It was an all-star lineup Saturday at Glenwood Park, with six of timber racing’s elite lining up for the $20,000 Middleburg Hunt Cup, widely considered a telling tightener for the Virginia Gold Cup timber classic two weeks hence.
The Hunt Cup was run as the co-feauture at the April 17 Middleburg Spring Races just north of town,
Nick Arundel’s Seeyouattheevent made up for his narrow loss in last year’s Hunt Cup to win easily, handing a two-length beating to Rainbows For Luck and Erin Go Bragh. Willi Dowling handled the winner for trainer Jack Fisher. Fisher was pleased with the way the 9-year-old managed the torrid late pace. “He’s good and ready to go in two weeks,” said Maryland-based Fisher of the targeted Gold Cup. Arundel, who lives in The Plains near the Great Meadow course he designed as permanent home for the historic Gold Cup stake. Fisher said he readily recognizes the importance of Seeyouattheevent being primed for the home course. “He’ll be ready,” he said with confidence.
Seeyouattheevent won the International Gold Cup over the same course (at 3 ½ miles) last fall. He also won there in 2007.
Over hurdles, 2008 champion claimer Slip Away handled the 2 1/2-miles in his patent winging style on the front end, handing defeat to a star-studded field of six in the $50,000 Temple Gwathmey hurdle stake, grade 3. The group included last year’s hurdle titlist Mixed Up and early-season headliner Spy In The Sky. Trainer Tom Voss unveiled his gray 7-year-old primed for his ‘10 debut.
Speed, Voss noted, is dangerous, “Especially here,” he said of Glenwood’s extra-long stretch, which stretches out a front-runner like Slip Away. “I didn’t anticipate them sticking to me so early,” said winning jockey Xavier Aizpuru of the persistent Dynantonia, who pressed the pace throughout much of the first two miles. Slip Away finally shook his pursuer last up the backside, drawing off by nearly nine by the wire.
Chess Board was second, with Dyantonia third.
Aizpuru subbed for Voss’ regular rider Ross Geraghty when Geraghty selected an unfortunate week to go home to Ireland to renew his P-1 visa: like thousands of others he was stranded when airline travel was curtailed by the Icelandic volcano.
“I hate it for Ross, but love it for me,” said Aizpuru, 2007 U.S. champ.
Slip Away won the Ferguson last summer at Colonial Downs and ended his campaign with a runaway victory in the Noel Laing at Montpelier Nov. 7.
Some of American ‘chasing’s elite have won the Gwathmey, which has been held at New York’s Belmont Park and Aqueduct and at the old Rolling Rock meet in Pennsylvania in its 86-year-history. Prior winners read like who’s who, including champions Jungle King (1937), The Mast (1952), King Commander (1954), Jeni (1955 and ‘57), Benguala (1960), Peale (1961), Barnaby’s Bluff (1962), Amber Diver (1963), Bon Nouvel (1965), Top Bid (1970), Shadow Brook (1971), Soothsayer (1972), Athenial Idol (1973), Fire Control (1976 and ‘78), Zaccio (1982), Flatterer (1983 and ‘85), Warm Spell (1993) and Lonesome Glory (1994.)
Other Glenwood winners included Kinross Farm’s Poplar Grove (Matt McCarron up) in the maiden hurdle. McCarrron also handled Oakwood Stable’s Country Cousin to win the allowance. Teddy Mulligan saddled Brands Hatch (Jeff Murphy up) to win the Alfred Hunt ‘chase, 2 5/8-miles over varied fences.
The Middleburg card closed with the return of 2009 novice champ Left Unsaid. Trained by Tom Voss for The Fields Stable, Left Unsaid cemented his championship with a dominant win in the Foxbrook last October at Far Hills. Aizpuru was up.
** Sunday’s Fairfax Hunt Point-to-Point provided a peek at two other potential Gold Cup contenders, with timber-bred Excentrikbydesign, Darren Nagle up, winning the 3 1/4-mile Bowman Bowl in textbook, jumping clinic style. The 6-year-old bay was custom-made for a steeplechase career – dam Ursula G was born at longtime steeplechase owner-breeder Sara Collette’s Pageland Farm in Casanova, daughter of Collette’s winning hurdler Melantha, also a homebred. That Melantha is also the dam of Gold Cup winner Salmo was not lost on Excentrikbydesign’s owner Irv Naylor, who owned Salmo when he won the 2007 and ‘09 Virginia Gold Cups.
“He’s just a class act,” trainer Desmond Fogarty said of the leggy gelding. “He’s been a bit slow to mature, come to hand, but I like what he did today.” Fogarty likes Excentrikbydesign’s chances at the Gold Cup’s four miles, though he allowed that since the horse has only started a half-dozen times, and won just once, this year’s Cup could be a push. “We might look at Winterthur” on May 2,” he said.
Longtime Fairfax Hunt master Randy Rouse helped organize the club’s first races, sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association, in 1958. Sunday he saddled his own One Sea to win the Guest Cup open hurdle feature. The veteran was sired by Sea Hero, Virginia-bred winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby.
Owner Gordon Keys, trainer Simon Hobson and jockey Jeff Murphy teamed up with a pair of turf winners at the Morven Park meet – homebred Whatadance in the maiden and I’m A Wahoo in the Virginia-bred.
Complete results are online at http://www.NationalSteeplechase.com and http://www.CentralEntryOffice.com.