March 6, 2013, Houston, Texas ~ March 9 at Sam Houston Race Park racing fans will enjoy ten live races, including the $30,000 Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup and $25,000 HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies IFAHR Cup.  

 A field of 12 fillies will compete in the $25,000 HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship IFAHR Cup, at a distance of seven furlongs. The stakes will feature all female jockeys for the second year in a row.  Sand On Fire, who was victorious in the Grade 2, $30,000 Yellow Rose here on February 23, returns for trainerElizabeth Brand, returns to action in pursuit of her third consecutive stakes win. Owned and bred by Jane Teutsch of Larkspur, Colorado, Sand on Fire has now won three of her seven lifetime starts and will be ridden by jockey Leonie Vethaak. 

 A compact, but talented group of six colts and geldings will compete in the Grade 2, $30,000 HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup.

 Texas owner and breeder Sam Vasquez will run two colts in the seven furlong feature. Lacy Vaz went gate to wire two weeks ago in the Grade 2, $30,000 Texas Six Shooter.

“We were concerned about stretching him out,” said Vasquez. “But he ran a good race and handled the distance with no problem.”

 He will run as a coupled entry with the 8-year-old Golly Bret, another Vasquez homebred, who was the Darley Champion 3-year-old in 2008. Both are trained by Juan Antonio Ascencio.

Vasquez, a dry wall contractor who resides in Galveston, has a passion for Arabian racehorses. He has bred and owned some nice Arabian allowance and stakes winners, but acknowledges that TM Fred Texas is the most talented racehorse he has ever owned. He sold his homebred stakes winner for $250,000 two years ago to Qatar and still follows his racing career.

“You always hope for another great champion,” said Vasquez. “That’s what we run horses for.”

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