Race Recap

©Tod Marks The competition on Saturday in The Plains was top class, as the Virginia Gold Cup began its second century with the 101st running of the second richest meet of the spring. Seven races were on tap at Great Meadow Race Course including three stakes highlighted by the season’s first Grade 1, the $150,000…

Third times’ a charm for Mr. Fine Threads Under rainy skies, Armata Stables’ Mr. Fine Threads began inching his way up at the 16th of 22 fences, moved into second at the next jump, and after a scintillating duel with Upland Partner’s late-charging Shootist, managed to pull clear late by six lengths to capture America’s…

©Tod Marks Glenwood Park hosts stars and stakes action at the Middleburg Spring Races on Saturday with an eight-race $300,000 card, anchored by the talent-laden $100,000 Temple Gwathmey stakes and $30,000 Middleburg Hunt Cup, marking the return of timber champion Keys Discount. The Grade 2 Gwathmey handicap hurdle, at 2 ½ miles, is shaping up…

©Tod Marks For the second straight year, Harvey Goolsby. Achsah O’Donovan, and Daniel Colhoun’s Bogey’s Image finished first in the $50,000 My Lady’s Manor timber stakes in Monkton, Md. But after a lengthy steward’s inquiry, Bogey’s Image — the 6 3/4-length winner — was disqualified and placed last because his jockey, Teddy Davies, weighed under…

©Tod Marks Stone Farm and Upland Flats Racing’s Swore, the National Steeplechase Association’s leading 2025 novice, proved he’s more than ready for the big boys as he romped by 6 3/4 lengths over Leamington Racing’s Chortal in the 91st running of the $75,000 Carolina Cup at Springdale Race Course in Camden on Saturday. Trained by…

©Tod Marks Tailgaters were out in force thanks to wonderful weather and an exciting six-race $150,000 card at the showcase facility off of Richland Avenue. Jockey Stephen Mulqueen, one of the top NSA riders over the past two campaigns, got off to a rousing 2026 start with a pair of victories over hurdles in the…

©Tod Marks Stone Farm and Upland Flats Racing’s Swore, who captured the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory at Aqueduct in September, proved his mettle against less-experienced foes as much the best in the Aflac Supreme novice stakes, Saturday’s feature at the Pine Mountain, Ga., course. With Stephen Mulqueen riding for trainer Keri Brion, the six-year-old son…

©Tod Marks The National Steeplechase Association has combined the Aiken Fall and Colonial Cup meets on the closing weekend of the season, a 12-race, $500,000 extravaganza in which several championships will be decided. First race post time both days is 1 p.m. There’s plenty of drama left in the 2025 NSA season as the jumpers…

©Tod Marks Cool Jet crushes field in G3 Noel Laing and becomes season’s only three-time graded stakes winner  Last weekend featured a trio of stakes races in Virginia and Pennsylvania headed by the Grade 3 $75,000 Noel Laing at Montpelier, which cast leading NSA owner Riverdee Stable in the spotlight once again.   The race also…

©Tod Marks The jumpers land in Virginia on Saturday, and Pennsylvania on Sunday as the National Steeplechase Association season steams toward the finish line in Camden, S.C., on Nov. 23. At the Montpelier Hunt Races, run on the front lawn of President James Madison’s historic home in Montpelier Station, Va., 53 horses have been entered…