Kentucky racehorses, Russian President’s Cup, and Kadyrov

Mr. Hal Dane is a reader of this blog, a follower of Russian racing, and a frequent and contentious commentator here. In the two posts below this, Hal has made several comments about Russian racing, and I thought I’d take the opportunity here to use them as an excuse to show a video of the 2009 President of the Russian Federation Cup (President’s Cup), a 2400-meter Russian Group 1 race that has quickly become the premier event for older horses in Russia since Vladimir Putin established the race a few years back. In this video, you’ll get an excellent look at racing at its highest level in Russia at the Moscow Hippodrome, a dirt track.

First, some background on the 2009 edition of the President’s Cup. Monomakh, a Kentucky-bred son of Mineshaft owned by the Donskoi Stud, won the 2008 Russian Derby and the 2009 President’s Cup and by year’s end he was ranked the best horse in Russia (click here to see the rankings). Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, however, had tried to derail Monomakh’s ascent that sunny July 18th by running the ex-European multiple Group 2 winner Bronze Cannon in the race. Mr. Kadyrov had recently purchased the colt from A.E. Oppenheimer, and Bronze Cannon was trained for the race by John Gosden. The horse was ridden in Moscow by Jimmy Fortune, and he was the first British-trained runner in Russia since Paul Cole had sent Fine Silver to the 2005 edition of the race at the Kazan International Equestrian Complex in Tartarstan. The Kazan surface, by the way, is all weather.

Below is the 2009 President’s Cup, won by Monomakh (No. 8). European invader Bronze Cannon (one of two in Kadyrov silks of white and green sleeves, red body; No. 1), a turf horse, finished fourth on the choppy dirt.

See the video of the 2011 President’s Cup from the Kazan International Equestrian Complex by clicking here. It, too, was won by a Kentucky-bred colt. Mr. Kadyrov won the 2010 edition of the race.

Afleet Alex is the sire of President’s Cup winner Korol

Gainesway sire Afleet Alex is the sire of Korol, this year’s winner of the President of the Russian Federation Stakes, or the President’s Cup as it’s known in shorthand. The race is the most prestigious in Russia, and this year it was contested at the Kazan International Equestrian Complex on Friday night (June 24) instead of at the Central Moscow Hippodrome where the Russian Derby is contested and where the President’s Cup has been primarily held since it was founded by Vladimir Putin. Both races are on dirt at 2400 meters, but the race in Kazan was contested over an all-weather surface whereas racing in Moscow is on dirt. Last year Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s horses took both events, the Derby with North Stream in Moscow and the President of the Russian Federation Stakes at Rostov-on-Don with Khoresm. The controversial Mr. Kadyrov, who runs Chechnya with an iron hand, recently won the Group 1 Singapore Airlines International  Cup at Kranji with the ex-Team Valor runner Gitano Hernando.

Click here for the result of the race.

Kadyrov’s ex-Valor Gitano Hernando wins SAI Cup

Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov won the biggest international prize of his career today when the ex-Team Valor International runner Gitano Hernando won the Group 1 Singapore Airlines International  Cup at Kranji today. Click here for the chart.

Kadyrov visits UAE and Dubai sentences are reduced

Longtime readers of this blog who have followed the posts here on the assassination of Chechen Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai on World Cup Day 2009 (search using Ramzan Kadyrov, Sulim Yamadayev, Adam Delimkhanov) will be interested in this Huffington Post piece from today on the sentence reversals of the two men convicted in the murder. Click here for more posts.

Giant’s Causeway colt wins Chechen Derby at Gudermes

Adam Delimkhanov pictured holding Ramzan Kadyrov's son Akhmed at the Gudermes hippodrome. (RIA Novosti photo, as are the photos in the slideshow).

North Stream, the same Giant’s Causeway colt who won the Russian Derby in Moscow last month in the red, green, and white colors of controversial Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, added the new Chechen Derby to his resume today for the Moscow-backed leader in his own backyard—literally. A new racetrack opened this year in Chechnya’s second-largest city, Gudermes, at the edge of Mr. Kadyrov’s presidential palace, and the Saturday race meeting today at the Gudermes racetrack—the Adam Delimkhanov Birthday Meeting—was named in honor of Mr. Kadyrov’s cousin and equally controversial right-hand man, whose own resume is peppered with accusations that run the gamut from civil rights violations to masterminding assassinations. Mr. Delimkhanov’s name most recently was at the center of the assassination of a Chechen opponent of Mr. Kadyrov’s in Dubai on World Cup Day in 2009. Mr. Kadyrov is a prominent international owner with a Dubai stable with South African Herman Brown.

 US-bred North Stream, a son of Giant’s Causeway from the Sadler’s Wells mare Starbourne, was purchased at the 2008 Keeneland September sale for $45,000 by Raut LLC and won the classic for Mr. Kadyrov over 2400 meters on dirt—the same trip and surface over which he won in Moscow. Raut has been an active buyer at the current Keeneland September sale, purchasing more than 100 head to date.

Adam Delimkhanov is officially deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee for Federal Affairs and Regional Policy. Below is a slideshow from the Gudermes racetrack from April. And below that is the video of the Russian Derby. North Stream is No. 4 and leads from the first bend on.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Russian Derby on Aug. 15 from Moscow:

Ramzan Kadyrov’s Giant’s Causeway wins Russian Derby

Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya, had privately purchased from the Coolmore group the recent Group 3 Queen’s Vase winner at Ascot, Galileo’s Mikhail Glinka, for Sunday’s Russian Group 1 Russian Derby at the Central Moscow Hippodrome, but his Keeneland auction grad with ties to Coolmore actually won the race while Mikhail Glinka finished 6th. US-bred North Stream, a son of Giant’s Causeway from the Sadler’s Wells mare Starbourne, was purchased at the 2008 Keeneland September sale for $45,000 by Raut Bloodstock Agency and won the classic for Mr. Kadyrov over 2400 meters on dirt. Though listed as unraced by The Jockey Club’s equineline.com report, North Stream is now a winner of three races from six starts.

North Stream was one of three winners on the day for jockey Mohammed Kapushev, who also won a supporting Russian Group 1 fixture on the Malibu Moon colt Static Memory, last year’s Russian Derby winner.

Ramzan Kadyrov’s Mikhail Glinka in Russian Derby Sunday

Ramzan Kadyrov (photo: EPA/KAZBEK VAKHAYEV)

Controversial Moscow-backed Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has the ex-A.P. O’Brien-trained Mikhail Glinka entered in the Russian Group 1 Russian Derby in Moscow Sunday, with Jimmy Fortune scheduled to ride. 

Mr. Kadyrov is an international racehorse owner whose silks have flown at tracks from Canada to Australia. His main operation is anchored by South African trainer Herman Brown each winter in Dubai. From there, the stable goes to Gary Moore for the summer in England. Last year Mourilyan won a stakes for the owner in England before shipping last fall to Australia for the Melbourne Cup, where he ran huge to finish third amidst political outcry. 

Mr. Kadyrov has a burning desire, though, to win the Russian Derby and the President’s Cup in Moscow—the two most prestigious races in Russia—and over the last few years he’s employed the tactic of purchasing proven runners to win them. He bought Racecar Rhapsody from the US in 2008, Russian 2000 Guineas winner Indian Jameson in 2009 from local owners, and Mikhail Glinka, winner of the Group 3 Queen’s Vase at Ascot for Coolmore’s crew, for Sunday’s race. Additionally, he purchased Group 2 winner Bronze Cannon last year for the President’s Cup, and presumably he purchased 2009 Argentine Derby winner Storm Chispazo for this year’s Cup. 

The Russian Derby is contested over 2400 meters on sand at the Central Moscow Hippodrome and has been won the last few years by US-bred runners bred for dirt. Mikhail Glinka is a Galileo colt bred for and raced on turf. Static Memory, a son of Malibu Moon, won the race in 2009, and the Mineshaft colt Monomakh took it in 2008. Both are grandsons of A.P. Indy, the favorite sire in Russia, and will square off on the Derby undercard in a supporting Russian Group 1 event. 

Mr. Kadyrov owns three of the 11 starters in the Derby. Click here to see the field. Click here to see the field for the supporting Group 1 fixture that features that last two Russian Derby winners. (Special thanks to T. Brar for the Twitter tip that Mikhail Glinka had been sold to Mr. Kadyrov; search this site for many more posts on Mr. Kadyrov.)

Iranian and Tajik sentenced to life for Yamadayev killing

The sordid assassination of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s rival  Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai on Dubai World Cup day in 2009, and the ensuing investigation and trial that included plenty of mudslinging between Chechnya and Dubai over the last 12 months came to an end today when a Dubai court sentenced an Iranian and a Tajik to life sentences for their participation in the crime.

The two men sentenced were bit players in the assassination, and several others suspected of involvement by Dubai’s police chief, including the high-ranking Russian government official and Kadyrov right-hand man Adam Delimkhanov, remain at large and are on Interpol wanted lists.

The brazen, broad-daylight assassination sparked an international fracas between Mr. Delimkhanov and Dubai’s top cop, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, who publicly traded insults in the media.

The Iranian has been repeatedly described in press reports as a groom in Mr. Kadyrov’s Dubai stable, but his trainer Herman Brown’s assistant, Nicolas Iguacel, has disputed that characterization. Responding in this blog in a Nov. 29, 2009, post, he wrote: “The Iranian guy that was arrested three days after the world cup wasn’t a groom. He was working for an embassy here in Dubai and was our interpreter [because] Ramzan [Kadyrov] doesn’t speak in English. The guy was at the stables the morning of the murder and at the races from the first race until the last race [because]they had Bankable running in the Duty Free and I was with him, so I don’t think if you murder someone you will be so cool at the races.  And then he came the following two days to the stables, so I think he was in the wrong place at the right time [because] you don’t want to go to jail in Dubai;  like all the other suspects, the best it would be to flight out of the country but,  I’m not a detective, it s just my opinion.” 

Click here to see all of Nicolas’s comments. Click here to read about the court decision.

Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim makes news

Lt. Gen. Tamim

Dubai’s chief of police, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has been featured in this space before, and if you search for his name at the top of this blog, you’ll come away with several posts to which he’s linked, mainly in the case of the assassination of Chechen Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai on World Cup day last March 28. Most recently, Lt. Gen. Tamim made an appearance here in a Feb. 8 post on the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al Mabhou, titled Is Israel behind the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai. A Washington Post blogger weighed in yesterday with a piece titled  The Dubai police chief’s outlandish claims; two days ago, The Lede blog from the New York Times had a post titled Dubai police chief says he knows an Israeli when he sees one. And just like that, on Super Thursday today, the prelude to World Cup day, Dubai and its police chief are in the news because of two high-profile assassinations and the chief’s reactions to them.  

The Washington Post blog covers both assassinations, but the blogger’s facts aren’t fully accurate and he’s constructed the post as a slant against the police chief. On his facts, he wrote this unsubstantiated statement about the Yamadayev assassination: “…the assassin left behind a golden gun belonging to Ramzan Kadyrov…”  

Yes, a gold-plated revolver was left near the scene, but not even Lt. Gen. Tamim has gone so far as to say it belonged to Mr. Kadyrov, the Chechen president. Instead, Lt. Gen. Tamin has consistently hammered away at Mr. Kadyrov’s right-hand man and cousin, Adam Delimkhanov, and has attempted to extradite him, has placed him on an Interpol wanted list, and has implicated him by Dubai police testimony in the ongoing case, which has been covered in this blog.  

The Washington Post blogger compares the Chechen assassination to the Hamas assassination and implies that the police chief has gone way over the top to muddy Israel in the Hamas assassination because of the Arab conflict with Israel, more so than what he did to Russia in the Yamadayev killing. That, however, is not the case, and I know because I have researched and covered the Chechen assassination and was actually shocked at the level of public mudslinging between Chechnya (Mr. Delimkhanov) and Dubai (Lt. Gen. Tamim) in that case. In fact, I believe that Russia was embarrassed by Chechnya’s alleged role in the Yamadayev assassination, instead of being behind it. Mr. Yamadayev was a well-known opponent off Mr. Kadyrov and was probably the victim of a blood feud; a few of his brothers were assassinated as well. 

What Lt. Gen. Tamim has said about Israeli involvement in the Hamas assassination is, in fact, very consistent with his handling of the Yamadayev assassination. 

(Special thanks to @GoldenTent on Twitter for keeping me updated )

Is Israel behind the assassination of Hamas leader in Dubai?

Tamim

On the eve of the Dubai World Cup, a recent high-profile assassination in Dubai is the talk of the town, while the trial of the assassination of a former Russian commander on Dubai World Cup day last year is underway.  

The big question these days: Did Israel sanction the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai on Jan. 20? Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the Dubai police chief, thinks maybe, according to published reports. Mahmoud al Mabhouh, accused in the past by Israel as a weapons smuggler between Iran and Gaza, was found dead in a Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20, and Lt. Gen. Tamin has implied that the assassination may have been the work of Mossad — the Israeli intelligence agency.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to assassinate [Mahmoud] al Mabhouh in Dubai. We will issue an arrest warrant against him.” — Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim to The National 

Lt. Gen. Tamim has no qualms about taking on high-ranking foreign leaders in the press. After Chechen Sulim Yamadayev, a one-time Russian batallion commander and an opponent of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, was assassinated in Dubai last Dubai World Cup day, Lt. Gen. Tamim was unequivocal in his assertions that Mr. Kadyrov’s right-hand man, Adam Delimkhanov, was the mastermind behind it. In fact, he had Mr. Delimkhanov, at the time a member of the Russian government, placed on an Interpol wanted list and tried to have him extradited to Dubai to stand trial. Recently at the Yamadayev trial, a Dubai policeman testified that an Iranian national associated with the Kadyrov stable in Dubai had implicated Mr. Delimkhanov.

Big doings in Dubai: Kadyrov associate implicated in murder

Delimkhanov

The often-postponed trial of two men — one an Iranian with ties to Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov — accused of complicity in the assassination of Kadyrov-rival  Sulim Yamadayev last Dubai World Cup day convened in Dubai today with testimony that directly implicates Mr. Kadyrov’s cousin and right-hand man, Adam Delimkhanov, in the assassination. 

The National has the story here. You can read my last post on the topic here. 

The assassination sparked an international fracas between Dubai and Chechnya last year, with Mr. Delimkhanov and Dubai’s top cop, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, publicly insulting each other in the media. Lt. Gen. Tamim had Mr. Delimkhanov placed on an Interpol wanted list while Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, and Mr. Kadyrov,  an international racehorse owner, uneasily raced horses against each other in Europe.  

Mr. Kadyrov, like last year, has a small string stabled in Dubai with trainer Herman Brown and his assistant, Nicolas Iguacel. Nicolas recently commented on this blog about the Iranian’s role in the Kadyrov operation and his whereabouts on Dubai World Cup day last year. 

This is what he said in a comment posted on Nov. 29, 2009 (not edited): “We are in Dubai and Meydan is going fast but still a lot to do. The iranian guy that was arrested three days after the world cup wasn t a groom. He was working for an embassy here in dubai and was our interpreter cos Ramzan doesn’t speak in english. The guy was at the stables the morning of the murder and at the races from the first race until the last race cos they had Bankable running in the duty free and i was with him so i dont think if you murder someone you will be so cool at the races and then he came the following two days to the stables so i think he was in the wrong place at the right time cos you don t want to go to jail in dubai, like all the other suspects the best it would be to flight out of the country but im not a detective, it s just my opinion.” 

Click here to see all of Nicolas’s comments.

Dubai court has postponed Yamadayev murder trial to Feb. 1

Last Dubai World Cup day, March 28, 2009, Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated in Dubai while the city was preoccupied with horse racing. Mr. Yamadayev was a part of a Chechen clan that was on the outs with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-installed president of Chechnya and an international racehorse owner. In fact, on the day Mr. Yamadayev was gunned down, Mr. Kadyrov’s Bankable ran at Nad Al Sheda, and an Iranian interpreter was at the track in the company of  Mr. Kadyrov’s trainers to convey the results of the race via phone to Mr. Kadyrov back home. That man, Mahdi Lorniya, has been in custody since April and is one of two men on trial in Dubai for the assassination. Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, the Dubai police chief, has accused the high-ranking Chechen official Adam Delimkhanov, Mr. Kadyrov’s cousin and confidant, as being the mastermind of the assassination and has placed him on Interpol’s wanted list.

Mr. Delimkhanov has dismissed the allegations and has dissed the Dubai chief as a bumpkin.  This, in turn, has led to plenty of mudslinging back and forth among Mr. Kadyrov’s and Sheikh Mohammed’s people while they’ve raced horses against each other on the international stage. In fact, the finish of the Goodwood Cup in England was almost surreal as Godolphin’s Schiaparelli and Mr. Kadyrov’s Mourilyan, in the racecourse version of the duel between Dubai and Chechnya, hooked up in a dandy, with Schiaparelli prevailing.

Attempts by Dubai to have Mr. Delimkhanov extradited to stand trial have failed, but the trial did begin late last year before it was postponed from Dec. 19 to today, when it was again postponed until Feb. 1 because an officer, Mohammed Hassan al Mutawa, failed to appear for a cross-examination, according to The National. At this rate, the trial may be full blown by the time the Dubai World Cup comes around again. In the meantime, Mr. Kadyrov has a string in Dubai ready for the carnival, including recent purchase Storm Chispazo, the Argentine Derby winner.

Dubai court will hear Yamadayev murder trial in January

The Dubai Court of First Instance, the scene of the trial of two defendants accused of complicity in the murder of Chechen Sulim Yamadayev on Dubai World Cup day in 2009, continues in January after a postponement Dec. 19. Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim (pictured, left), the Dubai police chief, has been an outspoken critic of the Chechen leadership’s role in the assassination and has accused Adam Delimkhanov, a high-ranking Chechen official with close ties to Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, of direct involvement in the planning of the murder. Furthermore, he has publicly stated that the gold-plated murder weapon belonged to a member of Mr. Delimkhanov’s official delegation to Dubai. Click here to read the latest about the trial.

Details of World Cup day murder emerge from Dubai trial

Adam Delimkhanov: Chechen politician and Russian government official has been implicated in Dubai World Cup day murder in ongoing trial in Dubai.

The Khaleej Times online, in an article written by Mary Nammour on Dec. 18, said: 

DUBAI – An Iranian defendant in the case of the assassination of former Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev gave a lift many times to the alleged mastermind behind the man’s slaying, while his Tajik accomplice helped the suspected killer flee the UAE, a court heard on Thursday.

The alleged mastermind, who was named only as Adam by a police officer in the Court of First Instance, is believed to be Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Adam Delimkhanov. A police officer was quizzed in the Court of First Instance as he translated, from Arabic to Farsi and vice versa, for an officer who interrogated the Iranian.  “The Iranian gave a lift to someone called Adam, whose full name he allegedly did not know, to Dubai airport,” the police officer said.

Click here to read the full story. Click here to read more about the Iranian.

Dubai court says Ramzan Kadyrov doesn’t need to testify

 “A court in Dubai rejected on Thursday a request of lawyers acting on behalf of suspects in the Yamadayev murder trial that the Chechen president be summoned for testimony.” 

– Ria Novosti. Click here to read the full story, plus related links. 

Pay attention to this line in the article: “Two suspects are currently on trial in the murder case – Tajik national Makhsudzhon Ismatov and Iranian Mahdi Lorniya.” 

The Iranian in question appears in the following thread of a conversation I had with Nicolas Iguacel, who handles Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s horses as an assistant to trainer Herman Brown. Here’s an edited (not for grammar) excerpt: 

edit this on November 29, 2009 at 10:16 am | Reply sidfernando

I thought that Mr. Kadyrov would have a difficult time getting licensed in Dubai this year because Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, chief of police in Dubai, has placed Mr. Kadyrov’s right-hand mand, Adam Delimkhanov, on interpol as the mastermind behind the assassination of Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai last World Cup day. 

Lt. Gen. Tamim also has stated that one of the first arrests was an Iranian who was a groom with the Kadyrov horses in Dubai last winter. 

Can you comment? 

edit this on November 29, 2009 at 10:45 am | Reply nicolas

We are in Dubai and Meydan is going fast but still a lot to do. The iranian guy that was arrested three days after the world cup wasn t a groom. He was working for an embassy here in dubai and was our interpreter cos Ramzan doesnt speak in english. The guy was at the stables the morning of the murder and at the races from the first race until the last race cos they had Bankable running in the duty free and i was with him so i dont think if you murder someone you will be so cool at the races and then he came the following two days to the stables so i think he was in the wrong place at the right time cos you don t want to go to jail in dubai, like all the other suspects the best it would be to flight out of the country but im not a detective, it s just my opinion. 

edit this on November 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Reply sidfernando

Do you expect Mr. Kadyrov to visit Dubai this winter? 

When you said the Iranian was with you on World Cup day, was Mr. Kadyrov also present, and was Mr. Delimkhanov at the races, too? 

Thanks. 

edit this on November 30, 2009 at 10:53 pm | Reply Nicolas

The horses will run in Dubai and only from the end of January when the carnival starts. The only one at the races was the Iranian guy and mr kadyrov was here in dubai only once.