philosophy is similar when it
comes to their horses: When one was ill,
they spent a lot of time and finances car-
ing for him. "We wanted to do right by
the horse' Joanne says. "If you do right
by a horse, the horse will do right by you.
A horse is not a machine:'
And of the excitement surrounding
American Pharoah, she says, "This is
ours. This is a real Zayat horse. There is
something really special about it. Ifs still
surreal now:'
When you look at horses, Joanne says,
there is a lot of science; "numbers, anat-
omy, genetics:' But there also is the emo-
tional component "The objective and the
subjective have to meld together.
"And I know that this is the horse:' ❑

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