2 August 2017 Delaware Park, Delaware, USA ~ The Powell brothers, Scott and Mark, showed a strong hand in the game as their trainees won both Arabian races of the day at the historic Delaware Park race track on Saturday, 2 September 2017.
Horses and riders were not daunted by the sloppy conditions which kept ground crews busy sealing the track between races as the edges of Hurricane Harvey brought intermittent heavy rain to the area.
The premier Arabian race of the day, the 25th running of the Buzz Brauninger Arabian Distaff Handicap Gr 1 saw Scott Powell’s Ivory Shores (Burning Sand x French Shores by Virgule Al Maury) under Keiber Coa ease to the front in the 1 1/8 mile race holding off the Simon Hobson-trained Last Call MHF (Kaolino x Always and Forever) under Katie Davis fighting gamely, barely settling for second. Third in was Sweet Honey AA ridden by Carol Cedeno and trained by Jernesto Torrez. Ivory Shores current Race Record Summary 17 (8-2-2).
In the 3 yr-old Fillies and Mares 3 yrs+ the So Big Is Better filly, Big Girls Are Better, ridden by Eddie Joe Zambrana seemed to relish the conditions, showing her heels to the pack out of the gate and finding no mud her eye for the entire 6 Furlong race. This is the second racing season for the promising 4-yr-old owned and trained by Mark Powell.
Merlot MHF trained by Simon Hobson with Wallynette Rodriguez in the saddle kept up the pressure and finished in second. Risky Red ridden by Keiber Coa, owned and trained by Quarter Moon Ranch’s Powell brother Scott, finished in third. The final winning time was 1:22:21. This was the second win of the season for the So Big Is Better Filly in her second year of racing.
Monmouth Park Arabian Racing
On Monday, 4 September 2017, the US Labor Day Holiday, Arabian racing heads to Monmouth Park New Jersey, where Arabians are making a premiere showing with two races, the HH Sheikh Mansoor Festival’s $50,000 Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup Diamond Jewel Gr 1, and the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship.
The Diamond Jewel is the third and final leg of the 2017 Triple Jewel with a $150,000 bonus for high-point in the three races with the leading runner Paddys Day, the 6-year-old son of Burning Sand x AK Loretta.
In the $20,000 HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship race, to be run prior to the Sheikh Zayed Cup, Apprentice jockeys will vie for the chance to represent their country in the finale in Abu Dhabi on 10 November 2017.
The lucky jockeys are: Germany’s Esther Weissmeier on Jimdandy Totherehessq, Ireland’s Stephen Cummins on Miss Paradise, Norway’s Silja Storen on Burn Notice MC, Puerto Rico’s Heriberto Fuentesen on Risky Red, Sweden’s Ulrika Holmquist on Butch Cassidy LZP, UK’s Paddy Pilley on Mystical MHF, American Laura Werner on Lil Dude AA and Valenzuela Moncada on Kao Maloan SWA.
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