Very interesting…I wonder why. It looks complicated.
Part of an estate frozen under sanctions. I’m going to guess disappeared by his actual owner
It is very odd, isn’t it?
The act of a vengeful enemy?
Is the horse insured? Do sanctions have any effect on an insurance payout?
It would make no sense for the owner to hide the stallion, his value is in his get and foals registered with the JC have to be DNA tested.
He could sneak him back into Chechnya or Russia and evade sanctions.
Yet he could not use him as a TB sire in that scenario. The horse has been reported as stolen.
It’s always a strange situation when anyone steals a racehorse/sire. Unless there is a ransom demand, no one stands to profit monetarily, so it looks like spite. Czech insurance law is beyond me, so I have no idea what proof an owner would need to collect.
" The stallion is part of the sanctioned assets of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who is an ally of Vladimir Putin. The sanctions on Kadyrov were invoked following Russia’s invasion of the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014. An attempt to kidnap Zazou, and G2 Dubai City Of Gold hero Mikhail Glinka (Ire) Galileo {Ire}) was made last January, but failed according to Czech Radio ."
This sounds not good.
I’m a fan of the Velká Pardubická, (the 4+mile steeplechase starts 12-ish minutes in), and have bought excellent second hand breeches from the Czech Republic and Poland via eBay, so news about Eastern European horses catches my interest.
It would be interesting to know details of the attempted kidnapping “last January”.
It sounds as if Kadyrov has an enemy, and very poor security.
Zazou is a lovely horse. I hope he is safe.
Yes, guessing you’re right.
Poor, as in: able to be bought security.
Probably so. Who knows? It’s a weird situation for sure, but it seems like a personal issue since there isn’t much to be gained monetarily, unless a ransom demand follows.
My late husband was from the former Czechoslovakia. He hated the russians for what happened to his country and some of the horses. Maybe someone sees this as a very small chance to get a little bit even.
I think you’re on the right track. Stealing the horse for financial gain, barring ransom, make no sense.
Yikes!
I remember him in the Dubai World Cup.
Holy $hi7. That asshole is one of the most evil human beings alive on the planet today. He makes Putin look like a nice reasonable person.
Kadyrov’s Chechen forces were original founders of the Wagner Group. Although Wagner is now identified as Russian.
Kadyrov’s Chechen army has visited horrors on innocent civilians in Syria, where his forces were major military helpers to the ISIS regime. There were many Chechens among the ISIS fighters – in fact, their left-behind bodies confused the hell out of opposition soldiers, as they didn’t exactly look like the locals.
And some neighboring countries of Russia (his army is available for mercenary service to Russia), and his own country of Chechnya.
He’s running Chechnya with terror and repression. He has repeatedly “cleaned up” this or that with mass arrests and disappearances. His lot are known for torture, abuse, rape and murder for fun. Literally. As well as in the service of keeping control of Chechnya. War crimes are a way of life for them.
The actual Russian army is said to be terrified of the Chechen forces that are operating on their side. One of the reasons some of the new unskilled Russian soldiers will go into an active battle zone, despite their fear, is that otherwise they are handed over to the Chechens aka “Kadyrovites”.
Kadyrov announced that he is sending 3 of his own sons to fight in Ukraine, ages 14, 15 and 16. Have to say the boys seem up for it, having been trained militarily all of their lives. Their father says age is unimportant in the fight for … whatever it is he thinks they are fighting for.
Remember the Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers? They are/were Chechnyan. They had recently returned from an extended visit to areas near Chechnya when they set off the bombs. The FBI says that visit was key to their actions.
Anyway. This stallion has been standing since 2016 so there has already had revenue from the breeding of registered foals. If it is the owner behind the ‘theft’, he may not be concerned about papers etc., if he takes the horse to a world where no one cares about things like that.
Very interesting history regarding the owner. If he is behind the “theft” he will not profit any more than he has already, unless he has insurance that will pay off.
Zazou is such a lovely stallion.
How can any one expect people who don’t value human life to value the lives of horses? Jerks. What hideous people. 
Why do you say that? He can breed the horse for $$ all he wants. Papers are a side issue, his people may not care. He’s already gotten a lot of revenue from breeding registered foals.
The guy runs his own country with an iron fist. Nothing stops him from doing as he likes.
I agree that he is a horrid human being.
Well, I suppose if bush track racing is a big deal in Russia or the Czech Republic he could be hiding his good TB sire to breed to someone’s grade or even TB mares, to run in unrecorded bush track races.
However, none of Zazou’s get, beginning as bred from the date of the theft, will race in any properly sanctioned TB races again without DNA, and none will be registered with the JC again, until the “theft” has been solved. 
I agree that this person has a lot of leeway in his own country, but the Jockey Club bows to no one as far as TB breeding DNA requirements are concerned.
Thank you for explaining that. I’m not at all familiar with that region.
Thanks for your expertise and outrage.
Though I am not generally surprised by the power and chaos oligarchs wield, he’s not one I had on my radar.
Not an expert, just a sort of compulsive reader trying to figure out What Is Going On. 
That guy is a profoundly disruptive influence in the region. He keeps it unstable, always a threat to interfere horribly with neighboring regimes with or against other unprincipalled strong men leaders – somewhat like himself. And definitely a dangerous source of terrorism, both training and operatives. It’s what they do, really.
Without him ISIS probably could not have created and maintained its reign of terror over Syria. Chechen soldiers and military leaders were key to their domination.
Chechnya and several states in that region are historically Muslim. Kadyrov styles himself as a devout Muslim, a heritage of generations. He used that as the connection to ISIS. In a part of the world where race matters to the locals, Chechens are not the same racial ethnicity as Arab-nation Muslims. They are more caucausian, and not Arab. So I think that’s why westerners have trouble classifying where they fit in the geo-political scheme.
Russia has been on incursions into several border countries that used to be part of the old Soviet Union to “get rid of Nazis or other troublemaking leaders” and add them to the Russian Federation. Reconstituting the old Soviet Union geography, as it were.
Kadyrov started his military adulthood fighting against the Russians. But he switched sides to join with Putin and took Chechnya with him. Chechnya remains independent because Kadyrov keeps strong ties to Putin and cheerfully helps Russia with military domination of the region. He technically holds a Russian military rank.
Chechen military support is a key piece of the Russian strategy in Ukraine. Chechnya is conveniently located for the purpose.
Chechnya is not on most people’s radar, but it needs to be. Nothing against the ordinary Chechen people who suffer under their awful leader. But the Kadyrov regime is a source of endless trouble and destabilization.
And back to the horse … I wouldn’t be surprised if Kadyrov cares more about that horse than most of his own people. Not worried for the horse’s welfare. The situation is what it is, if I were the U.S. gov’t I’d write that one off.
