Photograph: Tele Poplin/Eclipse Sportswire
5-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will experience Diamond Gem AA, winner of the final two editions of the celebrated Grade 1 UAE President’s Cup, at Churchill Downs on April 30.
Diamond Gem AA, a two-time Darley Horse of the 12 months, has been probably the most dominant U.S.-based Arabian horses of the previous 5 years, with lifetime earnings of $374,425 in 21 begins and 7 stakes wins.
The homebred gelding, by the Arabian stallion Burning Sand, will probably be skilled by Helenest Torres, who gained the UAE President’s Cup in North America with a formidable 4 wins, together with the final three on this G1 occasion.
Diamond Gem AA is aiming for a historic third win on this G1 race. He narrowly missed out on victory on the 2024 US Arabian Racing Traditional, ending a neck behind stablemate RB Malexis at Gulfstream Park. Together with his win on April 30, Diamond Gem AA joins Paddy’s Day as the one three-time winners of the Grade 1 contest.
The 2026 version of the UAE President’s Cup can even set a report for an Arabian race held on U.S. soil for $400,000 in prize cash. The quantity exceeds final 12 months’s report prize of $200,000, which was contested on the undercard of the Preakness at Pimlico. That is the eighth time the UAE President’s Cup has been held at Churchill Downs, with this 12 months’s race returning to its basic distance of 1 1/4 miles.
The deadline for nominations for the UAE President’s Cup is ready for April sixteenth, and entries will probably be accepted till April twenty third.
