Preakness Day Features Grade 1 Race For Arabian Horses

Preakness Day Features Grade 1 Race For Arabian Horses

BALTIMORE, 05-17-12---A field of 10 will go the gate in the $75,000-added The President of the United Arab Emirates Cup, a Grade 1 race for purebred Arabian horses on the Preakness Stakes undercard Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.

To be run at 1 1/16-miles on the main track, the President of the UAE Cup will be contested between the third and fourth races, with an estimated post time of 12:02 p.m. First post on the 13-race Preakness card is 10:30 a.m. Separate win, place, show, exacta, trifecta and superfecta wagering will be taken on the special, non-numbered event.

The 13-race thoroughbred card, includes eight stakes, headlined by the $1 million Preakness Stakes.

The President of the United Arab Emirates Cup is part of an international series sponsored by Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.

TM Fred Texas is the 8-to-5 program favorite for the race. Breaking from the outside post under jockey Abel Castellano, the 5-year-old Texas-bred is making his 2012 debut, having won nine of 13 career starts, including the Kahayla Classic (G1).

His main competition is expected to come from 7-year-old Florida-bred mare Dixies Valentine. The only female in the field, she will carry jockey Santos Chavez and 118 pounds, five fewer than her male competitors. Second choice on the morning line at 3-to-1, she is 10-for-16 lifetime and three-for-five at the distance.

The only other horse to have won at the distance is 8-year-old Virginia-bred So Big Is Better. The Scott Powell trainee has three wins and an third in six tries at a mile and a sixteenth, and has been on the board in 27 of 38 career starts, including 15 wins.

The Presidents of the UAE Cup series was created 20 years ago to promote and celebrate the Arabian breed internationally, and is recognized as the world’s premier racing series for the breed.

Following the Preakness, the series travels to the Currah in Ireland on May 26 and 27.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will display its branded Formula 1 race car in the Pimlico corporate village. Visitors will have an opportunity to have photographs taken with the vehicle, and all fans can enter a sweepstakes offering a grand prize of a Five-Star trip to Abu Dhabi.

The field for The Presidents of the United Arab Emirates Cup, from the rail out: 1. French Fry (trainer Lynn Ashby, jockey Kelsi Purcell, 123 pounds, 15-1); 2. Status Symboll (Ken Danyluk, Marvin Suerland, 123, 8-1); 3. Dixies Valentine (Ronald Martino, Santos Chavez, 123, 3-1); 4. Rich Frynchman (Tracy Nunley, Faleh Nafferss Bughenaim, 123, 6-1); 5. Spin Doctor (Tracy Nunley, Oliver Castillo, 123, 20-1); 6. Grilla (Bill Waldron, Ricardo Chiappe, 123, 6-1); 7. Ovour The Top (Lynn Ashby, Esteban Unsihuay, 123, 20-1); 8. So Bigger Is Better (Scott Powell, Robert Paz, 123, 12-1); 9. Born To Boogie MC (Tracy Nunley, Ricardo Santana Jr., 123, 10-1); 10. TM Fred Texas (Ronald Martino, Abel Castellano Jr., 123, 8-5).