TGSF Newsletter - Kicking off the Steeplechase Season

Welcome to the 2020 Spring Steeplechase Season!

The Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation publishes a weekly newsletter during the Spring and Fall seasons, recapping racing from the previous week and looking ahead to the upcoming weekend. In addition, we recap Junior news, NSA news, and additional news from around the racing world.

This week the Rappahannock Point-to-Point kicks off the steeplechase season, and our own Betsy Burke Parker has graciously allowed us to publish the following piece, which is also seen in this week's Fauquier Times .

Return to racing for Rappahannock Hunt

New course for first point-to-point in 12 years

by Betsy Burke Parker

Returning to Virginia’s spring steeplechase lineup for the first time in 12 years, the Rappahannock Hunt Point-to-Point kicks off the local circuit this Saturday, March 7.

Entries are unbelievably strong for the renewed meet, with two national champion owners, two champion trainers and two former national champion riders attracted to the early-season opportunity. Grade 1 hurdle winner Swansea Mile makes his timber debut, and Cheltenham Festival winner Veneer of Charm and timber stakes winner Kings Apollo take their 2020 bows.

An all-new course has been created for the meet, farm owner, steeplechase horseman and foxhunter Larry Levy putting in a mile-long oval and timber course at The Hill. Located between Sperryville and Culpeper – address Boston, though there is no town, only a single shop – Levy’s farm straddles the Hazel River. Levy improved the established turf through extensive earthwork and drain tiles.

“Weather, weather, weather. That’s the whole deal,” Levy said Monday about what he hopes for the new race meet. “Looks like our wishes are gonna come true, too.”

At press time, the forecast is for 50 degrees and partly cloudy on race day, with limited chance of rain this week.

“The racecourse is way back on the farm,” Levy explained. “It’s almost a mile of driveway to get back there. It’s real pretty, and that was the perfect place for a course. It’s a natural bowl, with great viewing and parking, and a good, lightly rolling course for the horses. But we were gonna have a problem if it’d rained a lot on race day. But I think we’re looking good.”

The Rappahannock races ran from 1970 to 1999 at Thornton Hill Farm in Sperryville. The races were held in 2000 at Brandywine Park south of Culpeper, and from 2001-2008 at the old Bleu Rock Inn course near little Washington.

Rappahannock joint-master Oliver Brown said the club abandoned the meet after 2008 after several weather cancellations and the pending sale of the Bleu Rock Inn.

The Rappahannock Point to Point's Thornton Hill location in Sperryville, Virginia. Douglas Lees photo.

Teddy Zimmerman winning at the Rappahannock Point to Point in 2008, at the Bleu Rock Inn course. Douglas Lees photo.

“I’d always missed the Rappahannock races,” Levy explained his idea to renew the historic meet. “Like a lot of people in this area, I looked forward to it every year.

“I wanted to do something good for the hunt, and for the horsemen,” he added. “It’s hard to have racehorses around here when the hunt clubs keep canceling their races. I offered it to Oliver, and it mushroomed.”

Levy has long used his “back field” as one of his gallops for his racehorses “I knew it rode well,” he said. “I had (trainer) Doug Fout come down and consult me, and (trainer) Richard Valentine helped (re-design) the homestretch turn. Oliver Brown set the conditions. The Rappahannock Hunt handled publicity and ticket sales. Everybody’s real excited about it.”

“Larry’s enthusiasm stimulated me and my membership,” Brown added. “Our new masters haven’t even been around long enough to remember the old races at the other courses. So they got excited about the whole idea.

New Rappahannock course owner Larry Levy is himself a steeplechase owner - seen here with one of his winners in 2012.

Douglas Lees photo

“I think a lot of the local trainers aren’t going south any more because the weather has been okay around here the last few years,” Brown said. “We got good entries. This is a good, early-season tune-up for these horses.”

Amateur jockey Sam Cockburn has seen the new venue, and tried out the brand-new jumps last week. “I schooled the course with (Maryland Hunt Cup winning jockey) Chris Gracie,” said Cockburn. “I thought it rode very well. It will be a good distance (2 ½ miles for each of the timber races) for the first meet of the spring season.

“Larry has done a great job making inviting timber fences” to suit first-timers over jumps, he added, whether horses or riders.

Rappahannock also hosts a hunter pace, April 11 at Pine Rock Farm in Reva. Details on both events are at rappahannockhunt.com.

Post time on Saturday is at 1:00. Full entries can be found at the Central Entry Office.

Photo Courtesy of Lauren R Giannini

Junior Racing News...

US Pony Racing’s Mid-Atlantic Pony and Young Rider Racing Clinic was held on Sunday, February 23 at Bonita Farm in Darlington, Maryland. Thirty-three (33) junior jockeys participated and an astounding 17 of the 33 are new to racing! (Regina Welsh photo, left)

Chris and Kevin Boniface, John Boniface, Ann Merryman, Erika Taylor, Lia McGuirk, Todd Wyatt, Regina Welsh, Andrea Mathias, and Jenna Issenock were among the instructors. Participants were given mounted and unmounted instruction, which included working on their position on Sparky the Equicizer, as well a gallop on Bonita Farm's track, and a gallop with some jumping through the woods around Bonita Farm.

“The turnout was awesome,” noted Regina Welsh, USPR founder and director. “Thanks to grants for advertising from the Maryland Horse Industry Board and TGSF, we were able to reach more young riders than in previous years and reel them in! Everyone had a great time and there were smiles all around. As a racing educator, this is one of my favorite events of the year and we are so grateful for the generosity of the Boniface family for extending the use of Bonita Farm. The riders were able to walk through their starting gates, gallop on the track and turf, and school over timber and some small hurdles. Lots was learned today and everyone should look for some new faces in pony racing this spring.”

Welsh went on to say there will be additional small group opportunities for both advanced and more beginner junior jockeys, so watch their social media and website.

Amy Fleming Waters has a huge gallery of photos on her website (including this one, left, of Kevin Boniface instructing students on the Equicizer). US Pony Racing has some video on their Facebook page. Thanks to all who attended and who helped with this clinic!

The Maryland Steeplechase Association kicked off it’s spring clinics with its junior novice steeplechasing clinic at Shawan Downs on Sunday, March 1. Clinic director Lia McGuirk was assisted in her efforts by Forest Kelly, Quinn Scala, Brett Owings, Tommy Fenwick, and Colin Smith. Clinic participants were advised on the finer points of race riding, and put through their paces with group hacking, schooling over fences, and eventually an actual junior field master chase led by Tommy Fenwick over seven fences.

The Maryland Steeplechase Association is very grateful to the Land Preservation Trust, which allowed the Association to use Shawan Downs for this clinic. The Association is also grateful to Lia and her team for their efforts. The Association is sponsoring an advanced open steeplechase clinic on Sunday, March 8 at Prospect Farm in Monkton. For registration please go to the MSA's website.

Riders in the Maryland Steeplechase Association's Novice Clinic. Carol Fenwick photo.

TGSF Pony Racing Clinic in Aiken:

Friday, March 13th, Aiken, SC

On the eve of the Aiken Pony Derby (Saturday, March 14th) there will be a FREE CLINIC sponsored by the Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation in the evening (5:30pm Friday) to ensure all rider and mount combinations are suitable, understand the rules, and can maneuver in a group safely. You do not need to participate in the races to attend the clinic. Unmounted auditors are welcome to attend, free of charge.

Aiken Pony Derby: ENTRIES FOR THE FIRST PONY AND YOUNG RIDER RACE OF THE YEAR CLOSE Monday, March 9th at noon! Don’t miss out on the Aiken Pony Derby at the Aiken Trials in Aiken, SC! Race divisions for Shetland, small, medium, and large pony races, as well as three divisions of lead line trot races and a young rider flat race. This is the first race in the TGSF Developing Rider Series, so don’t miss out! The rider, meeting series qualifications, who competes in the most races in the TGSF Developing Rider Series will receive a gift certificate for a Charles Owen helmet.

Enter at US Pony Racing.

The first pony races in the mid-Atlantic will be held on March 21st at the Piedmont Fox Hounds Point to Point in Upperville, Virginia. Entries will be taken through Central Entry Office.

For ALL the Junior racing information we could find, all in one place, check out the TGSF's All Junior newsletter , released in February.

NSA News...

The National Steeplechase Association will be live-streaming all race meets on a gratis basis with a link available each race day on the NSA website. Races will be available for replay within 36 hours after the meet, on the NSA website. Brown Advisory is sponsoring the Steward's Video at each race meet in 2020. More details will be published soon.

The NSA's Official Notices from February 28th posted the current ratings; changes to the Conditions Book; Clarification of the new NSA shoe rule; a Notice from the Virginia Racing Commission; conditions for the Fegentri Championship for Amateur Riders at PARX Racing on March 9th. See the Official Notices on the NSA website.

In Other News...

New Group to Manage Foxfield Races

The Foxfield Racing Association is pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached to ensure the future of the Foxfield Races. Beginning June 1, 2020, the management and oversight of the Foxfield Races will be transitioned to the newly formed Foxfield Racing LLC.

Under the guidance of Dr. Reynolds Cowles and fellow members, Foxfield Racing LLC will continue under two five-year leases to run the spring and fall race meets, which are sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association.