Race Preview

©Tod Marks Many of the top horses in training head to Nashville for the stakes-studded 85th Iroquois Races, while timber and hurdle runners at various levels of competition, and apprentice riders compete for $115,000 in purses at the Willowdale Steeplechase in Kennett Square, Pa. Percy Warner Park in Nashville hosts a spectacular day of racing…

©Tod Marks Saturday’s Virginia Gold Cup Races at Great Meadow Race Course features the first of eight Grade 1 National Steeplechase Association hurdle stakes. The first weekend of May will host the 101st Virginia Gold Cup Races, the second richest event of the spring with seven races, three stakes, and $405,000 in purses. Highlighting the…

©Tod Marks Maryland and Virginia take center stage for this weekend’s National Steeplechase Association stops. In Glyndon, 10 horses are expected to face the starter for the 129th Maryland Hunt Cup, America’s oldest, longest, and most challenging timber race. Meanwhile hurdlers will be spotlighted at Foxfield in Charlottesville, where $240,000 in purses are on the…

©Tod Marks Eight races worth $190,000 are on tap for Saturday as steeplechasing makes its way to Maryland and Virginia. 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 centerpiece of the four-race, $105,000 card. The race, first contested in 1902,…

©Tod Marks The second richest program on the National Steeplechase Association fall calendar takes place on Saturday at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va., with the 88th running of the International Gold Cup Races. Highlighting the eight-race $365,000 card is the $100,000 Grade 2 William H. Allison stakes, a handicap hurdle at 2 ⅛ miles,…

©Tod Marks The key contenders, based on the morning-line odds $75,000 Harry Harris Four-Year-Old Stakes; 2 ⅛ miles Gordon Elliott has the 2-1 morning line favorite in Erdenheim Farm Thoroughbreds’ Chortal, who will be ridden by Jack Kennedy. The son of Golden Horn exits an allowance win over hurdles at Perth in England as the…

Three stakes – two over timber and a $50,000 hurdle event for three-year-old jumpers – highlight this Saturday’s National Steeplechase Association doubleheader in New York and Virginia – the one and only time two meets will share the same date on the fall calendar. At the Genesee Valley Hunt Races in Geneseo, N.Y., the only…

©Tod Marks The stage is set for American steeplechasing’s richest showcase day. The 104th Far Hills Races in Somerset County, N.J., will feature a star-studded, six-race, all stakes lineup and $795,000 in prize money.  Post time is 12:50 p.m. This year’s Far Hills Races will feature many of the best American jumpers, as well as…

This is a light week for jump racing, with only a single contest on tap, a $70,000 allowance for non-winners of two, at Saratoga on Wednesday. A field of eight is expected to face the starter, with Bruton Street-US’ St. John’s (pictured), a winner on the flat and over fences, the morning line 2-1 favorite…

Molly Willis and Paul Willis’ Grade 1-winner Carloun will look to notch his second victory at that level in Wednesday’s $150,000 Beverly R. Steinman, a 2 3/8-mile steeplechase test for older horses, on Opening Day of the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course. The Steinman is slated as the first race on…