Last Weekend in Racing...
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Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens: Storm Team set the pace from the start of the
Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens’ $75,000 Aflac Supreme Hurdle and turned back two challenges in the stretch to claim a one-length victory over City Dreamer on Saturday.
Michael Mitchell rode the winner and pulled into a tie for the year’s jockey title with Jack Doyle, who was aboard City Dreamer. Each has 20 victories for the year.
Jack Fisher trained both Storm Team, owned by Sheila Williams and Northwoods Stable, and Riverdee Stable’s City Dreamer to the top spots in the year’s final stakes race for novices, or horses in their first seasons of racing over fences.
Maccabee, an overachiever owned by Steeplechase at Callaway Chairman Mason Hardaway Lampton (featured in last week's
TGSF Steeplechasing Standouts), finished third, a length behind City Dreamer, and Iranistan was fourth, a half-length farther back.
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The Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens’ other four races yielded horses to watch in the 2020 season. The first three races were won by horses coming out of the Irish point-to-point races, and Leslie Young trained two of them.
Meadow Run Farm’s Goodoldtimes
(
Tod Marks
photo) drew away to a 14½-length victory in the first, a novice timber race, with Brian Linehan in the saddle. Young also won the second race, a maiden claiming hurdle, with her Court Ruler, who won by 5¾ lengths with Linehan in the saddle.
Hudson River Farms’ Galway Kid scored a three-length victory in the $30,000 Crown Royal, a Sport of Kings maiden hurdle, with Darren Nagle in the saddle for trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
The meet concluded with a seven-length victory by Irv Naylor’s Family Tree in the $30,000 Standard Concrete Cup for four-yearolds. Ridden by Barry Foley, the Galileo gelding gave up a significant amount of ground with a stumble three fences out, but he recovered and drew away from a strong field. Neil Morris trained Family Tree to his second victory in two starts over fences.
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Year End Jockey Title Ends in a Tie
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Jockeys Michael Mitchell and Jack Doyle
(both seen here in the Aflac Supreme Hurdle last Saturday,
Tod Marks
photo) will end the 2019 steeplechase season as co-champion jockeys, tied with 20 wins apiece. Mitchell has elected to sit out the meet at Charleston on Saturday, as Doyle has been sidelined with a broken jaw, sustained from a fall at the Steeplechase at Callaway. Read more below:
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From the
Racing Post: "In a wonderful act of sportsmanship that mirrors John Francome's gesture to Peter Scudamore in 1982, the title-chasing Michael Mitchell has ruled himself out of this weekend's final meeting of the season in order to share the title with his injury-stricken rival Jack Doyle."
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From
Jack Doyle's Facebook page: "Thanks for all the kind messages and well wishes! Got discharged and back home this evening.....fractured jaw in multiple places and it’s wired shut for 4/6 weeks but it’s all superficial and should heal normally with time! Also a hugh shout out to Mikey Mitchell for giving up his rides this weekend and leaving the championship a tie, goes to show what an unbelievably classy guy he is!"
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From Sean Clancy at
Thisishorseracing.com: "Former champion jockey Kieran Norris had two falls, the latter sending him to the hospital with three broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a broken arm. Doyle had two falls, the latter ending his season with a broken jaw... 'It was the opportunity to take it away from someone else. I know how hard I’ve worked to try to get that title. The amount you stress over rides, the amount you stress over your weight, you put everything in for that season. For it to come to the last meeting and have someone take it away from you, when you have it, that’s tough. That’s what clinched the decision for me.'"
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Storm Team and Michael Mitchell lead over the final jump of the Aflac Supreme Hurdle.
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Court Ruler and Brian Linehan on their way to a win in the maiden claiming hurdle.
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Team Naylor. Barry Foley, Neil Morris, Kathy Neilson, and Skylar McKenna before the 5th race. Foley rode Irv Naylor's Family Tree to the win, while McKenna rode Naylor's Bercasa.
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Jockeys of the future get a taste of fierce racing, with the fastest stick ponies ever made.
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This Weekend in Racing...
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Steeplechase of Charleston: The National Steeplechase Association’s 2019 season concludes on Sunday with the
Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono Ferry in Hollywood, S.C. First post time will be 12:45 p.m. for a program of six races, with five of them over fences.
Under the management of the Randolph Company, the Steeplechase of Charleston offers $100,000 in purses. The Stono Ferry meet will provide a racing opportunity for the sport’s youngest competitors, the three-year-olds in the $25,000 Alston Cup, an allowance hurdle. Heading that field is Rosbrian Farm’s Global Freedom, winner of the Far Hills Races’ Gladstone Stakes on Oct. 19.
Read more about the field for Saturday's feature race on the
NSA's website.
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The Steeplechase at Callaway hosted three races for ponies and for young riders. Our thanks to the Lampton family for their support of future jockeys!
(
Tod Marks
photo of all jockeys, with Mason Hardaway and Mason Houghton Lampton)
Will Slater and Chewey took the Fun Size Pony Flat race. Harry Lampton with The Fresh Prince came away with the win in the Field Master's Chase. And Parker Hendriks and Lawn Ranger took the win in the Young Rider flat race. This was Parker's last ride as a Young Rider - he officially starts his amateur career tomorrow at Charleston in the Amateur Apprentice Training Flat, as he turned 16 this week.
JUST ANNOUNCED: The Laurel Park Last Hurrah Pony Races will be held on December 1st at Laurel Park. A full morning of pony racing will take place before live Thoroughbred racing begins around 1:00 pm. You can find conditions
here. Races will be offered for lead line trot entrants and all size divisions of ponies, Shetland through large pony. This will be the final day of pony racing for 2019. Pony racing will resume in Aiken, SC in March of 2020. Stay tuned for details...
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We don't care what the results say from the pony races last weekend - we're quite positive this pint-sized pony (Crossed Arrow's Little Gus, ridden by Alexis McDonald) needs to come live in our office...
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Steeplechasing Will Miss...
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Thomas M. “Tommy” Walsh, a champion steeplechase jockey who was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2005, died Wednesday at the age of 79.
TGSF profiled Tommy Walsh in August in our "Legends of Steeplechase" series, written by Betsy Burke Parker. In Walsh's memory, we have
re-released that piece this week.
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Leading jockeys Kieran Norris and Jack Doyle sustained injuries in falls at the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens on Saturday.
Norris fell with My Afleet on the first circuit of the course in the Aflac Supreme Hurdle, and Doyle was injured when Zanzi Win stumbled at the last fence of the Standard Concrete Cup for four-year-olds and unseated him.
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SAVE THE DATE! The NSA Annual Awards Dinner will be held Thursday evening, January 16, 2020 at the Maryland Club in Baltimore, Maryland. Details are forthcoming.
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The
National Steeplechase Association now has a new look. In partnership with
National Steeplechase Association Network and
The Plaid Horse, a leading equestrian magazine, fans of the jump racing world will get a glimpse of the future of the sport, with a professionally produced live stream and the sport's first tv show. Fans will be able to view first hand the sport, its horses and its people, with a broadcast that will include race coverage, interviews and a call-in show featuring global participants. Go to
network.theplaidhorse.com/steeplechase and join the excitement of jump racing.
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The NSA's
Official Notices
from November 6th posted rulings from the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup Races; NSA's revised shoe policy; Steeplechase of Charleston course report; changes in conditions for the Steeplechase of Charleston; Official Ratings.
See the
Official Notices on the NSA website.
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Fair Hill Equine Improvement Site Update
Check out the latest update from the Fair Hill Equine Improvement Site! We look forward to the return of the Fair Hill Races and the Fair Hill Point to Point in 2021.
"The turf has been completed on the main track as well as on the timber course, save for the construction vehicle cross-over points. The ponds are completed and ready to be used to irrigate the new turf. The project is still on schedule to be completed the end of November. Steve Horah photo"
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Donna Brothers: PETA is a Bully
"Sharing stories and photos of newborn foals; yearlings playing in a field; a groom and/or exercise rider lying in the stall with their beloved race horse; off-track Thoroughbreds in a new discipline; a jockey hugging a horse around his neck as they are entering the winner's circle…across the country, every single one of us who is a horseman, a horse lover and an advocate for the horse, has photos and stories to tell of how important horses are to them, and how important they are to their horse's lives as well!"
(We're doing our part, Donna Brothers, with this
Tod Marks
photo of Hadden Frost hugging Schoodic after their International Gold Cup win in October)
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#WayBackWednesday
"We love it when Douglas goes digging through his files for us! Did you know that six time Olympic Show Jumper Frank Chapot also rode steeplechasers?
Here's Frank Chapot (left, on the gray Evening Mail) at the 1973 The Maryland Hunt Cup. Chapot and Evening Mail finished third that year. In the middle, Bruce Miller and Eastmac finished second. And on the right is Jay Griswold riding Handsome Daddy.
Thanks, Douglas Lees, for the great photo and steeplechase history lesson!"
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Where Are They Now
"Got time for a quick "Where Are They Now?" We visited steeplechaser Preemptive Strike at his home in Unionville, PA this morning. He's living the good life at the home of Gail Thayer. Now 21 years old, he wants for nothing.
Tod Marks photo of Preemptive Strike at the Colonial Cup on November 13, 2010"
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Strikey this week at Gail Thayer's farm in Unionville, Pa.
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Preemptive Strike and jockey Jody Petty in their final race together, at the Colonial Cup on November 13, 2010.
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It was a beautiful day for foxhunting on Thursday, as the Green Spring Valley Hounds hosted Cheshire. Lots of steeplechase owners, trainers, jockeys, and horses joined the action. We'll look to kick off this season's "Steeplechasers Gone Hunting" series again soon.
Carol Fenwick photo
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