Ms Esther is set to contest the Cox Ranch Distance Challenge Championship.

© Andrea Caudill / AQHA Racing

Q RACING—OCTOBER 21, 2020— Ms Esther isn’t big on socializing.

The 2014 daughter of the Thoroughbred Afrashad prefers her own company, looking out haughtily over the barn area as her owner and trainer Jordan Baumann scrubs, rinses and fills her water bucket. He brings her the blue bucket of fresh water, which she ignores in favor of snipping at her freshly-filled hay bag.

Fortunately, Ms Esther is big on running, and the Oklahoma-based duo return this week to the Bank of America Challenge Championships looking to improve upon their finish last year, in which the mare finished a fast-closing second in the Cox Ranch Distance Challenge Championship (G1). This year, she will likely be one of the race favorites as she enters this year’s $100,000-estimated race off a big win in the Will Rogers Downs regional race, in which she crushed the field by an astounding nine lengths.

Ms Esther, who was bred by Duwayne and Janice Pfeifle out of the Tres Seis mare Tres Down The Cash, has won nine of 19 career starts and earned $192,713.

Baumann was first introduced to her several years ago when she was being trained by Victor Hanson, who was stabled nearby at Remington Park. When the mare’s owners decided they were interested in selling her, Baumann called them and negotiated a deal.

Ms Esther blossomed as a 5-year-old, last year winning the Paul’s Valley Stakes (G2) and Remington Park Distance Challenge (G3) before running second in the Cox Ranch Distance Challenge Championship (G1).

This year, she has lit the board in all of her six starts, but her AQHA Will Rogers Distance Challenge effort was her first stakes victory of the season after encountering traffic in races.

“We had kind of a rough year,” Baumann said. “Her running style, she gets in a little bit of trouble every once in awhile and it’s hard to overcome that sometimes.

“At Will Rogers, (jockey Andrew Samaniego) started her a little earlier and by the time she got to the lane she had plenty of room to run and walked away from them.” They are now settled in at Albuquerque, and Ms Esther’s owner and trainer keeps a close eye on the mare as she ignores him and pauses to stare toward the racetrack.

“She’s training good, she loves it up here,” Baumann said.

The queen of the Baumann stables is ready for battle.

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