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Libel Suit Filed Against Ahmed Zayat, the Owner of American Pharoah

Feelings have been hurt

by
Jonathan Zalman
June 02, 2015
Ahmed Zayat celebrates at the Kentucky Derby, May 2, 2015. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Ahmed Zayat celebrates at the Kentucky Derby, May 2, 2015. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Just days before American Pharoah aims to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since 1978, its owner now has to endure an additional level of stress to the occasion: a libel lawsuit.

This case stems from an earlier one filed in March 2014, in which a man named Howard Rubinksy, “a sometime X-ray technician from Florida who specialized in steering high-end gamblers to betting sites,” reports the New York Times, claimed that Zayat owes him $1.65 million in gambling debt that has spanned decades. Rubinsky, who has been trying to collect what he is allegedly owed, said that Zayat “just doesn’t like to pay.”

Now firmly in the spotlight, Zayat has denied these allegations, calling Rubinsky’s case “fiction,” among other attributions. But this time it’s Rubinsky lawyer, Joseph Bainton, who is suing Zayat—for libel. The Sporting News reports:

Joseph Bainton, the lawyer representing Howard Rubinsky, the man suing Zayat for $1.65 million, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Monday in United States District Court in New Jersey. Bainton seeks $10 million in damages.



After the initial suit was filed, Zayat gave statements to several media outlets calling it “blackmail” and “extortion.” Bainton, a practicing lawyer in the New York area since 1974, said he was offended by these claims. Zayat told The Associated Press the lawsuit was fraud, a total lie and blackmail by a criminal. Those words were republished all over the United States and the world, grounds for libel, Bainton says. The complaint also cites reports from the New York Daily News, the Daily Mail in London and The Charlotte Observer.

So as these wealthy, wealthy men duke it out in legalese, one question remains: What about the horse?

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.