The End Time?

Trouble seeing this email? View as Webpage

The end time?

Not if NSA president Al Griffin has anything to say about it

Go deep with the brass to hear how steeplechase remains relevant in this trying year (and beyond)

By Betsy Burke Parker

The joke about going postal has gone one better: To “be all 2020” means you’ve left the station on the crazy train.

We asked National Steeplechase Association president Al Griffin to paint a picture of the sport in this extraordinary year. We know about COVID (sort of), we know about challenges to horsemen and hunt meets, we know about the hopeful, earnest excitement building to the proposed summer schedule, and we know all about suspending reality and looking forward to a return to normal by fall.

What we don’t know is how NSA is staying relevant in the bigger scheme of things. How a small association linking a few hundred horsemen is having an outside effect on sport and entertainment on a local, regional, national and even international level.

Take a peek behind the curtain with Griffin to hear about the initiatives and innovations designed to carry the game through this curious challenge.

We had questions. Griffin had answers.

Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation: You pulled it off. After almost 90 days idle, NSA had a “spring season” with the 100th anniversary running of the Middleburg Spring Races and the 95th running of the Virginia Gold Cup in June.

Al Griffin:

Despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles … every segment of steeplechasing went way above and beyond our perceived limits and with everyone pulling in the same direction, we got it done. While dealing with this crisis, we were forced to think outside our usual comfort zones to come up with a way of going that was new to all.

My thanks to everyone who put so much effort into making our two race meets a success, including the greatly enhanced live streaming of our races to those who were not allowed to be at the meets in person.

Griffin (left) did double duty at the Virginia Gold Cup Races, as he is also one of the Race Directors for that meet. He is seen here with Safety Committee member and Steward Gregg Morris.

©Douglas Lees

TGSF: But … We ran the numbers. It doesn’t add up. No spectators, no tent sales, no program ads. How could this help the bottom line?

The context of Middleburg Spring and Virginia Gold Cup deciding to run is important. Several things conspired to make it happen.

For Middleburg, it was their 100th anniversary, and a lot of people were going to extraordinary lengths to make it a worthy celebration. When the pandemic hit and canceled race meet after race meet, the Middleburg Spring folks dug deeper and kept contingency planning. The benefactors who had pledged resources stayed in the game, even though their sponsorship reward was to watch the live stream from their living rooms.

What Doug (Fout, race President) and the rest of the Middleburg organizers did was nothing short of miraculous.

The Virginia Equine Alliance stepped up large for both Middleburg and the Gold Cup (as sponsor of much of the purse structure.)

You have to understand, a lot of owners had kept their horses in training since January, and kept a lot of people in the steeplechase industry in jobs and out of the unemployment lines.

Everyone associated with the NSA had a singular mission: Don’t give up!

Week after week, everyone kept reinventing ways of giving these owners, trainers, riders and horses a chance to run. It was just as symbolic as anything.

(My Gold Cup co-chair) Will Allison and the rest of the team learned a lot at Middleburg Spring, and, despite the heat, we were able to put another 100-plus horse race meet into the 2020 books.

(The pandemic challenge) did not beat us.

Middleburg Spring Races President Doug Fout leading a socially distant jockey's meeting on

June 13.

TGSF: Looking ahead – what now?

We now turn to the fall season and evaluate our options. (It will) depend on the limitations imposed on our sport by health regulations secondary to the continuing pandemic.

While no one’s crystal ball is clear on where we will be from a regulatory standpoint, it is imperative that we have contingency plans in place ahead of time so we’re able to react according to the given health regulation limitations.

To that end, a committee of race chairs have been formulating a request for evaluation from each race meet to look at the specifics of their meet as it pertains to their ability to conduct racing under (these) circumstances.

This 2020 season has presented unprecedented challenges for steeplechasing, but be assured that when we’re no longer faced with the limitations of this pandemic, we will be stronger than ever.

The NSA fall calendar includes the traditionally largest (purse-wise) day of racing at the Far Hills Race Meeting.

TGSF: Regs and requirements – on the live stream show, it sure looked like everybody quietly obeyed the mandates for masks and distancing. Any pushback? Any feedback? Maybe an “atta boy” for what had to have seemed like trying to herd cats?

While steeplechase folks are known to be free spirits, everyone understood the importance of following the rules handed down by the Commonwealth of Virginia for running horse races. It was not just the day at stake, but future racing opportunities were in the balance.

The live stream was very well viewed and was getting texts all day long about “So and So” not having their mask pulled all the way up and the like.

All we had to do was remind them, and everyone was compliant. And it was not easy keeping those masks on in that heat!

Secretary of Agriculture (Bettina) Ring, who was our big advocate for allowing us to race, was very pleased with our showing and will work with us again for the fall meets depending on the conditions present at the time.

That would not be happening if everyone had not tried so hard to get it right at Middleburg and Gold Cup.

"Chief Cat-Herder" and Willowdale Steeplechase race director Leslie White worked both at Middleburg and at the Virginia Gold Cup as a safety compliance officer, while simultaneously picking up good tips from both meets to assist in planning for races in the future. Leslie is a part of the joint NSA/TGSF task force created to assist fall race meets.

©Betsy Burke Parker

TGSF: NSA and TGSF teamed up to create a task force to help the fall meets in this unusual season you're facing. What are the goals of this joint venture? Progress so far?

We’re canvassing the fall meet chairs and asking them to consider their ability to conduct a race meet under various limiting conditions. Can they create a socially distanced spectator opportunity with no tents, spacing between parking spots and limiting the number of attendees in each spot? What does that do to their bottom line and what (racing) conditions might that support? We know that there will be an effect on our way of going this fall. We want to be ready for whatever the situation, and be smart with our race meet resources. All race meets want to provide opportunity for the horsemen in the fall. They also need to be standing to race in the Spring of 2021 when this horrid year is behind us.

Race conditions were adjusted at both spring meets to allow more opportunities for horses. Four maiden hurdle races were held at each meet, including this one from Middleburg, won by Bill and Carrington Price's Hot Springs. We learned yesterday that Hot Springs was euthanized this week as a result of wobbler's syndrome. Our thoughts are with the Prices as they mourn the loss of this promising jumper.

TGSF: Any new horse safety protocol?

The NSA safety committee has been working tirelessly to obtain objective information about horse injuries (and) enact changes based on that information to increase safety.

These include recommendations to meets on course changes, constantly monitoring medication rule changes in the industry and making sure that the horse-rider team is appropriate for each race’s conditions.

I’m particularly grateful for their hard work on the design of the new hurdle fences, which are being manufactured as I type. They should (be available) for schooling at several locations later this summer.

A sample of the new EasyFix hurdle was on display at the NSA Awards Banquet in Baltimore in January. TGSF is leading the fundraising initiative for the new hurdles. Fundraising efforts were hampered a bit by the pandemic, but look to get back on track soon.

©Bill Gallo

TGSF: Any new jockey safety measures? Race riding in that heat must have been tough, especially without a point-to-point series to ease into fitness.

This spring, I was very fortunate to have Dr. Erica Gaertner step in and help us with an updated concussion protocol. She spoke with the course physicians before each meet to go over it.

She was at (both) meets and gave valuable input on our set up.

We’re constantly trying to improve response times for fallen jockeys. It used to be that an EMT crew had to be sent from the stewards’ stand for fallers “if they did not get up.” Now, an EMT cart is sent immediately (for) a faller (or lost rider.)

We’re constantly trying to find ways to improve the care of our riders.

2019 co-champion jockey Michael Mitchell is currently on top of the jockey standings after 2 meets in 2020. He had full days of racing at both meets - in part because some of the usual NSA riders were unable to travel from Europe to ride in the US this spring.

TGSF: We’ve heard great things about steeplechase and social media.

The most positive comments I received about the last few weeks center on the live stream and the use of social media to get the word out (about watching the two spring race meets live, and on replay.)

The metrics were great for Middleburg Spring. In the two weeks between races, a team of over 20 people from all segments of our sport, and outside it as well, blasted the word out. We had a 78 percent increase in viewership.

The quality of the shows was spectacular, according to the feedback I received.

While this pandemic has really set us back in many regards, it forced us to get outside the box and our comfort zones and that has been a very exciting step forward for steeplechasing.

Viewership was (nearly) 10,000, and that starts to make sponsors pay attention.

We had a great benefactor in Brown Advisory – they gave us the ability to push ourselves to the next level. We did not advertise the live stream to the usual steeplechase (racegoers), per se. I think that is our next target audience for the live stream.

We were popular (viewing) in England and Ireland. I think we were viewed in 19 countries.

Racing Analyst Megan Connolly and Joe Clancy (This is Horse Racing) provided expert commentary on all the races on the NSA live stream this spring. Megan also had interviews with jockeys and trainers, while Joe put together a moving tribute to six-time Virginia Gold Cup

winner Saluter.

Back to the future

Gold Cup chair Al Griffin named president of National Steeplechase Association

Becomes first Virginia horseman to hold the reins since 1970s

By Betsy Burke Parker

Special to the Times

(First published in the Fauquier (Virginia) Times in January, 2020)

Co-chair of the Virginia Gold Cup and longtime Fauquier horseman Dr. Alfred C. Griffin Jr. was elected president of the National Steeplechase Association at the group’s Jan. 17 board meeting. (©Douglas Lees)

Griffin becomes the first Virginian to rule the governing body of American steeplechasing since the late Randy Rouse was NSA president in the early 1970s.

Griffin, a resident of Marshall, succeeds three-term NSA president Guy Torsilieri. Torsilieri is long-time chairman of the nation’s richest steeplechase meet – the Far Hills Races in New Jersey. Torsilieri will replace Beverly Steinman as chairman of the group’s board of directors.

Tennessee horsewoman Virginia Lazenby was elected vice-president, Upperville’s Robert Bonnie as secretary and Georgia-based Mason Hardaway Lampton as treasurer.

A lifelong civil servant with a penchant for conservation, Robert Bonnie has spent decades in Washington, D.C., and around the nation, shepherding policy to protect open space and, by association, fragile wildlife populations and endangered species.

Bonnie recently was asked to sit on three National Steeplechase Association committees, chair of what many believe may be the way forward for the sport’s health and welfare – the futures committee.

The executive ballot marks a notable first for NSA – the leadership is 100 percent from the “south,” with three of the four graduates of the now-defunct Midwest Hunt Race Association that represented jump racing in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and – in prior years, Missouri, Ohio and Illinois. Though he’s long lived in Upperville near his mother Nina’s ancestral home, Robert Bonnie grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where his father, the late Ned Bonnie, was a noted equine attorney, MHRA officer and a successful steeplechase amateur owner-rider.

“I am honored and humbled,” Griffin said. “Under Guy Torsilieri’s leadership, steeplechasing has placed itself on an upward trajectory. I will strive to foster continued growth into a bright, sustainable future for our sport, our horsemen, and our race meets.”

The appointment has particular meaning for Virginia’s horse country. “Steeplechase racing is such an integral part of life here in this area,” Griffin said. “The point-to-points and sanctioned meets are more than just horse races: they’re focal points for our communities as a whole.

“Each race meet is unique unto itself, and it is that individuality that is (Virginia racing’s) strength.”

How it happened

“I’ve been hunting over 40 years,” former Warrenton Hunt joint-master Griffin traced the route he took from hunting to ‘chasing. “To find my hunt horses, I would go to Charles Town. (Virginia foxhunter and race trainer) Moody Aylor would run them up and down the hills for the summer, and I’d hunt them the next season.

“After doing that for a while, I got the bug, I loved the races, it really grabbed me.”

Former Warrenton Hunt joint-Master Al Griffin, leading the hunt in 2006.

©Douglas Lees

Griffin told the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred that young apprentice Gus Brown played a big role in him taking the next step. “Gus was just starting out as a bug boy,” he told the magazine. “His father, Denny, was a great friend of mine. There was a horse I liked a lot, Latinist. We ran him in the open timber at Old Dominion and damned if he didn’t win.

“As you know, that’s probably the worst thing that ever happened to me. It was the start.

“I had two friends, (Warrenton huntsman) Matt van der Woude and my joint-master Rick Laimbeer were (riding) point-to-points. I said, ‘Hell, if they can do it…’

“Dougie Fout saved my life. He said ‘you need to come over to my barn. It’s not like going foxhunting.’

Trainer Doug Fout and Al Griffin cheering during the stretch run and finish of the 2011 National Sporting Library and Museum Cup Timber Stake at the Virginia Fall Races - won by Al Griffin's Aero.

©Douglas Lees

“For two years, I would go over there before work. It was the most exciting thing that I’ve ever done in my life, not the racing part, but getting up early and riding the first set as the sun was coming up, before you go to work. I don’t think there’s anything more exhilarating and fulfilling in my life, especially as I was cracking 50.

“I did the foxhunter races and the owner-rider (series.) I said that was enough, I need to go back to reality. Robert Massey was riding for Dougie. He made me appreciate what they go through to do what they do.

“As master, I was running the Warrenton point-to-point for 12 years, and then got on the Gold Cup board.

“It’s very exciting to me and I still love it to this day.”

2011 National Sporting Library and Museum Cup at the Virginia Fall Races, last fence left to right: Aero (Jeff Murphy, up)--1st; He's A Conniver (Bernie Dalton, up)--3rd. Aero, owned by Al Griffin, began his career over hurdles in 2008 then switched to timber in 2010. In addition to his win in Middleburg, Aero placed second, twice, in the International Gold Cup Timber Stakes. Aero was trained by Doug Fout.

©Douglas Lees

Gold Cup has raised more than $2.5 million for the local community in the 10 years Griffin has been involved.

Griffin was Warrenton Hunt joint-master 1994-2012, chairing their race meet 1996-2012. He joined NSA’s board of directors in 2012 and has served as chair of the promotion and growth committee. He’s been NSA secretary since 2018.

With Warrenton dentist Dr. Will Allison, Griffin still co-chairs the Virginia Gold Cup, NSA’s largest meet by attendance, and the International Gold Cup.

Griffin and Allison, co-chairs of the Virginia Gold Cup Races, are also both former Masters for the Warrenton Hunt.

©Douglas Lees

Griffin is a member of the Virginia Governor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Horse Racing, and he played a key role in creating the Virginia Equine Alliance that brought pari-mutuel wagering to the Great Meadow meets in 2012 when Colonial Downs was shuttered.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Rochester, Griffin has practiced orthodontics in Warrenton and Middleburg for the last 35 years and is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics.

He also teaches biomechanics and clinical practice at Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine. He served as the first dental director of the Fauquier Free Clinic, which he and other Northern Virginia dentists founded more than 20 years ago.

“I’m real faculty (at Harvard), not online. For the last six years, I’ve flown up to Boston every other Wednesday on the 6:30 a.m. shuttle and taught the postdoctoral residents at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, then catch the 7 p.m. flight back home.

“I love my profession (of orthodontics), and the residents keep me fresh and force me to be up on my professional game.

“Like steeplechasing, it’s a labor of love.”

In Other News...

2020 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium Postponed to 2021

After extensive information gathering, research and consideration, the board of the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) has made the difficult but unanimous decision to postpone the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA), until 2021. The RRP plans to host an expanded Thoroughbred Makeover on October 12-17, 2021 that will offer separate classes in all ten disciplines for both 2020 and 2021 entries.

We'll have to wait until next year to watch Jonathan Sheppard homebred All the Way Jose compete with Erica Gaertner.