Just like we did in May, we wanted to check in with the first-flight as the National Steeplechase Association 2023 season closes. The trainer title is all but locked up with Leslie Young 10 ahead of Hall of Fame trainer Jack Fisher (she has 32 to his 22 – Young saddles six horses at Aiken, Fisher saddles one.) Fisher has locked the money-won title no matter if Young sweeps the Aiken card – $993,760 to Young’s $854,200.

The owner crown is in play – Riverdee Stable has 11 wins so far this season, with no Aiken entries. Irv Naylor has one running at Aiken, and with 10 wins headed into Saturday, if the Cyril Murphy-trained Travesuras brings it home, it ties the win column. Naylor has $564,350 in earnings to Riverdee’s $419,450. 

Schoodic tied up the timber title with two wins and a second, and $76,260 in earnings. Hurdle stakes star Merry Maker leads the money-won table with $180,000. 

The jockey title, in theory, is still up for grabs, statistically speaking. Graham Watters, 2021 champion rider, is three to the better of Harry Beswick. Beswick rides the card at Aiken; Watters sits out one of the five races on the program. No way Beswick touches Watters’ earnings – Watters has $729,400 to Beswick’s $593,550, but you can consider the outside chance the races-won stretch run could change things. 



We narrowed our focus on Aiken Fall Races' eve, taking a quick measure of where Watters and Beswick stand headed into the big South Carolina showdown. What are they thinking? What would it mean – a second title for Watters, a first for Beswick? Any superstitions? (Other than not talking to the press about their chances during race week!) Plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas break, winter holidays and looking ahead to the spring season? 

By Betsy Burke Parker

Graham Watters

🏆 Birthdate: Oct. 12, 1991

🏆 Born: County Meath, Ireland

🏆 U.S. base: Sparks, Maryland

⭐ Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Association: You won the rider title in 2021, your first. (21 wins to Tom Garner’s 19, but Garner claimed the money-won category, with $628,550 to Watters’ $610,150. He won 15 races in 2022 – third to champ Parker Hendriks with 25 wins.) 

How does this year feel in comparison to those? You’ve been consistent from spring through the summer and into the fall. 

⭐ Graham Watters: This year has been much different to 2021. Everyone has been very consistent all year long including myself – despite breaking my back at the Virginia Gold Cup meet in May and having 14 weeks off. 

But similar to 2021, I was never actually in the lead in the jocks’ championship until three weeks to go.

I remember Tom (Garner) was six wins ahead of me with three weekends to go, and in those three days racing I won eight, from 10 rides. 

This year Harry was four ahead until that unbelievable day at the (International) Gold Cup when I won four and leveled it. 

For 2022, despite being joint third in the championship, I (actually) had a fantastic year, winning two grade 1s on Snap Decision. (*See below for Watters’ “playing favorites” answer from the spring season Take 5 interview about Snap Decision.) 

⭐ TGSF: The foundation gets it that it is bad juju to count a championship before the final race is run. Do you have any special rituals for race day, or race week, that count as superstitious good luck charms? Special socks? Four-leaf clover? No braided manes on race day? 

⭐ GW: No superstitions. 

I just try to go into each weekend with the same mentality and stay positive. 

I’m lucky I get to ride for nice owners and trainers who don’t put too much pressure on me. 

⭐ TGSF: Any one winner stand out special to you this season? What was your biggest moment – so far – this year? 

⭐ GW: I think the big day that stood out was the (International) Gold Cup in the fall winning four races.

Everyone seemed to get great enjoyment out of seeing the old man Schoodic winning the (International) Gold Cup, and it was great to get Snap Decision back to his winning ways (taking the grade 2 Ferguson hurdle handicap.) 

⭐ TGSF: What about “the one that got away”? Which race would you like to get a re-do? 

⭐ GW: The one that got away was not getting to ride at the Iroquois this year. Getting the fall at the (Virginia) Gold Cup the week before and breaking my back meant I couldn’t ride. 

It was tough watching Snap run in a grade 1 (the $200,000 Iroquois weight-for-age hurdle stake at three miles) that we had won the previous two years. 

(Snap Decision led most of the race but was run down by Irish invader Scaramanga in the long Nashville course homestretch. Sean McDermott got the mount on Snap Decision.) 

⭐ TGSF: Any plans for Thanksgiving? Christmas? Winter break? Travel home to Ireland? 

⭐ GW: Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, myself and (wife) Rosie will be staying at home in Maryland and doing some foxhunting. 

We are hoping to get back to (her homeland) Scotland for New Year.

GRAHAM WATTERS - TAKE 5 (SPRING 2023, reprinted from TGSF's May 26th article)

🏇🏿 First U.S. ride: Two winners at the Radnor meet in 2017.

🏇🏿 Won the NSA rider crown in 2021 with a winner on the final day of the season to take the title over Tom Garner.

🏇🏿 Regular rider for Hall of Fame trainer Jack Fisher.

⭐ TG: Play favorites – best horse you’ve ridden? (We bet we know what your answer will be …)

⭐ GW: Has to be Snap Decision. I’ve won three grade 1’s and two grade 2’s on him. 

He’s an absolute superstar of a horse, a pleasure to do anything with, very professional all the time with a great mind and he just loves to work hard. 

He’s a fantastic ride in a race and just fills you with confidence. 

When the guys are trying to take you on towards the end of a race, he just keeps finding more and more … and more. 

He has this massive engine. I will never come across a horse like him ever again. 

⭐ TG: What time is your alarm set for? Early bird or night owl? (Or both!)

⭐ GW: During the season while I’m riding at Jack Fisher’s, I get up at 5:30 a.m. (My wife) Rosie and I have a new farm not far from Jack’s and run a small business of our own barn, so we like to get up and get the stalls mucked and horses organized before we both head off to our (other) jobs. 

After a morning’s riding out, we come home and do our own. 

⭐ TG: You’ve had some real success through the years here – champion in 2021, tons of big wins. Is it luck of the Irish? Do you have the traditional “lucky socks” or a special race day ritual for luck? 

⭐ GW: No, no lucky charms. I don’t believe in superstition. 

I feel there are too many things at play for “luck” to have anything to do with it. 

At the end of the day, we are a bunch of idiots galloping around a field on a herd of horses. 

⭐ TG: How does this year compare to your magical year in ‘21? Does it feel like deja vous all over again, sitting super close to the top of the table? 

⭐ GW: This season has been going fantastic (until I broke my back – falling with Tapwood at the Virginia Gold Cup meet May 6.) 

I should be back for the start of the summer racing season. 

This season it seams to be a much more level playing field with Harry Beswick and Barry John Foley who have been working hard and banging in some good winners. 

But I feel I have the same momentum as in 2021 when I was champion, If I remember right, I was barely ahead with winners all season. 

Eddie Keating was in the lead at the start of the summer, then I didn’t have one winner all summer. With three weekends left in the season, I was five winners down and I ended up winning it by two. 

There were a lot of life lessons learned that season – (the main one being) don’t count your chickens …. 

⭐ TG: What’s the month of June got in store for you? It’s a break of sorts on the American jumps scene, but you’ve got the complication of a broken back to deal with for goodness sakes. 

⭐ GW: I took a bad fall at the Gold Cup in early May, and I’ve had to take eight weeks off. 

I broke a vertebrae, but it doesn’t require surgery – I’m just taking it easy. 

We’re lucky enough (to) have a barn of horses at home to keep me and Rosie busy. 

Apart from the horses, I do a lot of bicycle racing when I’m not horse racing. I love training hard on the bike and push training to the limits to see what your body is capable of. 

But for now, I just have the bike set up at home on a trainer. Hopefully the doctor will give me the go-ahead to get back out on the road in a few weeks. 

Rosie and I will try to head back to (my homeland) Ireland and (her homeland) Scotland for a week or two before Colonial and Saratoga start back up.

Camden Littleton photo of... to be honest we're not even sure what this is. From the October Foxfield Races.

Harrison Beswick

🏆 Birthdate: Oct. 31, 1995 

🏆 Born: Oxford, England

🏆 U.S. base: Coatesville, Pennsylvania

🏆 Biggest U.S. moment: Major upset victory with 37-1 Noah and the Ark, who stunned winning the $250,000 Grand National at Far Hills last month. 

⭐ TGSF: Champion, runner-up champion – either way, you’ve done quite the fast-track joining the NSA’s top table since you started riding here in 2021. Describe what it feels like to be headed into the last week with five live rides. 

⭐ HB: This year has been a surreal experience. To be a live contender for a jockeys championship is a real privilege. 

I'm very grateful to everyone who has supported me throughout the year, and a huge thanks to my agent, Liam McVicar. I wouldn't be in this position without his help. 

I have a nice book of rides Saturday – if it happens, it happens. 

All credit to Graham Watters, he's had an incredible fall season.

⭐ TGSF: We asked you in May, and today we’ll ask you again – of all the nice horses you’ve ridden, does one horse, one race, stand out as “tops”? 

⭐ HB: That's easy, Noah and the Ark winning the (Oct. 21, Far Hills, American) Grand National. These are the types of races you dream about winning as a jockey. 

Noah has been a huge part of my career and has taken me to heights I never thought possible.

⭐ TGSF: Near future – what are your plans after the weekend? 

⭐ HB: I'll be heading back home (to England’s midlands) after Aiken. Spending the holidays with my dad, my girlfriend, Charlotte, and my dog Oslo at our farm in the Cotswolds. 

Looking forward to catching up with all my mates at the Fox in Oddington. 

During the winter, I'll be busy racing in the UK for Emma Bishop’s stable. 

Along with my own stables of youngsters where I get some of the Beswick brothers' bloodstock horses going. (I’d say) some of which will be earmarked to come and race here in the states. 

(To stay fit, I) always try and keep myself in the gym as much as I can, too.

Although (lying on a beach in a) tropical paradise sounds nice, there's no place like home.

⭐ TGSF: Far future -- Do you see yourself coming back to the NSA circuit next season? Spring jump racing is only 15 weeks away, after all. 

⭐ HB: I'm not really one to make too many plans. Just take each day as it comes. 

However, I don't think this will be the last you see of me in the states. 

HARRISON BESWICK - TAKE 5 (SPRING 2023, reprinted from TGSF's May 26th article)

🏇🏿 First race ride: Ludlow, 2014

🏇🏿 Horse history: “I did a lot of eventing, hunting and showing growing up, which I loved.”

🏇🏿 Bet you didn’t know: Beswick was a competitive skateboarder through his mid-teens.

⭐ Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation: Your first U.S. meet was Tryon two years ago. How’d you find the jumps scene in America? Same and comfortable like an old bedroom slipper or new and unique and dramatically different? 

⭐ Harrison Beswick: There's a lot of differences between riding in the UK and the U.S., but ultimately we are just galloping around in a circle. 

The tracks here are tighter and ground is faster. The U.S. hurdle is different to that of the UK hurdle, more a blend between the (bigger) English ‘chase fence and the (smaller) English hurdle. The U.S. national fence rides very well. 

The heat also factors in as it makes for a very different racing condition to back home.

⭐ TGSF: You’ve ridden plenty of very good horses in your dual-continent career. No fair playing favorites, but what’s the best horse you’ve ridden? 

⭐ HB: I would have to say Noah and the Ark is the best horse I've sat on – I've never had a feel over a fence like he gives me. 

I've been very lucky to sit on some very nice horses back home and in France too. I rode Willoughby Court for Ben Pauling, who went on to win the Neptune Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. I rode a fantastic mare for Oliver Sherwood called Papagana, (and) Diesel D'Allier in France who later won the Cross-country ‘chase at Cheltenham. 

⭐ TGSF: You’re topping the rider table headed into the summer season. How does that feel? Have you been in the catbird seat before? 

⭐ HB: I've never been in this situation before, and it does bring a lot of different pressures that I haven't experienced. 

I am enjoying it, but I'll be glad when the season’s over! 

Racing tends to base itself on “fashion,” so if you're riding winners, you're fashionable and you get more and better rides. 

But you are only as good as what you're sitting on.

⭐ TGSF: We’re heading into an oddly-long, six-week break. What do you have planned? There’s got to be a balance between letting go for a little while and eating what you want and relaxing, but still staying focused on the serious summer season and the fall championship meets. 

⭐ HB: I enjoy spending time in the gym so I'll continue to do that through the break. 

I have a holiday booked with my girlfriend, Charlotte, to go to Portugal, and I'll get a few surf trips in whilst I'm home too. 

Looking forward to switching off!

⭐ TGSF: You’re one of the riders who seems to have as much success over timber as you do over hurdles. That’s for sure something unique to the American jump game. 

⭐ HB: I enjoy both of them as long as the horse knows what he's doing! 

Timber is a much different style, but a good hunting background will stand you in good stead. I find the timber races very similar to cross-country racing in France. You typically go (a bit) slower, and the horses are so well schooled you just leave them to it.

Camden Littleton photo from the October Foxfield Races, at the jockey's meeting.