26 June 2016, Aurora, Colorado, USA ~ Jockey Justine Klaiber scored her first-ever win in the first career victory for Junia (Saddle Cloth Number One) in the first-ever race in the Heritage Arabian Racing Club series in the United States at Arapahoe Park on Sunday, 26 June.
“I didn’t want to stop riding, and when I finally went past the wire, I thought, ‘Wow, I did it,’” Klaiber said. “It was a lot more exciting that I thought it would be.”
Klaiber, from Tucson, Arizona, began galloping horses at Arapahoe Park four years ago when she was 16. Now 20 years of age, Klaiber recently obtained her jockey’s license and began her career with the 2016 Arapahoe Park season.The young jockey had galloped horses at Rillito Park in Arizona and Hialeah and Gulfstream Park in Florida as part of her jockey training.
Klaiber piloted Junia, a 5-year-old chestnut mare by Djet Set De Falgas owned and trained by Kenny Massey, to a 1 1/2-length victory in the six-furlong allowance race in 1:21.51. Arapahoe Park’s jockeys doused Klaiber with the traditional ice water and shaving cream to celebrate her maiden victory. “I guess I’m initiated now,” Klaiber said.
Finish:
2. Miss Paradise
3. Fleur Damour
4. Throughleap
5. WMA Seasand
6. Dartyn Kriss SWA
7. MyDixie
After the race, there was a presentation to the top-finishing HARC horse, James Wetzel Jr.’s Dartyn Kriss Swa (KD KALHOUN x TRISS, by WIKING), for the International race series that seeks to expand Arabian racing breeding lines. The HARC series was started in 2015 by Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and supports races in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Sweden, among other countries.