This article first appeared in the November 2019 issue of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and has been updated. ©
Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred
. Reprinted with permission.
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Take that (Ire), (GB), (Fr) and all the rest. The (USA) and (Can) still have some clout when it comes to American steeplechase racing. September, 2019 results at Belmont Park spoke loudly for North American Thoroughbreds, who swept the two stakes despite being outnumbered 16-3 on the program pages.
Snap Decision, bred in Kentucky by the Phipps Stable, won the $75,000 William Entenmann Memorial novice stakes Sept. 18. The 5-year-old was the only North American-bred in a field of seven. The others hailed from England and Ireland. A day later, Canadian-bred Surprising Soul pulled a mild upset in the $150,000 Lonesome Glory Handicap-G1. The 7-year-old was one of just two non-imports (overseas anyway) in a field of nine as Pennsylvania-bred All the Way Jose finished third in a race otherwise consisting of horses bred in England, Ireland and France.
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Canadian-bred Surprising Soul, one of two North American-breds in the field, won Belmont Park’s Lonesome Glory Handicap-G1 Sept. 19.
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The only non-import in his race, Kentucky-bred Snap Decision took the William Entenmann novice hurdle stakes at Belmont Sept. 18.
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Imports have become the norm, as owners and trainers shop for horses bred in England, France, Ireland and even Germany for American steeplechase prospects. In 2018, Irish-bred horses won 30 jump races in the United States. France (11), England (11) and Germany (three) added another 25 wins for the Euros. Combined, the 55 jump wins led the 50 races won by horses bred in Kentucky. By annual earnings, imports held down four spots in the top five.
The 2019 numbers were similar and included 31 Irish-bred wins, 11 from England, nine from France and one from Germany. That’s 52. Kentucky won this time with 59, but the season’s top three earners were all bred overseas, as were six of the top 10. Of the 22 hurdle stakes carded, just nine were won by horses bred in North America.
The last five Eclipse Awards have gone to Winston C (Ire), Dawalan (Fr), Rawnaq (Ire), Scorpiancer (Ire) and Zanjabeel (GB). Kentucky-bred Demonstrative won in 2014, but even he raced on the flat in England and was purchased there to go hurdling in the United States.
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The past five steeplechase Eclipse Award winners were imports: Dawalan (Fr) in 2015, Rawnaq (Ire) in 2016, Scorpiancer (Ire) in 2017, Zanjabeel (GB) in 2018 and Winston C (Ire) in 2019.
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It wasn’t always this way.
American jump racing has long been the home of American-bred horses – flat castoffs, savvy private purchases, sales horses, homebreds, whatever – and a few imports depending on the trend of the time (Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, even South America). The graph started leaning east toward Europe a few years ago, and shows few signs – the Belmont results notwithstanding – of changing.
The question is why.
For starters, England, Ireland and France have jump-racing industries where horses are bred, raised and raced with the sport in mind. They’re infused with stamina and raised to be mature at 4 and 5 years old.
Second, for all the depth over there, it can still be a buyer’s market. Individual race purses aren’t all that strong, except at the highest levels. There are plenty of horses and loads of races, but – unless you’re a star – few opportunities for a big payday on the racecourse. So people sell, privately and in the public marketplace. Horses-in-training sales are full of well-bred flat runners and others from major owners and trainers. Those flat runners have form on turf and at long distances. And they appeal to steeplechase buyers (not just Americans).
Horses there also have a little something else, when compared to their American counterparts.
“Those horses in England and Ireland are trained in our environment,” said Virginia-based trainer Richard Valentine, who purchased champion Demonstrative at England’s Tattersalls July mixed sale in 2010 off an 11-start flat career. “Here, when you get a horse from the racetrack you spend months getting them acclimated to the way we do things. We have three streams to cross to get to our gallop, for example, and that can be a nightmare with a horse that hasn’t done anything like that.”
In other words, based on how they’re raised and trained, European flat horses are closer to being steeplechase prospects than their American counterparts.
“You go to the races over there and rarely do you see a lip chain or a horse that looks like it’s riddled with anxiety,” Valentine said. “I wonder if it’s because the emphasis isn’t on speed. I’m talking about flat horses coming over and jumping. The emphasis isn’t on 2-year-old racing so much or something. They have so many racing opportunities over there that they aren’t going to try to make a slow one fast. My takeaway is they’re just not trying to get speed out of them all the time and we don’t have to throttle them down as much when we get them home.”
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Valentine typically looks for a little flat form, perhaps even a hurdle start or two, and combs pedigree pages too.
“Most big operations there want a classic horse which is a mile-and-a-half,” he said. “I look for horses with speed on top in the stallion or some speed in the bottom because one side seems to be long-winded no matter what.”
Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard has had luck with importing European horses with steeplechase form. Highland Bud and Jimmy Lorenzo (GB) won championships in the late 1980s. A hurdle winner in England this winter, Winston C (Ire) won two Grade 1 stakes and an Eclipse Award for Sheppard in 2019. Proven horses there can be for sale too, not just prospects.
“Partially, it’s because [steeplechase] horses in Europe tend to have a higher value for sale than their prospective earnings might be, where here the prize money is relatively quite a bit better [over jumps],” said Sheppard. “A considerably higher percentage of the horses running over jumps in Europe would be for sale where they wouldn’t be here.”
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2014 Eclipse Award winner Demonstrative was Kentucky-bred but raced in England. Richard Valentine purchased him at Tattersalls to race in the US.
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2019 Eclipse Award winner Winston C (Ire) won a hurdle race in England and then was imported to win two Grade 1 races in the US for trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
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Third, the business side of American flat racing has changed. People used to sell more horses, sooner. Now, thanks to higher purses, horses stay with flat trainers longer – hammering out careers without necessarily rising to the upper reaches of the game. At Belmont on the same cards with those two jump races in September, $35,000 non-winners-of-three claimers raced for a $44,000 purse. In another race, veteran New York-breds Uncle Sigh, Twisted Tom and Blugrascat’s Smile ran for a $70,000 purse while looking to pad career earnings of $647,636, $743,331 and $320,488. They could have been steeplechase prospects, and would have been years ago. Now, they’ve probably raced too long to be good prospects. That and they’re still productive to their flat owners. Jump prospects can still be purchased cheaply – see timber star Doc Cebu and others – but it’s more difficult to buy good prospects early.
“Horses tend to have a little more gas left in the tank after a flat racing career in Europe than they have here,” said Sheppard. “The prize money on the flat here encourages people to keep going, where they used to be more inclined to sell.”
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Kentucky-bred Doc Cebu (Hard Spun - Berga, by Jade Hunter) cost $260,000 as a 2-year-old, and was with top trainer Todd Pletcher for a bit. He raced on the flat for three years, mostly in the claiming ranks, before being picked up as a steeplechase horse by Charlie Fenwick, Jr. He was the NSA Timber Champion in 2017 and 2018.
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Fourth, American flat owners treat jump racing like it’s got a label from the poison control board. Nothing says people can’t keep horses and race them over jumps, or at least think about it. That would take some pressure off jump trainers trying to buy horses and make prospects. Ken Ramsey used to do it. The Phipps family did it routinely back in the day. Dogwood Stable, Bert and Diana Firestone, Augustin Stable, Rokeby and so on used to campaign jumpers. Not so much anymore. Blame it on unfamiliarity, a lack of a sales strategy by the jump game, whatever you want, but more could be done on both sides to foster crossover.
People on the flat side frequently ask where “jump horses” come from. Now hear this, they’re the same breed. Thoroughbreds, all of them. You’ll recognize sires, dams, breeders, sales results, all of it. Flat owners might not know it, but they already own jumpers. The horses are there.
To back up that editorial interlude, just look at those Belmont heroes.
Snap Decision is by Hard Spun out of the Unbridled mare Salute. That makes the gelding a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Mr Speaker and grandson of Hall of Famer Personal Ensign. The pedigree percolates with quality – Danzig, Northern Dancer, Turkoman, Alydar, Roberto on the sire’s side; Mr. Prospector, Damascus, Hoist the Flag, Tom Rolfe, Dr. Fager on the dam’s side. Snap Decision made 18 starts on the flat for Phipps Stable and trainer Shug McGaughey, winning twice, finishing second twice and placing third six times. He placed in a stakes, finished fourth in a Grade 2, but couldn’t get over the two-other-than hump. The Bruton Street-US partnership and trainer Jack Fisher saw Snap Decision’s pedigree and form, made a phone call, checked him out and bought the most exciting young hurdle horse of 2019. He finished second in his first two, and won four in a row – a maiden at Monmouth Park, an allowance at Saratoga, the novice stakes at Belmont and another novice at Far Hills. In six starts over jumps, he earned $176,400.
Fisher is relatively late to the European market, but his stable includes plenty of imports now. He won an Eclipse Award with Scorpiancer (Ire) in 2017, but also won back-to-back titles with Maryland-bred flat convert Good Night Shirt in 2007 and 2008.
“There are more to choose from over there, for better horses, but I find no reason why our horses can’t be as good as theirs,” he said. “It’s always scared me buying horses over there. Horses can look better than they are. You have to do your homework and try to make a good decision.”
Fisher emphasized buying horses with conditions – novices, maiden winners, 4-year-olds, handicappers – as a way to maximize potential investment returns. A highly rated (and likely expensive) horse aiming for open stakes races doesn’t have many options, and will have to compete with the best horses in the sport.
“Just spending more money there doesn’t guarantee you a better horse,” he said. “They’re not selling their best horses to us, that’s pretty clear when they come over to run against us. There are more horses for sale there, more jumpers already made to go. You can see what you get or have a better idea what you’re going to get.”
Fisher imports Scorpiancer (Ire) and Moscato (GB) are good examples of progressive horses bought because of their upside. Neither was that accomplished over jumps there, so came here with options. A winner in one of five English hurdle starts, Scorpiancer started in the handicap ranks and progressed to open stakes. He’s won six American jump races, and placed in six others; Moscato came over as a maiden over hurdles (in four tries), but stepped through the ranks with four wins here in 2017 and an open stakes triumph (and two Grade 1 placings) in 2019. The flashy gray opened 2020 with a win in the Temple Gwathmey at the delayed Middleburg Spring meet last weekend.
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Moscato (GB) is, as of this week, the top-rated horse in the NSA after his win in the Temple Gwathmey Handicap (Gr 3) on June 13.
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Scorpiancer (Ire), currently rated second in the NSA, makes his first start of 2020 at the Virginia Gold Cup Races.
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The experience helps European horses get started sooner, where American flat purchases have to learn to jump, and must adapt to steeplechase racing’s different courses (some are hilly, a few are right-handed) and lifestyle changes like Valentine’s stream crossings.
American flat horses have also become difficult to purchase.
“It’s harder to buy horses because the money’s so good on the flat,” Fisher said of American racing. “People say it all the time to me: ‘Why should I sell you the horse for 75 or 50 or 20 [thousand] or whatever when I can run him for such good purses and keep making money?’ They have a point.”
Snap Decision fit for several reasons – he’s well-bred, he had turf form, his connections weren’t ready to run him in a claiming race. Fisher said the pricetag and the fall-back plan helped, too.
“We paid $75,000 and if he didn’t make it as a jumper, I could probably sell him as a flat horse again,” said the trainer. “You can’t do that with an expensive horse from England or Ireland.”
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Snap Decision (number 5) finished fourth in the 2017 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (Gr. 2) in Saratoga. The winner of that race? 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar.
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Surprising Soul cost considerably less. Bred by Chuck Fipke, whose breeding program stresses stamina and quality (Forever Unbridled, Seeking the Soul, Perfect Shirl, Tale of Ekati, etc.), Surprising Soul is by Perfect Soul (Ire) out of the Elusive Quality mare Elusive Surprise.
Like Snap Decision, the pedigree buzzes. Sadler’s Wells, Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Forli, Princequillo, Buckpasser and so on are there. He’s in-bred 3x4 to Secretariat and Northern Dancer, whatever that means. None of that translated to much as a dirt runner – five starts and zero wins for Fipke – and Surprising Soul went to Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s February mixed sale of 2016. On the hunt for steeplechase prospects, Wendy and Ricky Hendriks spent $9,000 on the then 4-year-old colt. On the turf and over jumps, Surprising Soul the gelding has seven wins, seven seconds and a third for $366,000. And now he’s a Grade 1 winner.
Like Snap Decision, Surprising Soul seems ideally suited to his new career. Steeplechase horses are typically not all that fast, but they can carry whatever speed they have for 2-3 miles. They’re well-made. They’re obviously good students. They handle farm life, don’t mind riding in the van.
And those characteristics are not exclusive to one part of the world. American-bred horses are plenty capable of succeeding over jumps.
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Kentucky-bred Balance the Budget (Bellamy Road - Every Day is Good by El Corredor) has three graded stakes wins over fences. He'll face Scorpiancer (Ire) and Snap Decision in The David Semmes Memorial at the Virginia Gold Cup Races on June 27. Balance the Budget raced on the flat in the claiming ranks for three years before being picked up by trainer Julie Gomena.
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“There’s something, maybe a mindset, that people think the horses from across the pond might be better,” said Sheppard. “There might be more opportunities to purchase something off the flat in this country than some people think.”
It takes work, though.
“We’re told, ‘I want 30 [thousand] because he can win the 16 [claimer],’ ” Valentine said of talking to flat owners and trainers about prospects. “He’s not necessarily worth 30 to me, but he is to you. Horses also seem to be a little bit past the age I want when they become available here.”
Valentine likes going to a sale to shop for prospects, and does so in England, Ireland and the U.S.
“Tattersalls has been lucky for me, July or October,” he said. “I’m not a good salesman, but I can show [an owner] the horse, we have time to process it and I can go bid. It’s a sale, there’s a schedule and you can follow the process. Here, buying privately, you can lose a horse very quickly by making too many phone calls.”
The American Thoroughbred is not inferior to its English and Irish counterparts, and trainers constantly look for prospects here, too – at racetracks, on form, in pedigree profiles. Those trainers look for the same type of horse physically, study form for hints of steeplechase prowess – turf, distance, enough speed to be competitive – while also considering pedigree (Hard Spun might be the sire of choice at the moment and a Cozzene mare will make anyone take note).
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Kentucky-bred Iranistan (Einstein - Miss Vindictive by Stephen Got Even) is one of four American-bred horses entered (in a field of eleven) in the David Semmes Memorial hurdle on June 27 at the Virginia Gold Cup Races. Jonathan Sheppard trains Iranistan for Hudson River Farms.
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Kentucky-bred Mutasaawy raced for five years on the flat before being picked up by trainer Neil Morris and owner Gil Johnston to try his luck over hurdles. Mutasaawy (Tapit - Pretty Proud by Mr. Greeley) will also race in the David Semmes Memorial hurdle next weekend
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“It’s not that they’re better, it’s the way they train over there,” said Valentine of English and Irish horses. “It’s more conducive to steeplechasing, that’s all. Not in the least is there anything wrong with the American horse. They’re equally as good. It’s just the preparation and the environment in England or Ireland makes them a bit more suitable to what we do.”
There also, as Sheppard proves week after week, might be an opportunity to actually breed steeplechasers. It’s not fashionable and certainly doesn’t make immediate business sense, but breeding has its benefits. Owners control horses from the start of their lives, which takes away the unknown of buying an American or foreign prospect, and horses can learn the steeplechase life from an early stage. Sheppard doesn’t necessarily breed for steeplechase success, he just uses jump racing as a Plan B and routinely gets rewarded – with wins, with ready-made prospects for owners to buy and so on. Of the 13 championships won by horses he trained, seven were won by homebreds (in partnership with Bill Pape) including Hall of Famer Flatterer. Just three were imports.
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Sheppard isn’t completely alone – as Mimi Voss, Maggie Bryant, Peggy Steinman, Ann Jackson, Sara Collette, Gigi Lazenby and some others have found success with homebreds – but a sport with fewer than 200 races does not support a breeding industry.
“I do it on a small scale with a limited budget but by comparison I’ve managed to do quite well,” Sheppard said. “I don’t know why more people don’t do it. Everyone wants instant action. Breeding is a pretty long-term project, but you know what you’re getting.”
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Flatterer, well in to retirement, and Jonathan Sheppard.
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