Two Maryland Horses Take Top Awards in Arabian Awards Event

ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 6, 2012) – Two Maryland-based and trained Arabian racing horses received prestigious honors during an award ceremony held in Houston on Sunday. Both horses are headquartered, trained and stabled at Rigbie Farm in Harford County.

Maryland-bred Golden Odessy was named Champion Three Year Old Filly of the Year during the 2012 Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival Darley Awards, which are considered “the Oscars” of purebred Arabian racing in the United States.

Dixies Valentine, a 7-year-old mare, received the World Champion Mare Award during the Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Awards, which were awarded for the first time this year to recognize women in Arabian racing and presented along with the Darley Awards. Dixies Valentine was also nominated for a Darley Award for Horse of the Year and has twice before been named a Champion Arabian Filly of the Year.

Rigbie Farm is owned by Sharon Clark. She is authorized by USDA and the Maryland Departments of Agriculture to operate the state’s only active Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM) Quarantine Station – a stable which receives and holds horses under federal import quarantine while extensive testing is conducted to ensure they are free from the disease before they are released.

Both Dixies Valentine and Golden Odessy, who will continue to race in the season ahead, are owned by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of the current president of the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Tahnoon has boarded and trained his world class Arabian horses at Rigbie Farm for 20 years.

Dixies Valentine was originally scheduled to run in the inaugural running of the H.H. Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak IFAHR Cup, the first all-woman race for Arabians, which was held in Houston on Saturday. A pre-race favorite to win, Dixies Valentine was unfortunately pulled from the race the night before due to a mild case of colic.
The Darley Awards were founded in 1987 to honor outstanding racehorses, jockeys, owners, trainers and breeders in Arabian horse racing. The 2012 awards were presented as part of the H.H. Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival, a global race started in 2009 with legs throughout the world. For more about the festival, see: www.sheikhmansoorfestival.com