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Darley Awards by Steve Andersen
Uptown Sandy Girl has won titles for the last four years and is well on her way to legendary status in American Arabian racing. In March, Uptown Sandy Girl (Burning Sand x Wibwilcca by Wilkolak) was recognized as the 2020 Darley Horse of the Year for a campaign featuring three wins in six starts, earnings of $74,110, and three stakes wins at Texas tracks. For her outstanding campaign, Uptown Sandy Girl gave owners and breeders Jon and Krista Henningsgard a fourth and fifth Darley Award with the now seven-year-old mare. Uptown Sandy Girl was the champion three-year-old filly of 2017, the champion four-year-old filly of 2018, champion older mare of 2019 and won the latter title again in 2020. Here’s hoping the Henningsgards have room for another memento in their home in Waller, Texas. Uptown Sandy Girl won her 2021 debut in the Darley Distaff Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park on March 19, her only start of the year as of mid-April.
Unfortunately, Uptown Sandy Girl did not receive the widespread adulation deserved for a Horse of the Year. The 2020 Darley Awards program was held in a virtual format this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, denying participants an opportunity to gather for a weekend of races and the championship presentations. The event was presented on Facebook and YouTube by the husband and wife team of Jonathan and Ashley Horowitz and held hours after two stakes for Arabians were run at Sam Houston Race Park, including the Darley Distaff Stakes. Hopefully in 2022, the event will be held in the old-fashioned way – with folks getting together to celebrate the best Arabian racehorses in the United States. Aside from Uptown Sandy Girl, horse awards were presented to First Classs, Champion Three-Year-Old Male; Uptown Lady Arabella, Three-Year-Old Filly; RB Rich Lyke Me, Four-Year-Old Male; Paddys Day, Older Male; and RB Kinetic, Four-Year-Old Filly.
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As for the people behind them, the Henningsgards were recognized as champion breeders; Dianne Waldron’s RoseBrook Farm was honored as champion owner and Ernesto ValdezJiminez was recognized as champion jockey. There was no award in the trainer category for the first time since the Darleys began in 1987. Earlier this year, two prominent trainers of Arabian horses – Jerenesto Torrez and Glen Rottweiler – were suspended by the Texas Racing Commission for medication violations found in their runners in 2020. Instead of an individual award, the Darley Awards program honored all trainers who saddled winners through the year. Torrez, who won the Darley Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, was suspended 12 months, through 2021, and fined $10,000 after one of his Thoroughbred runners last summer tested positive for the banned feed additive ractopamine. Rottweiler was given a 15-day suspension and fined $500 in March 2021 after one of his Arabian winners last fall tested positive for the breathing medication clenbuterol. Uptown Sandy Girl, who has won 15 of 27 starts and earned $285,890, was trained in 2020 by Rottweiler and Lynn Ashby, depending on where she was racing. She began 2020 with consecutive stakes wins in the $52,400 Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan Sprint Cup and $25,000 Darley Sprint Stakes at Sam Houston in March 2020 under Rottweiler’s care. In two stakes appearances on the East Coast with Ashby, Uptown Sandy Girl was third in the $40,125 Buzz Brauninger Distaff at Delaware Park in September and third against males in the $100,000 President of the United Arab Emirates Cup at Pimlico on October 3 on the same program as the Preakness Stakes for three-year-old Thoroughbreds. The President of the UAE Cup was the richest race for Arabians in the United States in 2020. Uptown Sandy Girl ended her 2020 campaign with a win in the $30,000 Texas Arabian Stallion Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile at Lone Star Park in November. Through the year, she won at
Krista & Jon Henningsgard, owners and breeders of UPTOWN SANDY GIRL (Burning Sand x Wibwilcca by Wilkolak), Darley Awards Horse of the Year and Champion Older Mare, pictured on opposite page.
distances ranging from seven furlongs to a mile and was competitive in the Brauninger Distaff at 1 1/8 miles. Uptown Sandy Girl is the first female to be honored as Horse of the Year since Sand Witchh claimed the awards in 2009 and 2010. The other finalists for Horse of the Year were the stalwarts Paddys Day and Dance With Me BW, the winner of the Brauninger in her lone stakes win of the year. What makes Uptown Sandy Girl’s accomplishments even more meaningful is her lifelong tenacity. She suffered from pneumonia earlier in her life that could have derailed her racing career. Paddys Day (Burning Sand x AK Loretta by Virgule Al Maury) is a 10-year-old in 2021. He has won an astounding 29 of 50 starts and earned $696,605 racing primarily in the United States since 2014 but also extensively in the United Arab Emirates with mixed results in three winters in the last five years. In 2020, Paddys Day was an American boy, winning three of four starts and $79,819 in a domestic campaign for owner and breeder Jane Teutsch. Teutsch owned Paddys Day at the start of his
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Champion Older Horse and seven-time Darley winner PADDYS DAY (Burning Sand x AK Loretta by Virgule Al Maury), owned by Jane Teutsch.
career before he was sold to Scott Powell, who oversaw his career until Teutsch took possession again for the 2019 season. “I foaled him 10 years ago,” Teutsch recalled recently. “We raised him. We got him ready for racing. We sold him. Now I’ve got him back.” Paddys Day has won a remarkable seven Darley Awards – as champion four-year-old male of 2016, older male in 2016, 2017 and 2020, and Horse of the Year from 2015 through 2017. Paddys Day spends part of the year in stallion service. He is so old that he beat one of his foals when QMR Big John was fourth behind
Paddys Day in the minor Jerry Partin Stakes at Arapahoe Park last August. In 2020, Paddys Day was fourth behind Uptown Sandy Girl in the Sheikh Zayed Sprint Cup and won his next three starts including the President of the UAE Cup at Pimlico and the open division of the $30,000 Texas Arabian Stallion Stakes at a mile at Lone Star Park in November. Already this year, Paddys Day is a stakes winner in the $33,000 Darley Sprint Stakes at Sam Houston on March 19. Powell, Debra Lemmons and Nicole Ruggeri trained Paddys Day in 2020. For his recent win, Paddys Day was in trainer Todd Fincher’s
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stable, although Powell remains a close advisor, Teutsch said. “He knows Paddy better than I because he had him for five years,” Teutsch said. “The secret to Paddys Day’s longevity has been good health. He’s as good, if not better. He’s very sound, that’s been the secret.” Teutsch described the Pimlico win as “just fantastic.” Paddys Day finished a half-length in front of Uptown Cruisedirector, a multiple stakes-placed runner owned by the Henningsgards. First Classs (Dahess x Topoftheclass by Genuine Monarch) won three of five starts and earned $32,160 in 2020 at Delaware Park and Lone Star Park. First Classs improved as the season progressed, losing his first two starts before winning three consecutive races. Owned and bred by Alan Kirshner and Deb Mihaloff, First Classs ended his 2020 campaign with a win in his stakes debut in the $35,750 Texas Lone Star Juvenile Stakes on October 17. First Classs overcame a tough start and rallied from last in a field of 11 to win the sixfurlong race by a convincing 4 1/4 lengths. After the win at Lone Star Park, First Classs was leased to race in Qatar where he was winless in four starts from late December to early April with two third-place finishes. First Classs was third in the $250,000 Amir Silver Sword for four-year-olds there on February 20. Mihaloff said First Classs may race in France this summer and
Champion 3-year-old Colt/Gelding FIRST CLASSS (Dahess x Topoftheclass by Genuine Monarch), owned and bred by Alan Kirshner and Deb Mihaloff.
Champion 3-year-old Filly UPTOWN LADY ARABELLA (Burning Sand x DC Willeys Song by Doran Sbfar), owned by the Henningsgards.
fall before the lease term ends. “We wanted to make sure he had every possibility to fulfill his promise,” Mihaloff said. “We gelded him after he was tough to handle at the start of his career and it really helped,” she said. “He’s grown up. He looked the part. He’s a completely different horse.” Uptown Lady Arabella (Burning Sand x DC Willeys Song by Doran Sbfar) had a Darley pedigree before she started in her first race last July at Delaware Park, with a win in a sixfurlong maiden race. Burning Sand is a leading stallion and DC Willeys Song was honored with the Darley Awards as the outstanding older mare of 2015. DC Willeys Song is a half-sister to Uptown Sandy Girl. Owned by the Henningsgards, Uptown Lady Arabella won two of five starts and earned $18,260 in 2020. Even though she was a three-year-old, a first-year runner, Uptown Lady Arabella ran against older fillies and mares through the year, a reflection on the current circumstances of a low horse population for Arabian racehorses in the United States. Ideally, Uptown Lady Arabella would have raced in a few stakes restricted to three-year-old fillies. Uptown Lady Arabella was third in her only stake race of 2020, behind RB Kinetic in the $34,250 Texas Arabian Oaks at Lone Star Park in September. Less than two weeks later, Uptown Lady Arabella won her final start of the year in an allowance race at Lone Star Park. RB Kinetic (Baseq Al Khalediah x Rich Kinkga by TH Richie) won two of four starts and earned $33,540 in 2020. She essentially had two campaigns through the year. RB Kinetic was second in two stakes at Sam Houston Race Park in February and March for RoseBrook Farm and won two starts in late summer when owned by Byerly Racing. Trained at Sam Houston by Torrez, RB Kinetic was transferred to Ruggeri in the summer and won her two final starts of the year – the Emirates Breeders’ Arabian Derby at Arapahoe Park in Denver and the Texas Arabian Oaks.
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Champion 3-year-old Filly RB KINETIC (Baseq Al Khalediah x Rich Kinkga by TH Richie, owned by RoseBrook Farms.
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RB Rich Lyke Me (Majd Al Arab x Rich Frynd by TH Richie) lost more than he won in 2020, but the wins were dynamic. RB Rich Lyke Me was best by six lengths in the Texas Six Shooter Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park in February and won the Texas Arabian Derby at 1 1/16 miles at Lone Star Park in September by an eye-catching 11 1/2 lengths as the 1-20 favorite. In other words, a $2 bet on RB Rich Lyke Me in the Arabian Derby paid $2.10. He was that much of a standout against four rivals. Unfortunately, RB Rich Lyke Me was ninth in the President of the UAE Cup and third behind Paddys Day in the Texas Arabian Stakes, losses that ended his chances of winning the Horse of the Year title for Waldron and her family’s RoseBrook Farms. RB Rich Lyke Me won two of seven starts and earned $52,200 through the 2020 season. Waldron was recognized as champion owner for the fifth time this century, and for the second consecutive year. She has been honored on her own or through RoseBrook Farms. In 2020, RoseBrook Farms had a solid record of 10 wins from 33 starters who earned $157,104. The stable was led by the stake winners Dance With Me BW, RB Rich Lyke Me and RB Kinetic and the stakes-placed RB Lara, a
Champion 4-year-old Colt/Gelding RB RICH LYKE ME (Majd Al Arab x Rich Frynd by TH Richie), owned by RoseBrook Farms. with Dianne Waldron and daughter Leah Bates.
Champion Jockey Ernesto Valdez-Jiminez.
finalist for champion three-year-old filly. It is common to see RoseBrook-bred horses in major stakes in France, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The Henningsgards were honored as champion breeders for the first time. With a decade-long involvement in racing, the Henningsgards’ influence has been felt not only with Uptown Sandy Girl, but by other runners such as Uptown Cruisedirector, and Uptown Lady Arabella in 2020. Horses listed as bred by Krista Henningsgard won five of 11 starts and earned $92,370, notably Uptown Sandy Girl. Horses listed as bred by the couple won 3 of 20 starts and earned $62,910, a group led by Uptown Cruisedirector. Valdez-Jiminez won his first title as champion jockey. Through the year, ValdezJiminez was the regular rider of RB Rich Lyke Me as well as the promising filly RB Lara. Valdez-Jiminez rides Thoroughbreds, too, and has ridden in Texas and New Mexico in recent years. In 2020, he had five wins with 17 mounts on Arabians who earned $74,041. Through April 6, Valdez-Jiminez had already amassed eight wins on Arabians, including stakes aboard RB Rich Lyke Me and RB Feel The Burn.
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