New York Post: ‘American Pharoah Owner Champion at Spinning Tall Tales’

The New York news media is all over this past week’s story regarding American Pharoah owner Ahmed Zayat allegedly owing offshore gambling companies over $2 million. 

On Friday, the New York Post’s Richard Johnson became the latest to take a jab at Zayat.

Johnson doesn’t pull any punches when he writes that Zayat “is already a champion at spinning tall tales”.

The New Jersey resident, who gambles about $200,000 a week on horse races, claimed in a 2014 deposition that he went to Harvard even though The (Bergen) Record reported in 2013 it was a lie.

“This guy is completely full of spit,” one friend of a Zayat creditor told Johnson.

The Page Six columnist mentions a quote uttered by Zayat during Court depositions previously missed by Gambling911.com sources.

“I am not a crook!”

That famous line was once said by none other than impeached U.S. President Richard Nixon.  We all know how that one turned out.

“I am not saying I am a saint. I am not saying that mistakes have not happened, errors of judgment,” Zayat told The Record. “Sometimes, as smart as I am, I am naive.”

Gambling911.com this week obtained a bizarre text message conversation presented in Court supposedly between Zayat and a man claiming to be owed the over $2 million by American Pharoah’s owner.  Those messages suggest a close relationship between the two men at one time but in a subsequent deposition Zayat insists he only met the plaintiff on one occasion or “maybe twice” or “maybe more times”. 

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com