'Jump' - Middleburg Spring Races Welcome Back Champions Snap Decision, Noah and the Ark, and Schoodic, New Year, New Helmet Initiative + Foxfield Gears Up with Two Thrilling Stakes Races!
'Jump' - Middleburg Spring Races Welcome Back Champions Snap Decision, Noah and the Ark, and Schoodic, New Year, New Helmet Initiative + Foxfield Gears Up with Two Thrilling Stakes Races!
Friday April 19th, Edition #28
In Case You Missed It: This Weekends Top 5 USA Jump Racing Stories
Contents
Weekend Review - Snap Decision, Noah and the Ark, and Timber Champion Schoodic return to action at the Middleburg Spring Races
Saturday’s Entries - Grand National Steeplechase and Middleburg Spring Races
Flashback Friday - The 2023 Temple Gwathmey - Winner, Snap Decision
The Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation - New Year, New Helmet: When it comes to jockey safety, it starts at the top
Foxfield Races - Foxfield Races prepares for 45th running
and two dynamic stakes races on Saturday, April 27
“The ‘Jump newsletter’ is an absolute boon to me. Now domiciled in the UK, it keeps me updated on US jump racing. Thank you.” - Barbara Shaw (Facebook)
Weekend Preview
By Tod Marks
Noah And The Ark ©Tod Marks
Snap Decision, Noah and the Ark, and timber champion Schoodic return to action at the Middleburg Spring Races, while Maryland hosts the second leg of the Timber Triple in Butler featuring reigning Maryland Hunt Cup champion Withoutmoreado.
Glenwood Park hosts stars and stakes action at the Middleburg Spring Races on Saturday with a nine-race, $285,000 card, anchored by the $75,000 Grade 2 Temple Gwathmey stakes and $30,000 Middleburg Hunt Cup stakes over timber.
The third richest meet of the National Steeplechase Association spring season, Middleburg ranks behind only the Iroquois and Virginia Gold Cup races in purses. Post time is 1 p.m. The Gwathmey, which annually draws top talent, has attracted a particularly full and deep field this year, and is shaping up as a championship-caliber contest.
Led by multiple Grade 1 winners Noah and the Ark (Keystone Thoroughbreds), who captured last year’s Grand National at Far Hills, and perennial powerhouse Snap Decision (Bruton Street-US), who is approaching the million-dollar mark in career steeplechase earnings, the 2 ½-mile handicap hurdle is also being targeted by another six accomplished warriors from both sides of the Atlantic: Riverdee Stable’s Awakened, 2023 winner of the G1 Jonathan Sheppard at Saratoga, and stablemates Cool Jet, a two-time novice stakes winner last year, and Zabeel Champion, who begins 2024 coming off of two straight stakes scores in the Fall; Irv Naylor’s Scorpion’s Revenge, a novice stakes winner in 2022, who also owns a third in Grade 1 competition; and Michael Smith’s up-and-comer The Hero Next Door, who has three straight runner-up finishes in novice stakes.
Also nominated is a hard-knocking European newcomer. C and C Boultbee Brooks’ Sebastopol, age 10, is a seven-time winner in steeplechase and hurdle events in the UK, where he earned $240,000.
Because of his many accomplishments dating back to 2019, which includes 11 stakes victories, Snap Decision will again tote high weight. In the Gwathmey, he carries 162 pounds, conceding 10 to 20 pounds to his rivals.
The supporting card
Timber racing has been front and center early this spring, and the Middleburg Hunt Cup at 3 ¼ miles has drawn the reigning champion, Dolly Fisher’s Schoodic, a 15-time winner of $571,000 and remarkable model of consistency who hasn’t been off the board in nine straight starts over three years. Trained by Hall of Famer Jack Fisher, Schoodic has captured his past two starts, including the National Sporting Library & Museum Cup stakes at Glenwood Park last fall.
A group of familiar adversaries will take on the 14-year-old juggernaut, including The Hundred Acre Field’s Cracker Factory, a multiple stakes winner trained by Mark Beecher who finished second to Schoodic in his past two outings. Irv Naylor’s Family Tree, trained by Neil Morris, is a maiden and allowance winner over timber, and takes a big jump in class. So does Stewart Strawbridge’s Lap of the Gods, who broke his maiden over the course in the fall and defeated Family Tree handily at the Old Dominion Hounds point to point several weeks ago. The Parker Hendriks-trainee makes his first stakes appearance in the Middleburg Hunt Cup.
The rest of the card consists of five hurdle races at 2 ⅛ miles, including a rich $50,000 allowance for non-winners of two races; a trio of $30,000 maiden special weights contests, one restricted to fillies and mares; and a maiden starter for horses who have started for a claiming tag of $20,000 or less. There’s also a $20,000 steeplethon over mixed obstacles at 2 ⅝ miles and a 1 ½-mile training flat event.
You can download the full entries here.
The Hunt Cup is the third race (2:10 p.m post time) while the Gwathmey is the fourth (scheduled to go off at 2:45 p.m). You can watch the races via live stream at www.nationalsteeplechase.com.
And at the Grand National…
Six to contest second leg of Maryland Timber Triple
Timber racing returns to Maryland hunt country for the second Saturday in a row as six runners are expected to go to the post in the 121th running of the historic contest in Butler.
This year’s Grand National, at a distance of 3 ¼ miles over 18 fences, carries a purse of $35,000. The event is restricted to amateur riders. Gates open at noon, and the four-race, $85,000 card gets underway at 2:30 p.m. The Grand National is the first race.
Four of the runners entered in the race are among those nominated to the longest and most demanding leg of the series, the 127th Maryland Hunt Cup, which will be run at 4 miles on April 28. Armata Stables’ Our Friend, winner of the first leg last Saturday, the My Lady’s Manor, is nominated to the Hunt Cup but sitting out the Grand National.
Saturday’s Entries
Grand National Steeplechase
Middleburg Spring Races
FLASHBACK FRIDAY
Watch the The 2023 Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase won by Snap Decision
Bruton Street-US’ Snap Decision and Graham Watters after the 2022 Temple Gwathmey. ©Tod Marks
THE TEMPLE GWATHMEY STEEPLECHASE FOUNDATION
New year, New helmet: When it comes to jockey safety, it starts at the top!
Licensed steeplechase jockeys will benefit from a new program that reimburses the cost of purchasing a new helmet every year.
The Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation initiative joins an existing program that pays to replace the helmet of any licensed rider that takes a fall in a National Steeplechase Association-sanctioned race.
NSA’s Rosella Hunter says there are currently 37 licensed riders, 11 of them listed as professionals. All of them are eligible.
Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation president Kathy Neilson, herself an active amateur jockey in the 1990s and early 2000s, says that the helmet upgrade “was made possible by a grant from a generous donor, acknowledging that helmet replacement is an important foundational feature of rider health and welfare, and supporting the NSA’s comprehensive safety protocols.”
Recognizing the different preferences in brands and styles of active riders, the foundation doesn’t “give” helmets to riders; instead, riders can apply for reimbursement each year, paid back up to $500.
Impact study
A 2015 Jockeys’ Guild study underlined what most horsemen knew already – helmets involved in a fall should be replaced.
The study was conducted at Chesapeake Testing in Belcamp, Maryland, and it provided customized testing to mimic a fall on dirt or being stepped on by a horse.
The tests, standardized by ASTM International, involved a monorail drop-tower that plunged a headform onto dirt or a steel equestrian anvil that mimicked the angled edge of a horse’s hoof.
Researchers dropped the helmets to measure the peak Gs, or acceleration, read by sensors inside the helmet.
Three-dimensional scans were taken of the helmets before and after impact. Researchers noted that visual inspection wasn’t enough, as most of the helmet brands looked the same before and after impact.
But, after impact, the protective, high-density foam inside the helmet was compressed.
Even though the helmet looked great on the outside, it was compromised.
Read the Full Article
FOXFIELD RACES
Foxfield Races prepares for 45th running
and two dynamic stakes races on Saturday, April 27
Photo by Dillon Keen Photography
Charlottesville, Va. (April 17, 2024) Albemarle County’s signature Steeplechase racing event will celebrate its 45th running with the return of the Foxfield Races on Saturday, April 27 (2215 Foxfield Track, Charlottesville)
THE DANIEL VAN CLIEF MEMORIAL STAKES RACE
The long-standing Daniel Van Clief Memorial Stakes Race will bring impressive equine talent to Foxfield as they compete for the $75,000 purse. The hurdle race honors the history of one of Virginia’s most influential racing dynasties, named for the late D.G. “Danny” Van Clief, a 1970's state legislator who’s credited with beginning the process of legalizing pari-mutuel wagering in the Commonwealth.
INAUGURAL GOOD NIGHT SHIRT SPORT OF KINGS STAKE RACE SPONSORED BY BROWN ADVISORY
Foxfield will debut an additional stakes race named after consecutive Eclipse Award-winning horse, Good Night Shirt, owned by Charlottesville native Harold "Sonny" Via, Jr. A stakes race with a $50,000 purse, this is the first year for this race and it will continue to be an annual race for years to come at the Spring Races. One of the most dominant steeplechasers in American racing, Good Night Shirt left a lasting legacy on the steeplechase world and Foxfield. Learn more and check out the video here.
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