Drinkers and Daughters of the wind

The Drinkers of the wind and the Daughters of the desert stakes races were run this past weekend at Los Alamitos Race Course. For those of you who are not familiar with these races, they are the two big races of the year for 3 year old Arabians. As a jockey who rode Arabians I did and do look forward to these races every year. This weekend the comeback kid Dihigi Gladney won one of the two races. Stars The Limit trained by Maureen Spellman took the Daughters of the desert stakes placing a stamp on Dihigi Gladneys return to riding. After several years recuperating from a broken back he has been actively riding and winning races at Los Alamitos. He is currently ranked fourth in the Arabian standings and third in the thoroughbreds. Gladney is an all around horseman who in his spare time takes care of horses down at the river bed while teaching young kids how to ride. He also runs a pony business which he inherited from his grandfather. Dihigi also like to team pen and can be found riding an occasional quarter horse at Los Alamitos. Dijigi is one of my good friends who at the moment I am a little ticked off at because he did an interview for Los Alamitos and mentioned our other friend Jorge Bordieux and not me. Of course I was the one who always had his back at the track. The Drinkers of the wind stakes was one by Walk the line by a whopping nine lengths and setting a new stakes record. Ridden by Otto Arriaga and trained by Chuck Treece Walk The Line took command of the race out of the gate and never looked back. The horse was a riders dream. No way you can mess up when you have a horse like that under you. Although the winner of the Daughters was qualified by leading rider Ramon Guce, he chose to ride his other qualifier Ange De Gargassan who finished a disappointing ninth beating only one horse. Ouch! that's gotta hurt. It is not always up to the jockey who he tides in a situation like this. There are a lot of reasons behind the decision where a jockey ends up. You have the agent, the trainers, the owners all to consider in these decisions. Sometimes riding the lesser horse keeps you in good standings with a trainer who will give you more rides and more winners in the long run. Congratulations to my brother from another mother Dihigi and to Otto on their big wins this weekend.