Thorn Song is not dead, trainer says

Thorn Song, a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner for embattled horse owner Ahmed Zayat, appears to be alive, even though Zayat cashed in a $2.75 million insurance claim last fall.

“I know the horse hasn’t been put down,” Mike Mitchell, Thorn Song’s California trainer, said Tuesday. “I just checked with my vet and he said he has not been put down and he has a chance of standing as a stallion.”

Thorn Song was taken to a veterinary clinic with severe abscesses in both front feet after bolting in a race July 25 at Del Mar, his first race for Mitchell.

Mitchell said he had not been involved with Thorn Song since the horse left Del Mar and could not speak to the circumstances of the insurance claim.

According to records filed by Fifth Third Bank in Zayat’s bankruptcy case in New Jersey, Zayat claimed a loss on Thorn Song on Aug. 2, 2009. The check from North American Specialty Insurance Company states that the payment covers “HORSE MORTALITY THORN SONG LIMIT LESS DED.”
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