Welshman © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Saturday’s Virginia Gold Cup meet boasts the NSA’s newest Grade 1 stake, which has drawn a prospective field of 10. The Winterthur Point-to-Point on Sunday, outside of Wilmington, Del., will feature its traditional four-race card, three over timber. Though the 2024 Maryland Hunt Cup is in the history books, another major timber stake will share center stage with the inaugural running of the Grade 1 Commonwealth Cup at the Virginia Gold Cup Races in The Plains, the National Steeplechase Association’s second richest meet of the spring. The Gold Cup, first run in ..read more

Who’s Counting © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Blackhall, a maiden, takes Hunt Cup with the first Briton to capture America’s premiere timber race, while Total Joy, Who’s Counting earn first stakes wins at Foxfield.  This year’s Maryland Hunt Cup was filled with enough storylines to fill a book. The finish was one of the closest in memory with four within a length and a half of one other. Twenty-six-year-old Charlie Marshall became the first Englishman to win timber racing’s most demanding and challenging event at 4 miles over 22 imposing fences. And he did it in just his third National Steeplec ..read more

Withoutmoreado © Douglas Lees By Tod Marks This weekend promises to be a bonanza for jump racing fans with a pair of showcase National Steeplechase Association meets. In Glyndon, nine horses are expected to face the starter in the 127th Maryland Hunt Cup, America’s oldest, longest, and most challenging timber race. Meanwhile hurdlers will take center stage at Foxfield in Charlottesville, Va., where $260,000 in purses are on the line in a seven-race card highlighted by two stakes worth a combined $125,000. At four miles over 22 post-and-rail fences — some nearly five-feet tall — the Maryland Hu ..read more

Schoodic © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Saturday proved to be a banner day for two of the sport’s premier athletes, while the human side of the equation produced equally stellar heroics. At the Middleburg Spring Races in Virginia, a full house of approximately 8,000 fans witnessed Bruton Street-US’ perennial powerhouse Snap Decision begin his 10-year-old campaign with an exclamation mark in the Grade 2 $75,000 Temple Gwathmey Stakes, while Dolly Fisher’s Schoodic, last year’s timber champion, proved he hasn’t lost a step at 14 as he kicked off his quest for a second title with a victory in the $30,0 ..read more

Noah And The Ark © Tod Marks By 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 r ..read more

Teddy Davies on Our Friend (IRE) © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Our Friend notches first stakes victory at The Manor, while Go Poke the Bear scores in Tryon feature. Not only was it a big day for Armata Stable with Our Friend taking the featured $50,000 My Lady’s Manor timber stake, but there were plenty of cheers for Hyggelig Haven’s Druid’s Altar, trainer Willie Dowling and jockey Dan Nevin, who captured the first division of the Tom Voss Memorial maiden, along with Merriebelle Stables’ Wagner, a Maryland Hunt Cup hopeful for Blythe Miller and jockey Freddie Procter, who was very impressive in his ..read more

Royal Ruse © Tod Marks By Tod Marks A 10-race doubleheader is on tap for Saturday as timber specialists head to Monkton, Md., while hurdlers travel toward the mountains of Western North Carolina for the 76th Tryon Block House races in Columbus. The historic Maryland Timber Triple gets underway in Monkton, about 30 miles north of Baltimore, with the $50,000 My Lady’s Manor Stakes, the marquee event on the five-race, $130,000 card. The race, first contested in 1902, has drawn an accomplished and familiar field of five led by Charlie Fenwick’s Royal Ruse, who captured the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup to ..read more

© Tod Marks By Tod Marks Three races, three different winning combinations score at Virginia Point to Point With substantial purse money on the line, Saturday’s Old Dominion Hounds Point to Point in Washington, Va., attracted some budding maiden and veteran timber talent. And by day’s end trainers Doug Fout, Sean McDermott, and Parker Hendriks had their first winners of the young season while leading 2023 rider Graham Watters notched his initial score. McDermott and Hendriks, who also do double duty as jockeys, also had winners on the card. For McDermott it was his first of the year, while He ..read more

© Tod Marks By Tod Marks For the second straight year, National Steeplechase Association horsemen will be competing for purse money at the Washington, Va., meet on Saturday with three races worth $80,000. The trio of races have gotten a purse bump of $15,000 over 2023. The sanctioned events, which include two $30,000 maiden hurdles, one for fillies and mares, at 2 miles, and a 3-mile $20,000 allowance over timber fences, are part of a day-long program at Ben Venue Farm in Washington, Va., in the Eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The NSA races are set to go off at 1:10 p.m., 1:45 ..read more

Abaan (#1) and The Hero Next Door (#2) © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Eleven races worth $270,000 were up for grabs during the only triple header of the spring, with an estimated 40,000 fans on hand for the 89th running of the Carolina Cup Races. Only four horses went postward in the $75,000 Carolina Cup novice stakes at Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C., but the race itself was anything but ho-hum. Michael Smith’s The Hero Next Door, under Jamie Bargary, assumed the lead from the break, with Bruton Street-US’ Neotropic, Hudson River Farms’ L’Imperator, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Dai ..read more