Coming to Far Hills …. and the Fox Network |
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To celebrate 100 years, meet joins America’s Day at the Races |
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Normally quiet – almost sleepy, some would say, Far Hills, New Jersey may be just 40 miles west of New York City, but this little hamlet is one of a few townships in the state that have no legal sales of alcohol, it clings to the edge of the open, rolling, fertile farmland that gives Jersey its nickname – the Garden State.
Less than 1,000 people call this small town home.
But come Saturday, Far Hills will swell to 40 times normal size, from 857 to almost 40,000, abruptly, albeit briefly, giving it the largest population in Somerset County. Far Hills becomes a party town, and very much the place to be.
A committee member once quipped that “50 percent of the people come to see, 50 percent come to be seen,” but, either way, the 100th running of the Far Hills Race Meeting on Oct. 16 will be an event to remember.
Current race chair Guy Torsilieri says that’s a sure bet.
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Far Hills' crowds are large and famously... celebratory.
Photo courtesy Far Hills Race Meeting
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It’s the richest day of the year on the National Steeplechase Association circuit – $400,000 in purses for six races and a relieving return to action after a year away due to the pandemic. Far Hills counts this as their third year for pari-mutuel wagering. New this year is a network television slot on the Fox Sports Network as the jump meet joins the innovative America’s Day at the Races, a three-hour live show featuring the nation’s top racing – including the $150,000 Grand National hurdle stake.
It moves jump racing into the top tier, Torsilieri says.
“Fox is really cool and a really big deal,” Torsilieri says, and getting pari-mutuel wagering three years ago was key to attract the attention of network TV. Wagering is available through 4NJBets, part of TVG.
The Fox show is produced by the New York Racing Association, alternating races between Far Hills, Churchill Downs and Belmont Park running live from 12:30-3:30 p.m.
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America’s Day at the Races provides coverage and analysis of live racing at prominent racing venues around the country. To find the channel you want to watch America's Day at the Races on, visit www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule
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“We’re so excited to share the thrills and majesty of steeplechase with a national audience,” Torsilieri said in a release. “While canceling last year’s race was disappointing, being able to celebrate our centennial with a nationwide audience is even more amazing than we could have ever hoped.” |
Torsilieri first started going to the race meet while he was in grammar school. “I grew up in Far Hills,” he once told This Is Horse Racing. “We used to play football, the kids who went to private school against the kids who went to the public school. I played for the public school team.”
He graduated from Michigan State University, returning home to join the family business, Torsilieri Inc. landscape installation, and got involved with the races.
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Torsilieri with his wife Beverly at the 2019 Far Hills Races.
©Tod Marks
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“Those were the days when it wasn’t a professionally managed course or anything,” he explained in a podcast with This Is Horse Racing’s Joe Clancy. “We didn’t own the land then – AT&T owned it, and it wasn’t cared for like it is today. We’d mow it once a year, whether it needed it or not."
Then, NSA recommended Far Hills step it up a notch. "So I came up with a 10-year plan to improve the grass and footing. We cut it 28 times a year, and keep it just like your front lawn. It’s irrigated, and we top-dress it with a golf course mixture to help with permeability, to help with drainage.
“It’s a world-class racecourse.”
But, Torsilieri adds, it didn’t start that way – the races started as a “thank you” to Essex Hunt’s landowners.
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The Far Hills Race Meeting traces its origins to the Essex Hunt, itself formed in 1870 in nearby Montclair.
In 1915, Essex hosted their first Farmer’s Day races to thank farmers and landowners who allowed them to hunt across their properties. In 1916, the event moved to the Grant Schley estate — today known as Moorland Farms. Eventually becoming the Far Hills Race Meeting, the races have been continually run – with the exception hiatus during World War II – on the same site.
Today, the races are still known in the local vernacular as “The Hunt,” harkening back to their hunt-related origin. The millennials and youth that swell the infield will have been talking about "going to The Hunt" all summer and fall.
Long the premier autumn social and charity event in central New Jersey, the races were canceled last year because of the pandemic.
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Torsilieri Inc. famous for Rock Center Christmas tree
Torsilieri Inc. was founded by Carl Torsilieri in 1968 after his discharge from the U.S. Navy. Specializing in big jobs -- many that require cranes and careful engineering, Torsilieri Inc. has handled selection, harvesting, transporting, installing, decorating and removing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for 37 years. New York City's iconic holiday decoration features 25,000 lights – 5 miles if laid out in a line – that are “ turned on” in a televised ceremony in early December. The tree stays up until Jan. 7, the day after the Epiphany.
The tradition began in 1933.
The tree is recycled every year and up to three tons of bark mulch donated to the Boy Scouts. The largest portion of the trunk is donated to the U.S. Equestrian Team in Gladstone to use as a cross-country jump.
In addition to landscape work, Torsilieri Inc. handles art installations. Guy Torsilieri explains that the same engineering they use for digging, moving and installing mature plantings can be applied to art installation. One they handled was Van Gogh’s Ear, by Elmgreen and Dragset at the Rockefeller Center, a 30-foot fiberglass sculpture set on its rim, vertically. An internal steel frame was attached to a poured concrete foundation to counter-balance the sail effect of the piece.
At 16 feet wide, Van Gogh’s Ear was shipped upside down on a pallet from Poland to mid-town Manhattan.
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The races regularly attract 30,000-40,000 spectators to Moorland. That number is the “sweet spot,” Torsilieri says – enough to make it feel buzzy – the place to be, but not too many to clog the roads and the adjacent rail station, and not too many for easy movement around the 200-plus acre facility for patrons. |
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Take the train
Part of the unique draw of the Far Hills meet is the ability to take a passenger train direct to the racecourse, from anywhere in North America if you’re clever with connections.
New Jersey Transit has special rail service between Hoboken and Far Hills on race day, and the Far Hills Station on the Gladstone Branch of the Morris and Essex Lines is directly across Route 202 from Moorland.
Trains depart Hoboken twice an hour or more between 7:31-11:20 a.m., with departures up until 7:03 p.m.
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The races have for decades supported local charities: Far Hills’ meet has raised close to $20 million for area health care organizations.
“Our community's health care organizations have been vital resources during the pandemic and need our support to provide crucial care for locals,” Torsilieri says. This year's six beneficiaries are Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, Crossroads4Hope, The Arc of Somerset County, Community in Crisis, LifeCamp and Bonnie Brae School.
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“Our beneficiaries have been tasked with caring for our community's most vulnerable, and we're honored to support them while also treating the community to this beloved tradition at the 100th running,” race co-chair Ron Kennedy told the local Somerset, N.J. newspaper.
“And this definitely isn’t a one-man show,” Torsilieri adds. “You need incredible team behind you and with you to pull it all off. I’m absolutely astonished at the level of commitment to the event from our volunteers. They keep showing up, year after year.
“It’s a real group effort, something that’s brought us to 100 years.
“What an incredible honor.”
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The Far Hills trophies are polished and ready to present.
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Steeplechase Cancer Center honors long-running charitable association
Part of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Steeplechase Cancer Center at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset offers advanced approaches to cancer treatment in Somerville.
It was named, Torsilieri explains, from the long link between the hospital and the nearby race meet.
The Far Hills trophies are displayed in a case in the Steeplechase Center lobby year-round, taken out and polished up for photos on race day but returned to the hospital for safe-keeping.
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A day to remember – You couldn’t have scripted it better for a movie |
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Bred in France by Ric Ohrstrom, Quel Senor was group 3 placed at 2 and a group 3 winner at 3 on the turf in France, and won his hurdle debut at Newbury at 4 before imported to the U.S. at 5 in 2000.
Quel Senor was in Neil Drysdale’s barn, placed at the allowance level at Churchill Downs that spring, but he fell to the “claimers” by late September.
Don’t fret, he was safe at the $75,000 sellers’ level at Belmont, but it took a career change to let the talented gelding show his real talent.
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Quel Senor was moved to Tom Voss’s barn in October for new owners, the Coppertree Farm syndicate of Guy Torsilieri, his father Carl and partner Orlando “Dee” DiRienzo, and he visited the winner’s circle first out for the excited crew.
Voss said at the time Quel Senor was purchased with the express purpose to get Coppertree a runner – preferably a winner – at Far Hills. The Atlanta Hall team figured it might take a season or two to get there, but, as it turned out, it teed up the perfect execution of the perfect plan.
Quel Senor jumped up and won his first U.S. start, the NW2 at Charleston Nov. 1, 2000, coming back in May to win the NW3 at Iroquois and the Valentine at Fair Hill Memorial Day weekend. He was fourth at Colonial Downs in July, then lost rider Roger Horgan on the backside in the Smithwick at Saratoga in August.
His next race? The Oct. 20 Breeders’ Cup steeplechase at Far Hills. It was a big step up, but Voss had him right.
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The 2001 $250,000 Breeders' Cup Steeplechase, richest race in sport, brought out nine stakes stars. Early in the race, from left: Hokan; It's a Giggle; Quel Senor; Lord Zada; Praise the Prince; Pinkie Swear; Flasher. ©Skip Dickstein |
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“Oh, I remember that day,” says Cyril Murphy, who at the time rode first-call for Voss, splitting riding duties with Horgan. “I remember everything about it.
“It was a proper grade 1 race, really loaded” with talent, Murphy recalls. He put confirmed front-runner Quel Senor upsides with Pinkie Swear along the back straight first time down as visiting rider Carl Llewellyn tried to make the lead.
“I remember we jumped one together, then I never saw another horse,” Murphy says. “It was hands and heels to the line.
“Magic. Like you’d scripted it – winning for the home team at their home meet.
“He didn’t just win. He dominated.”
Quel Senor was up almost 6 lengths on Lord Zada (J.W. Delozier) and Praise The Prince (Gus Brown) at the wire. Pinkie Swear was fourth.
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After leading for most of the race, Coppertree Farm's Quel Senor (Cyril Murphy) soared over the last with a commanding lead. The French import won by almost six lengths while claiming the $137,500 winner's share for co-owner and Far Hills co-chairman Guy Torsilieri. ©Skip Dickstein |
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Guy Torsilieri was there, and his father and partner in Coppertree, Far Hills mayor, Carl Torsilieri (pictured, with wife Lois). Syndicate partner Dee DiRienzo was there, everybody’s kids were there. Cyril Murphy’s father and brother were there, visiting from Waterford, Ireland as Cyril concluded his first year riding the U.S. jump circuit.
“He’s probably the best horse I ever rode, sheer talent,” Murphy recalls his first grade 1 winner. “Guy and I talk about it every year I go back up there.”
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Murphy returns to Moorland most years these days as a trainer; Saturday he saddles Irv Naylor’s Amschel in the Grand National (it’s no longer the Breeders’ Cup, but the feature is treated a bit like NSA’s seasonal championship race.)
“It’s a championship course,” Murphy adds, “and a championship meet. They go above and beyond to provide a safe, fair and professional race meet. It’d stand on its own two feet (measured against) any racecourse in the world.”
(Pictured: Murphy with the Grand National trophy after training 2016 winner Rawnaq for owner Irv Naylor. ©Tod Marks)
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“Yeah, that was my best moment ever in steeplechasing,” Torsilieri echoes Murphy’s remembered glory. “It was a blur – our meet was literally a month after 9-11, and we’re literally 42 miles to Manhattan. I remember them singing the national anthem and suddenly our PA system blew out.
“The crowd took it up, finished singing the anthem, everybody at the top of their lungs.
“We still didn’t really understand what had happened (with the 9-11 terrorist attacks.) It gives me chills, even 20 years later, to remember 40,000 people singing the anthem. It was a moment.”
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NSA president 2009-2020, Torsilieri at the reins during period of growth, innovation |
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Torsilieri was National Steeplechase Association president 2009-2020, when he handed the reins to current president Al Griffin.
Torsilieri remains on the NSA board of directors.
Torsilieri explained the timing of his departure in an interview last year. “I concluded that, as we embark on a new decade, it was a good point to turn over the reins to a new generation and new leaders," Torsilieri said in an NSA release. “I am extremely proud of what the National Steeplechase Association has accomplished during my tenure, and I am also proud of the leadership that has emerged within our sport.
“I am confident that the future is in good, capable hands.”
Torsilieri had taken office when racing was burdened by the 2008 recession; NSA purses increased more than 20% – from less than $5 million to a record $6.2 million in 2018 – during his tenure.
He advocated for American steeplechasing to be part of an international sport, and the Far Hills meet often attracts overseas participants.
“The gains we made were not my doing alone,” he said. “I was honored to work with a team of level-headed leaders who know the sport intimately and grasped the importance of moving steeplechase racing forward.”
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His most lasting innovation is a direct consequence of this team-building – a system of committees to address specific issues within the sport including the safety committee, futures committee, promotion and growth committee and stewards advisory committee. Torsilieri was in office when the innovative ratings handicap system was instituted in 2015, by and large taking the place of claiming races as a way to codify competition below the stakes level.
Current NSA president, Al Griffin, is appreciative of the scope of his predecessor’s success. “The hundredth anniversary of any race meet is a celebration of those generations who kept the race meet going through thick and thin,” Griffin says of Saturday’s landmark event. “But I am especially appreciative of Guy Torsilieri, who has taken the Far Hills races to the pinnacle of steeplechasing in America.
“He’s grown Far Hills into an international affair and the showcase of for our sport.”
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Far Hills area history timeline |
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1600s – The Leni Lenape indian tribe that was in the Somerset Hills area in the 1600s was Algonquin, part of the Iroquois Nation.
1717 – Three thousand acres of the original Bernards Township was purchased by John Harrison, agent of King James III of England, from the Lenape Indians for $50 – 1.6 cents per acre.
1722 – John Annin, officially know as John Johnston of Annandale, Scotland, arrives in Bernards and took title to 1,000 acres. The settlement was known as Annin’s Corner until the Revolution, when the name is changed to Liberty Corner.
1832 – The Lenape Indians accept $2,000 from the white settlers for relinquishing their remaining hunting and fishing rights to Somerset County.
1887 – Grant Schley and wife, Elizabeth, came by horse-drawn carriage to see his brothers’s farm in Bedminster. Elizabeth remarked on the beautiful vista of “far hills,” giving name to a place where there was yet no village.
1890 – Grant Schley builds the Millionaires Express train linking Far Hills to Gladstone. Service from Hoboken begins.
1910 – Farmers Day is sponsored by Charles Pfizer and hosted by his hunt club, the Essex Fox Hounds, in February. Farmers Day was precursor to today’s Far Hills Race Meeting.
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If you need to know one person, the man is Charles Pfizer (on his horse Duke of York in 1902) - perhaps the "father" of the races at Far Hills. |
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1915 – Essex runs its first official steeplechase in October, in 1916 moving to Far Hills, the estate of Grant Schley which later becomes Moorland.
1921 – Far Hills was actually part of Bernards Township until seceding in 1921. Rising taxes led the 200 residents of Far Hills to decide to separate from Bernards Township and to incorporate as a Borough. The local property tax rate jumped from $2.72 in 1919 to $3.53 in 1920.
1931 – The first electric train (3,000 volts DC) runs on the Delaware Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad from Hoboken to Bernardsville.
1954 – Moorland Farms was originally called Froh-Heim – German for Happy Home, owned by Charles Pfizer who established Pfizer pharmeceutical in 1849.
Madame Butterfly starring Mary Pickford was filmed at the property in 1915.
The estate – 3,000 acres to start with, was renamed Moorland by owner William Bassett in 1954.
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Froh Heim stables and a two story recreation building complete with bowling alleys, glass roofed tennis court, game rooms, living room and even a Turkish Bath are on Moorland Farms. |
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1972 – Interstates 78 and Routes 287 were completed.
1972 – Quite near the racecourse, the U.S. Golf Association buys its Golf House – once known as Dogwood, from David Potter III. The former Frothingham/Sloan House was designed by John Russell Pope, who also designed the Jefferson Memorial. It was once home to Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State for President Jimmy Carter.
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Rolled up in the Far Hills countryside, the USGA Museum is home to the world's premier collection of golf artifacts and memorabilia. The USGA has since 1972 made its home on a magnificent property that was for many years one of the premier estates of Somerset County.
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1972 – Liberty Ridge is named in memory of Revolutionary War patriots who built the nation’s first artillery school on Schley Mountain – the Pluckemin Artillery Encampment. It was forerunner to the West Point Military Academy.
1974 – AT&T opens national corporate headquarters in Bedminster. Moorland Farms is part of that original tract.
1998 – Hamilton Farm in Bedminster, the next village over from Far Hills, is the former Brady estate and one of the largest working farms in New Jersey. It was sold to the Beneficial Management Corporation. BMC donates the U.S. Equestrian Team its new headquarters in Gladstone – the historic stables and four acres.
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The famous Gladstone stable is made of brick and concrete and is reinforced with steel. The ornate interior includes carriage rooms, tile walls, terrazzo floors and brass fittings. Watch a video from the USET Foundation.
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