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DID YOU WATCH THE LIVE STREAM FROM THE AIKEN STEEPLECHASE LAST SATURDAY?
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Jerry Fishback – Hall of Fame legend traces his steeplechase roots
‘Best of the best’ – DRF’s Joe Hirsch on top jock
By Betsy Burke Parker
Photos by Douglas Lees
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Flash back to the 1960s, what many consider steeplechasing’s “golden age.” Purses were high, major tracks welcomed the jumpers and hunt meets jammed spring and fall weekends from Kentucky to New York. Festive crowds crowded grandstands and hillsides, horses were heroes, jockeys were gladiators, and the sport enjoyed enduring popularity.
Jerry Fishback remembers like it was yesterday.
“Those were heady times,” says the eventual Hall of Fame member and winner of 301 races over 22 years on the circuit. “I’d grown up idolizing the top riders of the day – Joe Aitcheson, Paddy Smithwick.” He calls the elite professional jockey colony the rock stars of the racing world. “I wanted to be like them.”
It was a wild ride, going from the back field at a Warrenton, Virginia pony club school to the hallowed Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga, New York. Including point-to-points and hunt meet flat races, Fishback rode nearly 1,400 races worth nearly $1.5 million. “Those were good times,” he says.
Born in Warrenton, Virginia in 1947, Fishback started out with the local pony club, but swapped allegiance to racing and rode his first point-to-point in 1964. He rode his first National Steeplechase Association winner in 1965, Right Tag at the old Deep Run meet in Richmond.
Fishback swiftly rose the ranks, NSA champion in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1977.
Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, who had first-call on Fishback 1973-1979, says Fishback was “a natural. He had this tremendous competitive spirit,” Sheppard recalls. “That coupled well with the natural (riding and racing) talent. But, more than that, he took it rather seriously. He was always quite well prepared, and he’d have a clear view of how he thought a race would unfold. He studied the form, and he had a plan.”
Fishback was a bit of a hot-head, fighting with the other riders, and occasionally being called up for dubious tactics in the heat of battle, but he mostly stayed to himself, piling up the wins from all corners of the circuit, spring, summer and fall.
Together, Sheppard and Fishback pretty much won everything on the circuit after formally joining forces in ‘73. They partnered to win the Aug. 3, 1979 Lovely Night at Saratoga with two-time Eclipse champ Cafe Prince. It was one of Fishback’s all-time favorite horses at his all-time favorite track.
But it was an unsustainable model, Sheppard recalls.
Abruptly, right there in the winner’s circle, Fishback called it quits.
Sheppard says he was “disappointed” when Fishback took off that day. “This had happened before,” Sheppard adds, “him saying ‘he’s done with racing.'
“But this time, he didn’t come back.” Sheppard figures there were likely some unseen problems, deeper than the fiery, surface competitiveness, that the rider had to face. “He had some (struggles),” he adds, one of which, Sheppard thinks, was an ongoing battle with weight. “I was sorry to see him go – he was a superb rider. But he had to get himself straightened out.”
Away four and a half years, Fishback mounted a 1984 comeback, and it was fitting that Sheppard was the one to give Fishback his first ride: the skilled reinsman partnered with Bill Pape’s Flatterer to win the April 7, 1984 Atlanta Cup, wiring the field in the circuit’s first important handicap to tee up Flatterer’s second championship season.
“It looked like he’d never been away,” Sheppard says.
Fishback and Sheppard teamed for three more seasons, capturing everything from the Brook at Belmont to a pair of allowances with Eskimo Point to cap the rider’s career in 1987.
“It felt like the appropriate time,” Fishback told the Daily Racing Form’s Joe Hirsch. “I’m still in one piece, I have plans for the future and I retired on a winning note. Some people go to the well too many times. I didn’t want to be in that position when I quit.”
Hirsch called Fishback “the best of the best,” and nominated Fishback to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1992.
Today, Fishback lives near Leesburg, Virginia. He’s been foxhunting the past few years, though a foot injury kept him out of the saddle this season.
“It was a heckuva ride,” Fishback says of the glory days of his career. He remembers the ups as well as the downs, the twists and turns that carried him from learning to jump with his little white knuckles gripping a little saddle all the way to racing’s top honor, the Hall of Fame.
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1977 Essex Race Meeting (now Far Hills Race Meeting), Martin Memorial. Left to right: two time Eclipse Award winner (in 1977 and '78) Cafe Prince (Jerry Fishback, up) -1st for Augustin Stables and trainer Jonathan Sheppard; Bel Iman II (Doug Fout, up) - 2nd.
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Jerry Fishback and Doug Small at the Colonial Cup in the early 1970's.
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Jerry Fishback on going from pony kid to steeplechasing elite:
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"I grew up riding with the local Casanova-Warrenton Pony Club. I learned to to jump in a paddock behind Ann Montgomery's barn, in an exercise saddle. I remember reaching down with both hands and holding onto the front of that little saddle. I'll never forget it.
I was riding at Dr. Howard's farm, and there was a cross-country course behind the house. We used to line those ponies up and race over the course, again and again.
Somebody ratted to Mrs. Howard we were racing, and she set it up to catch us. She told us one day she was going into town, but she actually stayed up at the barn and watched us out of the shadows.
I got kicked out, but … I already could tell racing was more fun than showing.
The summer before my senior year, Mrs. Randolph (Theo, longtime Piedmont Foxhounds joint-master and steeplechase owner-breeder) sent me to work for Mikey Smithwick.
We spent the summer at the Phipps farm (on Long Island’s north shore at Old Westbury.) We’d drive to Belmont Park every morning to work the horses, and there were these massive, natural hedges for schooling all over the estate in the afternoons.
No kid was never so glad to go back to school (to finish at Fauquier High in Warrenton, Virginia.) Helluva summer, but such hard work.
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Jerry Fishback on the best horse(s) he ever rode:
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(Four-time Eclipse champion) Flatterer was so talented, so honest – he’d give you everything he had, every time.
I had this little riding crop – like a show jumper’s bat, that someone made for me in Mr. Pape’s colors, wrapped in blue and white. I called it my “Flatterer stick” – he ran and jumped his heart out for you. You didn’t need to touch him.
(Flatterer raced in the French Champion Hurdle in 1986 -- second with English jockey Richard Dunwoody, then Fishback rode Flatterer to place in the 1987 English Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.)
(Two-time Eclipse champ) Cafe Prince was gorgeous – big, dark, bold. He was a terrific jumper, and he ran over the bigger fences there at Rolling Rock and Camden. He was a horse for the times.
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Jerry Fishback on his most memorable racing day (and not for a good reason):
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One day at Radnor (May 20, 1978), we were galloping down the backstretch (in the featured National Hunt Cup hurdle handicap.) I was on an Augustin horse trained by Sheppard (Tall Award) and Toinette Jackson (now Neilson) was riding another Augustin horse trained by Joe Clancy (El Viento.)
I have the rail, and here she’s yelling behind me – “On your inside! On your inside!”
Then, all of a sudden, she gallops up my outside, and … I don’t know what I was thinking, but I reach out and grab hold of her rein, like I was ponying her.
I said “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” and pulled her back.
I know you’re not supposed to do that. I think I got ruled off.
(For the record, Tall Award finished first, El Viento third, but the stewards moved Tall Award behind El Viento, giving the win to Straight and True.)
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Jerry Fishback on riding with – and arguing with – his idol:
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Joe Aitcheson, hands down, was my idol. I worked for his dad Leiter, in Maryland, and he gave me one of my first big wins (eventual Hall of Fame champion Tuscalee in the Roby at Middleburg Spring.)
I remember we had plenty of hot-headed exchanges – we were buddies, but Joe was obsessed with being leading rider (he won the title seven times.) We got into it one day at Belmont Park. That wasn’t a great idea on my part, because Joe was a boxer in his youth and in the Navy. He could throw a punch.
He wasn’t gonna give me a break. He didn’t give anybody any breaks.
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Jerry Fishback on dual retirements:
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I won two races at Saratoga that summer (1979), but I just walked out after winning the Lovely Night with Cafe Prince.
I had a place in Camden (South Carolina), so I went down there and ran a car dealership and broke yearlings.
I did miss racing, though, and … I came back in ‘84, mostly to ride Flatterer. I ended up riding three more seasons. My last ride was in the Colonial Cup – third on Statesmanship.
The next spring I was riding out for (flat trainer) Frank Whiteley to get legged up (for the 1988 season.)
Something was different – I’d get off a horse and be exhausted. I’d have to sit on a bench and get my strength before I could get on another horse.
I went to the doctor and got some tests. Turns out, I had Epstein Barr (a chronic viral disease.) It was time to retire, for real this time.
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Jerry Fishback on changes he’d made if he was steeplechase czar:
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The purses are so good these days at the hunt meets, it takes a pretty nice horse to compete. Really, I think the link from flat racing to jump racing is the key. Almost any horse can learn to jump, and it’s hard to look at 10 horses running on the flat and say which one might “move up” when they go between the flags.
You never know where the next Jay Trump (an inexpensive Charles Town claimer that won three Maryland Hunt Cups and the 1965 English Grand National) is going to come from.
I remember when Jay Trump came back from winning at Aintree, I was at the Phipps farm that summer when he came from the airport in New York. I helped get him off the van, and he had a tail full of shavings. I combed out his tail and saved those shavings. I kept those shavings for years – they’d touched greatness, you know.
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Jerry Fishback with his game face on, at the Fair Hill Races in the 1970s.
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George Strawbridge, owner of Augustin Stables in the Fair Hill Races paddock in the 1970s with Jerry Fishback.
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Racing Hall of Fame – Steeplechase Jockeys
Dolly Byers rode 1916-1931 when he retired to work as a trainer. Byers won the 1918, 1921 and 1928 rider titles, partnering the likes of Jolly Roger, Fairmount, Houdini, Barleycorn, Lorenzo, Lizard, Arc Light, and MacCarthy More.
He was inducted in the Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga, New York in 1967.
Rigan McKinney was leading amateur rider 1933, 1934, 1936 and 1938, and was inducted in 1968.
George Bostwick was six-time leading amateur jump rider. He started out galloping horses for his uncle F. Ambrose Clark. At 17, trainer Tommy Hitchcock engaged Bostwick to ride as an amateur. Later, he trained for his sister, Mrs. Ogden Phipps, who owned Hall of Fame horses, Neji and Oedipus.
Bostwick was the first jump trainer to condition winners of $1 million; he was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1968.
Dooley Adams rode 1944-1956. He considered 3-time champion Neji his best mount, with Elkridge a close second. He also rode Hall of Fame inductee Oedipus. Champion rider eight seasons (1946, 1949-’55), Adams was inducted in 1970.
Carroll Bassett was described by Hall of Fame trainer Preston Burch “to steeplechasing what Eddie Arcaro was to flat racing.” Later an equine sculptor, Bassett was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1972.
Robert “Specs” Crawford, so called because of his freckles, was leading rider in 1919, 1920, 1922 and 1926. He won the 1927 and 1928 American Grand National with Greentree Stable’s Jolly Roger.
He joined the Hall of Fame in 1973.
Alfred "Paddy" Smithwick was leading rider 1956-1958 and 1962. He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1973.
Joe Aitcheson, Jr. was born in 1928 in Olney, Maryland. His father pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles. The younger Aitcheson grew up working for his uncle’s riding stable, cleaning barns and guiding trail rides.
After a tour with the U.S. Navy in Korea, Aitcheson embarked on a record-setting jumps career, winning 440 races, including eight Virginia Gold Cups, seven Carolina Cups and six International Gold Cups. He also won five Temple Gwathmeys, five Noel Laings, five Midsummers and five Manlys. He was the first jump jockey ever to receive the National Steeplechase Association’s F. Ambrose Clark Award, in 1976.
He was elected to the Hall in 1978.
Jerry Fishback rode his first race in 1964, becoming one of steeplechasing’s elite, champion rider in 1971, ‘73, ‘74, ‘75 and ‘77. He rode first-call 1973-’79 to eventual Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
He retired 1979-1983, coming back ‘84-’87. He was leading rider by purses earned in 1985.
Fishback was inducted into Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1992.
Thomas M. “Tommy” Walsh started with his uncle, future Hall of Fame trainer Michael G. “Mickey” Walsh. He was leading rider in 1966. He was named to the Hall in 2005.
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This is Horse Racing also just released an article about Sheppard-trained
Mistico, a multiple-stakes winner in the early 1990s.
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We had a tricky poll question in last week's newsletter: WHICH HORSE COMPETED IN THE KENTUCKY DERBY, AND BROKE HIS MAIDEN OVER HURDLES AT AIKEN?
65% of you answered Gill Johnston's Mr. Hot Stuff. While Mr. Hot Stuff did indeed run in the Kentucky Derby in 2009, he never raced over hurdles at Aiken Steeplechase. He broke his maiden over hurdles at Fair Hill Races in 2011.
The answer? Jack Flash, owned by Dogwood Stable. Jack Flash ran in the 1997 Kentucky Derby, placing 7th, and broke his maiden over hurdles in March of 2000, in Aiken.
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Last Weekend in Racing...
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Aiken Spring Steeplechase: Morningstar Farm’s Indigo Heart, always prominent under Jack Doyle, took the lead on the second circuit of the Aiken Horse Park course and drew clear to a 4 1/2-lengh victory in the
Aiken Spring Steeplechase’s featured $30,000 Budweiser Imperial Cup on Saturday.
(
Tod Marks
photo, left)
Rosbrian Farm’s Barhanpour, the lightweight in the ratings handicap hurdle, came on to take second, a half-length ahead of third finisher Dapper Dan.
The first two finishers are trained by Ricky Hendriks, who owns Morningstar Farm and was a close second in last year’s trainer standings by both wins and earnings. Indigo Heart ran the Budweiser Imperial Cup’s two miles in 3:40 4/5 on firm turf.
Kathy Neilson won two at Aiken Spring to lead the trainer standings by wins, and she shares the top spot on the owner board with Pennsylvania neighbor Ricky Hendriks, owner of Morningstar Farm.
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Piedmont Foxhounds Point-to-Point: The ground was perhaps the best horseman have seen in the past few months at the
Piedmont Fox Hounds Pt-to-Pt in Upperville, Virginia this past Saturday, March 23rd. The 11-race card attracted 65 ponies and horses to the Salem Farm course. Fat Chance Farm’s Flaming Sword (Ire) opened the day with a win in the George Robert Slater Memorial maiden timber for Leslie Young with Aaron Sinnott in the irons. This was the first time Mrs. Miles Valentine’s colors have been seen on a race course in quite some time. The storied silks, pink with red hearts, crossed the wire six lengths ahead of the eight-horse field. Fat Chance Farm is owned by Valentine’s grand-daughter Joy Slater. The winner may not have been all that racing fans were talking about early on in the day. Some Response parted ways with rider Eric Poretz and decided to go out for lunch to the Hunter’s Head Tavern down Route 50. You can read about Some Response’s adventure in the Fauquier Times article,
Point-to-Point Traffic Jam.
The third timber fence on the course, the drop stone wall, claimed three of the six entries between the foxhunters and ladies timber races. Sam Cockburn aboard T & C Elite Sport Horses’ Rockin Allen won the foxhunter timber division by ½ length over Erin Swope riding her father’s Way Up High. Pocket Talk, ridden by Annie Yeager, schooled around the ladies timber course solo, after the third fence claimed the other two entries in the race, to win the race as the only finisher.
The Rokeby Challenge Bowl open timber race was a match race between Vintage Vinnie (Ire) and Old Timer, with Armata Stables’ Vintage Vinnie (Ire) prevailing by 12 lengths
(Douglas Lees photo, above). Eric Poretz piloted Vintage Vinnie, and also won the C. Reed Thomas, MFH Memorial amateur and novice rider timber on Witor for trainer Todd Wyatt in a field of nine.
The day closed out with three full flat races. Tess Croce piloted Smokin Caraquena for trainer Carl Rafter to a 1 ½-length victory in the Hilary Hitchen Bateman Memorial maiden flat race. Front Line Paige cross the wire five lengths ahead of North Dubai for Neil Morris in the Col. Richard Henry Dulany Memorial open flat over 1 ¼ miles. And the $2,000 VHBPA flat race was won by Talk Less for the rider/trainer duo of Jacob Roberts and Neil Morris.
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Foxhall Farm Cup Team Chase: The
Foxhall Farm Cup Team Chase ran on Sunday, March 24th in Kennett Square, PA. Eighteen teams of three tackled the 3 1/2 mile timber course, hosted by Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds. Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club (EHHC) representatives Derwins Prospector (Annie Yeager), Our Town (McLane Hendriks), and Rollforward (Eric Poretz) took home the massive solid sterling-silver trophy by completing the course in 11 minutes and 34 seconds, 23 seconds faster than any other team. The Cheshire Hounds team with young riders Teddy Davies on Classical Art and Parker Hendriks on Maryland Hunt Cup winner Guts for Garters (Ire) joined professional jockey Gerard Galligan aboard Kings Apollo to take home the Full Cry Trophy for best optimum time. The team chase will be hosted by EHHC in 2020. Read more about the day on
The Horse of Delaware Valley's website and see photos on the
TGSF's Facebook page.
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Team 18 from Cheshire Hounds (Guts for Garters with Parker Hendriks; Kings Apollo with Gerard Galligan; Classical Art with Teddy Davies) won the Full Cry trophy at the Foxhall Team Chase for being closest to optimum time. Pictured are Gerard Galligan and Parker Hendriks. TGSF photo.
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The George Robert Slater Memorial Maiden Timber at Piedmont, left to right: #14--Flaming Sword (Aaron Sinnott, up)--1st; Some Response (who lost rider Eric Poretz) behind the winner; #12--Holiday Mousse (Jacob Roberts, up)--6th; #3--Le Aqua (Paul Cawley, up)--3rd. Douglas Lees photo.
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This Weekend in Racing...
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Carolina Cup Races: For the first time in its history, the $50,000 Carolina Cup will be run as a ratings handicap, and
Saturday March 30th’s historic race attracted a field worthy of a graded stakes with five highweights.
The 87th annual
Carolina Cup race meet marks the arrival of spring in South Carolina’s Midlands, and this year’s edition of the Camden tradition attracted strong, full fields for its six races. First post time is 1:30 p.m. at Springdale Race Course, and the races can be viewed on the
NSA Network’s livestream.
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Green Spring Valley Hounds Point-to-Point: Join the
Green Spring Valley Hounds for a great day of steeplechase racing, pony racing, side saddle racing, tailgate picnics, and a barbecue reception at Shawan Downs Racecourse in Cockeysville, Maryland on
Sunday March 31st.
The timber meet has entries from the likes of Maryland Hunt Cup nominees Drift Society, Jeffery G., and Class Indian, as well as 2017 and 2018 NSA Timber Champion Doc Cebu and 2016 Timber Champ Two's Company.
It's a great family day - come early to see the pony racing start at 10:30 am. The overnight can be found at the
Central Entry Office.
Green Spring Valley Hounds Point-to-Point will
LIVE STREAM
beginning at 12:30, at
this link
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Cheshire Point-to-Point: Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds in Unionville, PA, host the
Cheshire Point-to-Point at Plantation Field on
Sunday March 31st. The timber meet will be run over a newly redesigned course that is entirely visible to spectators.
The
overnight is posted at the Central Entry Office, and entries feature the likes of 2018 Maryland Hunt Cup winner Senior Senator, 2015 Maryland Hunt Cup winner Raven's Choice, and 2014 Maryland Hunt Cup winner Guts for Garters, just to name a few. Post time is 1:00 p.m. for the timber races - pony racing begins at 11:30, and the card includes two races in the
TGSF's Developing Rider Flat Race Series.
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Orange County Hounds Point-to-Point: The Orange County Hounds host their annual
Point-to-Point at Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, VA, on
Sunday March 31st.
The meet features timber, hurdle, and flat racing. The
overnight is posted at the Central Entry Office, and entries feature the likes of Maryland Hunt Cup nominee Jeffery G., multiple stakes winner Le Chevalier, and stakes-placed Canyon Road, who the TGSF did a little feature on a couple weeks ago. Canyon Road conditions in the winter as a whip horse for the Orange County Hounds.
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ANNOUNCING THE NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE ASSOCIATION NETWORK
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Starting March 23, the
National Steeplechase Association will have 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 live first hand the sport, its horses, its people, with a broadcast that will include race coverage, interviews, a call-in show featuring global participants. Go to
network.theplaidhorse.com/steeplechase and join the excitement of jump racing.
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NSA MONDAY REPORT NOW AVAILABLE
The
Monday Report will take a look back at each week’s racing and will look forward to the coming weekend ahead of the entries.
If you are not receiving The Monday Report by email and want to sign up for it, click on News at the top of the
nationalsteeplechase.com home page. At the bottom right of the News page, you’ll see Keep in Touch. Submit the contact information, and you’ll be added to the email list.
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The NSA's
Official Notices from March 21 list the conditions for the races at The Cup Runneth Over on Saturday April 6; the Maryland Hunt Cup early nominations; Virginia licensing information; the Carolina Cup course report; as well as the current Ratings. See the
Official Notices on the NSA website.
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PONY RACING COMES TO CAMDEN
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NEW for 2019! After some careful campaigning by junior jockey Taylor Kingsley's father/NSA trainer Arch Kingsley, the "pop up meet" of
The Cup Runneth Over will now host a
full card of pony and young rider races on April 6th! Taylor and her fellow pony racing enthusiast friends in the southern region got a taste of pony racing at the
Aiken Pony Derby held at the Aiken Trials earlier this month. One pony race day in the south was definitely not enough for them. When Arch heard about the second NSA sanctioned meet being run at the Springdale Racecourse, he went to race executive director John Cushman to plead his case. Cushman listened with open ears and granted Kingsley's request. The meet turned to U.S. Pony Racing to take junior race entries and head up race operations for the inaugural running of the Camden Pony Derby.
The Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation will join U.S. Pony Racing as co-sponsors of the Camden Pony Derby, which will take place immediately prior to the first sanctioned race on April 6th. Post time for the first pony race is slated for 11:30 am. The card of young rider and pony races will include a young rider flat race, which is part of the TGSF
Developing Rider Flat Series, in which the jockey riding in the most races in the series wins a Charles Owen helmet.
A FREE clinic/approval session will be held on
Sunday, March 31st at the Springdale Racecourse. ALL (except lead line) entries participating in the pony and young rider races must be pre-approved by a U.S. Pony Racing official and this is an opportunity for those who still need approval. Anyone interested in participating in the clinic should contact Allison Fulmer at 803-549-1499. Entries for the Camden Pony Derby close on Monday, April 1st at noon. To enter visit
www.usponyracing.com/camden-pony-derby/
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Pony Racing Results from Piedmont Point-to-Point
Seventeen entries ran in three divisions of pony races at the
Piedmont Point-to-Point, one of the few point-to-points in Virginia that host racing for juniors on ponies. Five ponies were under starter Graham Alcock’s direction for the small pony flat division. Foxmor Bebop and Carroway Tuesday sprang to the head of the field after the flag dropped, but Will Slater aboard Lauren Schock’s Chewy overtook the lead after Foxmor Bebop’s jockey misjudged the snow fencing and parted ways with her pony, leaving Caroway Tuesday to maneuver around them and Chewy to scoot under the wire first. Rider and pony were unharmed. There was no contest for Betty McCue’s Count Chocula in the medium division. Jockey Teddy Davies rode “Cocoa” to a five-length victory over the four-pony field. In the large pony division Colin Smith
(pictured, Douglas Lees photo) piloted the Mimi Schmitz owned and trained Balls to the Walls to an exciting ½ length victory in the eight-pony field over Betty McCue’s new entry Charmed, Charlie Marquez aboard.
In the spirit of promoting racing to the next generation, Piedmont offered complementary entry fees for all pony race entries. The
Central Entry Office has the full results. You can find photos on the TGSF's
Facebook page.
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Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation Developing Rider Flat Race Series
The Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation's Developing Rider Program presents a series of seven flat races for young riders for the spring of 2019.
The young rider flat race at the Aiken Trials was the first stop in the seven race series sponsored by the TGSF. The program was developed to encourage participation of young riders and give them a safe and educational platform on which to compete. The rider competing in the most races in the TGSF Developing Rider Series will receive a Charles Owen skullcap. Ties will be broken based on points earned in the series. Riders do not need to ride the same mount to be considered for the series prize.
The series schedule includes seven Point-to-Points and race meets. Race distances, age limits, and rules may vary from meet to meet, please check with individual races for condition specifics.
More details about the Developing Rider Flat Race Series can be found on the
TGSF's website.
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Long-time steeplechase supporter
Susan McConnell passed away on March 20th. Ms. McConnell was a fixture at the Montpelier races. Read the
full obituary here.
Douglas Lees' 2014 photo of James H.T. McConnell, Jr., and Susan McConnell, with Charles H. Seilheimer, Jr., chairman of the Montpelier Steeplechase and Equestrian Board of Directors, presenting the trophy to Noel Laing winning jockey Carol-Ann Sloan and trainer Cyril Murphy. Irv Naylor's Decoy Daddy won the Noel Laing hurdle stakes that day.
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Heir to Triple Crown winner born on Chester County farm
Earlier this month, a mare (High Quail) at Walnut Green Farm in Unionville, PA, gave birth to the first foal in Pennsylvania sired by American Pharoah, 2015 Triple Crown winner. On Wednesday, the public got a chance to see the foal roam the fields. Read more at
Southern Chester County Weeklies.
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This is the 125th Anniversary of the Maryland Hunt Cup!
To commemorate this milestone you can purchase the following on a limited basis:
125th Anniversary Book - The Maryland Hunt Cup - Celebrating 125 Years by Margaret Worrall as well as beautiful and exclusive silk ties & scarves.
Place your order before the items sell-out - online sales only!
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Rising Horsemen Host a Timber School
The Rising Horsemen hosted a timber school on March 17th. The fundraising event drew 14 of the 24 Maryland Hunt Cup nominees, including Hill Tie, Senior Senator, and Our Town (pictured, Lydia Williams photo). See the entire album at the
Rising Horsemen's Facebook page.
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AN EVENING WITH RITA MAE BROWN
Award winning author and activist Dr. Rita Mae Brown, MFH of the Oak Ridge Fox Hunt, will present a talk about
Fashions and Foxhunting on Saturday May 18 at 6:30 p.m. The dinner will be at the Ed Walls Building at the Cecil County Fairgrounds, Fair Hill, Maryland. Pasta dinner and soft drinks included. $30 per person in advance, $35 at the door. More information can be found on the
Fair Hill International website.
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Maryland Thoroughbred Career Program Applications Open
Applications are due April 19th for the Maryland Thoroughbred Career Program. Don't miss this opportunity explore a wide range of career options in the Thoroughbred industry. Successful participants are eligible for $2,000 in Career Development Funds to be used for future endeavors. Read more about the program on the
Maryland Horse Industry Foundation's website.
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Fair Hill Races is seeking historical trophies for display
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See what's happening on our social sites:
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