Es Mi Cielo dominated Sunday’s six-furlong Wathba Stud Farm Cup at Arapahoe Park

25 May 2015, Aurora, Colorado, USA ~ Es Mi Cielo’s second victory in one week in the His Highness Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival and Ms Dixie’s successful Colorado homecoming highlighted the Arabian action on a busy opening weekend of the 2015 season at Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colorado.

One week after he won the HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Es Mi Cielo dominated Sunday’s six-furlong Wathba Stud Farm Cup at Arapahoe Park. Ridden by Kelly Bridges for trainer Renee Lafleur and owner Sam Vasquez, Es Mi Cielo scored a 5 1/2-length victory over Rb Rich and Chndakasexpress in a time of 1:21.40.   

“He’s really starting to mature and come around,” Lafleur said of the 4-year-old gray colt sired by Burning Sand out of the dam Heaven Kan Wait.  “We sent him straight from Kentucky to Colorado to give him some time to settle, and it all worked out.”

Lafleur said Es Mi Cielo will remain in Colorado to contest Arapahoe Park’s COBRA Sprint on June 21, a race Es Mi Cielo’s older brother, Sammy V, won in 2014.

The last time Ms Dixie was at Arapahoe Park, the three-time Darley Award winner became the first horse in the history of the track to win two stakes races in two days as she dominated the COBRA Distaff Sponsored by Soaring Eagle Ranch on August 16, 2014, and the COBRA Classic Sponsored by Crow Valley Ranch on August 17, 2014. In Saturday’s six-furlong Altitude Sports Race of the Day, the 7-year-old mare owned by the Quarter Moon Ranch of Lori Long and husband trainer Scott Powell kept her gray coat clean in the mud by making the lead en route to a 7 1/2-length win.

“She looked as smooth as she ever looked, from the beginning all the way to the end,” Powell said.

Jockey Karlo Lopez was aboard Ms Dixie for the first time. The daughter of Burning Sand out of the dam Dixie Darlene has now won 17 of 39 lifetime races for $218,112 in career earnings. She will attempt to win her fourth straight COBRA Distaff Sprint at Arapahoe Park on June 14. Tm Maddamee finished second. Sand On Fire, coming off a win in the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship IFAHR Stakes at Sam Houston in March, took third.

The HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival is also the title sponsor of the new Gates Open at Arapahoe Park feature television show and the Today at Arapahoe Park replay show that air on Altitude Sports & Entertainment. The festival features Arabian races in several series that take place in 17 countries on six continents.

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