FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 28, 2006
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BIG WIN GIVES OWNER MORE REASONS TO LOVE ARABIAN RACING

JAN. 28, 2006 - LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA. Darla Ripley of Dallas, Texas, remembers having to convince her husband Charles that owning Arabian horses was something worth pursuing. "He knew I was in love with the Arabian horses many years before I acquire my first horse," said Darla. "He finally said 'this better make sense for our taxes.' Showing them didn't do that but racing them did. My husband has supported my passion ever since."

Fourteen years since she was first introduced to Arabian racehorses, Ripley, who races under the banner of Dreamfield Arabian Racehorses Inc., reached the top of Arabian racing after her filly Love Me Dew came from out of nowhere to beat 15-1 longshot Coup De Ta and 1-5 favorite Forty All in the $100,000 Daughters of the Desert Oaks on Saturday at Los Alamitos. The victory left Ripley, the editor of the Texas Arabian Racing newsletter, stunned.

"Did that really happened?" Riley said with a look of disbelief. "I can't believe it."

photos by Los Alamitos Publicity: Owner Darla Ripley picks up Love Me Dew to lead her to the winner's circle. Both Love Me Dew (1st in the Daughters of the Desert Oaks) and Cou De Ta (2nd) areARC nominated runners.

Early in the 6-furlong race it did not seem possible that the daughter of the French sire Chndaka would end up in the winner's circle. Sent off at 6-1 odds, the 4-year bay filly was seventh at the start, more than five lengths behind the rabbits Lady Cent Kiss and Starlit Jetalinah with the seemingly unbeatable Forty All just waiting to make her move from the outside post 10. Not surprisingly, Forty All rushed to the lead from an outside position in the backstretch but Cou De Ta immediately rushed to pressure her from along the rail. The two leaders battled each other from there, which allowed Love Me Dew to make her move at her own pace. With Greg Rivera aboard, Love Me Dew eventually found an opening along the rail and they took full advantage of it on the way to length victory in a time of 1:20.0.

"Her pedigree told us that she's a distance horse. That's what she had been telling us," Ripley said. "She has heart. She did it for mom. She knew we were here watching her."

"Greg rode her perfectly," said trainer Lynnett Hershbell, who first won the Daughters of the Desert with Winning Spirit Ma in 1997. "Forty All had to run wide because of her post position and that helped us out a bunch."

Love Me Dew earned $42,000 for the win, which now makes her eligible for the filly division of the Arabian Racing Cup's Triple Crown series. The second leg is the Texas Yellow Rose on March 25 at Sam Houston Race Park with the CRE Run Oaks at Delaware Park the final leg.

"We're going back home to Texas with a chance at the Triple Crown, how awesome is that?" said Ripley. The Ripleys own a 62-acre ranch in Terrell, Texas, which is located only 35 miles east of Dallas, which is where the couple lives. Despite the fact that Love Me Dew will be back to her home state, she might not get a chance to stop by the Ripley Ranch.

"Lynnett and Love Me Dew will leave for Texas tomorrow morning. She'll get a couple of weeks off but she'll probably stay in Houston," Ripley explained. "Eating has always been a problem with her. She usually doesn't hit her feed like she should. But from everything that Lynnett told me she had been doing extremely well here in that department."

Ripley has served on the Texas Arabian Breeders Association Board of Governors for the past eight years. She also participates in other projects for the organization including the annual TABA Racehorse Auction and managing the TABA website. She also held a seat on the Advisory Council of the Arabian Jockey Club and more recently; she has served on the Darley Awards Voting Academy. Ripley has been a contributing author to various national racing magazines. In her primary career, she works as an investment advisor with a private money manager.

Her first introduction to Arabian racehorses came with the help of Kay Daniel, then manager of Millfield Stables owned by the late Paolo Gucci. Ripley would eventually travel to Delaware Park where she met some of the foundation builders of Arabian racing. Dr. Sam Harrison, Alec Courtelis, Buzz Brauninger, Lea Brent, Bob and Sharon Magness, Rick and Suzanne Flammer and Deb and Alan Kirshner. Ripley acquired Love Me Dew through Denise Gault, agent of ARAC Owners of the Year Mandolynn Hill Farms.

"Love Me Dew was one of four babies by Chndaka," said the owner. "Denise called her an experiment. Her dam, Sonoma Dew, was bred with frozen semen. Chndaka's first full crop are 3-year-olds this year.

"I bought Love Me Dew when she was still nursing. I really love her bloodlines. Her granddam is Hall of Famer Shawna Dew (Darley Champion twice, IAHA Race Mare of the Year, 1st IAHA Oaks) and her grandsire is Sam Tiki, who is also in the Hall of Fame. She was royally bred. We also stand Santana HF at our ranch and he was the reason I bought Love Me Dew. I figured she would make a good bride for Santana HF.

"I like to keep a small group of horses at our ranch. Right now I have about 20 horses and three more babies are coming. I finally have the exact bloodlines that I want, so I'm very excited about the future."

And is her husband now convinced about Arabian racing?

"Oh yeah," she said. "He's the biggest supporter of Dreamfield Arabian Racehorses."

Trained by Loren Nichols for Trackside Farm, Cou De Ta earned $17,000 for her runner-up effort. Forty All, who suffered her first loss in four starts at Los Alamitos, earned $12,000 for running third. Tillygule, Loup Du Loup, Sandytiki, Theatre, Lady Cent Kiss and Starlit Jetalinah completed the field.

WALDRON AND SAXER MAKE IT FIVE DRINKERS IN A ROW

JAN. 28, 2006 - LOS ALAMITOS RACE COURSE, CYPRESS, CA.... Stop us if you've heard this one before: Owner Dianne Waldron and trainer Phil Saxer won the Drinkers of the Wind Derby at Los Alamitos. If this sounds like familiar story, it's because it is, as Waldron and Saxer have now won the last five runnings of the Grade 1 $100,000 Drinkers of the Wind at 6 furlongs.

Their most recent score came courtesy of Frynge Benefit, a Dormane colt out of the multiple Grade 1 winner mare Fryga. Bred by the owner, Frynge Benefit held off a huge late run by Maxisumus to win the Drinkers by a nose in a time of 1:19.80. Now a winner of four of nine career starts, Frynge Benefit earned $42,000 for his part in one of the most exciting finishes in recent Arabian racing history at Los Alamitos.

"I had to watch the replay of this race four times before I was convinced that we had won it," Saxer said. "Maxisumus was coming strong from the outside and the angle usually favors the inside horse. At first I thought we got nailed at the wire but after watching again and again and again I finally realized that we had won it.

photos by Los Alamitos Publicity: Frynge Benefit (1st) is an ARC nominated runner. Fuego IA who ran 3rd is also ARC.

"To win a race as prestigious as the Drinkers of the Wind once or twice is a great accomplishment," Saxer said. "To win it five times in a row, I don't have any words to describe how I feel about that. Was this the toughest one of the five? I don't know about that. None were easy. When you're preparing for a big race you don't think about the ones from the past. You're just thinking about the one that is coming up.

"Frynge was coming into this race with some outstanding works. And it wasn't just his times but it was the way that he did it that made me feel good about his chances. I really felt that he was coming into the final better than how he went into the trials. He had not raced for three months before his Drinkers trials."

Saxer, a native of Philadelphia, thinks the best is yet to come for Frynge Benefit. "He's bred to run all day and he's just now putting it all together. When he become more business oriented he'll have more nights like tonight."

Waldron, a successful Arabian owner and breeder from Brooksville, Florida, and her trainer began dominating the Drinkers when Bonuz won the 2001 running. Since then, they've won this race with Stellarr, Djenius and with TH Richie. The latter went on to win the Arabian Triple Crown series last year. Frynge Benefit will duplicate TH Richie's accomplishment if he manages to win the Texas Six Shooter at Sam Houston Race Park on March 25 and the Bob Magness Derby later this summer at Delaware Park.

"We might hang around here for a couple of weeks before we head out to Texas in mid to late February," Saxer said. "He's got a lot on the table now, so I don't expect we'll be running him against the nice older sprinters that are here in California."

A repeat of the Arabian Triple Crown series would be icing on the cake for Waldron and Saxer, who swept the Darley Awards in 2004 as Arabian owner and trainer. Before the Darleys and the Drinkers victories started flowing, Saxer remembers Waldron putting him to the test before he was hired to handle her horses.

"I remember I was at a sale in Florida and she came up and introduced herself," Saxer told the Delaware News Journal. "She asked if I wanted to train a horse or two for her. She sent me two of her worst Arabians.

"We won some races with them, but the most important thing was the good condition I had the horses in when I sent them back to her after six months. The following year, I became her sole trainer."

Saxer, who has trained top Arabians like Monarch AH (19 wins in 23 starts) and Sayvilla Proof, another 19-race winner, is thrilled to be able to give Waldron another Drinkers winner in Frynge Benefit.

"Diane wasn't able to make here because she was throwing a big party for her daughter Lea's birthday," said the trainer. "This is our belated present to them."

Pamela Linahan's Maxisumus, the fastest qualifier to the Drinkers of the Wind, earned $17,000 for his runner-up effort. Greg Rivera piloted him for trainer Lynnett Hershbell, who was looking to add this race to her earlier victory in the Daughters of the Desert Oaks.

"Maxi tried his heart out but we just couldn't get him," Hershbell said. "I told Greg to either make the lead or get out. Greg had to take him around in order to get out. We gave it a shot but Phil's horses are always tough in the Drinkers of the Wind."

Fuego IA, Lzp Heluvazell, Koiree, Eisus, Thermonuclear, Virria, Flame Game and Ordained completed the field.

****

Being from Philadelphia, Saxer knows all about Brotherly Love. Perhaps, that's why he didn't hesitate giving jockey Antonio Castanon the mount aboard Frynge Benefit.

"Antonio's brother, Jesus, has ridden a lot of nice horses for me over the year," Saxer said. "I wanted Jesus to ride Frynge Benefit for me but other commitments prevented him from coming out here. That's when he asked me to give his brother the mount. Antonio has ridden stakes winners for me in the past, so that's how he ended up riding in this race."

Castanon followed Saxer's instructions to perfection in the Drinkers and the result was the jockey's biggest win ever at Los Alamitos.

"I told Antonio that if (entrymate) Ordained didn't get away that he would have to go with Frynge for the lead. We knew that Maxisumus would come flying late just like he did tonight and in the trials. Ordained started from post 10 and if he would have drawn a better post I'm sure you would have seen him on the lead and Frynge would have raced off of his flank. If he didn't see Ordained flying on the outside then Antonio had to go. Frynge is a speed horse too.

"We opened him up," said Saxer, referring to Frynge Benefit's visual equipment. "There wasn't much of a blinker there. He took the lead in the trials and then he just started loafing around but he came back at the end. At this point he is still a sprinter but we'll see what he does down the road. As he gets more serious about his job he'll improve."