Hunt Cup, Foxfield make for a super Saturday 

©Tod Marks

Maryland and Virginia take center stage for this weekend’s National Steeplechase Association stops. In Glyndon, nine horses are expected to face the starter for the 128th 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 line in a six-race card highlighted by two stakes.

At four miles over 22 post-and-rail fences — some nearly five-feet tall — the Maryland Hunt Cup – the third and final leg of the Maryland Timber Triple series over a three-week span – is a unique test of jumping skill and stamina. In keeping with tradition, the $100,000 race is restricted to amateur riders. Neither winner of the first two legs of the series, the My Lady’s Manor and Grand National, will run in the Hunt Cup. But two previous winners, including the defending champion, are in the field.

Last year, Kinross Corp.’s Blackhall won by a neck in a four-horse race to the wire where only a length and a half separated the quartet. His jockey, Charlie Marshall, was the first Englishman to win timber racing’s most famous event, and he returns to go for two in a row. Last year’s win gave Joe Davies his seventh Hunt Cup tally as a conditioner to go along with three as a rider. And once again, Davies is loaded for bear, with three starters. Besides Blackhall, who tuned up for the big dance with a leg stretcher at the Grand National races last weekend, Davies saddles his Kinross stablemate Great Road, an allowance winner who will be ridden by Joe’s Hunt Cup-winning son, Teddy, and Armata Stables’ Mr. Fine Threads, who enters the Hunt Cup off a victory in an allowance race at the My Lady’s Manor’s races earlier this month. Another accomplished English amateur rider, Will Biddock, crosses the Atlantic for the mount.

Irv Naylor’s Withoutmoreado, trained by Kathy Neilson, captured the 2023 Hunt Cup by 11 lengths – a contest in which he defeated Blackhall – but exited the event at fence nine last year. Freddie Procter rides.

Jockey Conor Tierney, who rode Withoutmoreado to victory in 2023, has the mount on Daniel Baker’s Road to Oz, trained by another Hunt Cup winning rider, Mark Beecher. Like Joe Davies, Beecher saddles two additional runners, Lucy Goelet’s Rocket Star Red (Brett Owings), who has a second and third in four previous Hunt Cups, and Armata Stables’ Goodoldtimes, who has two thirds, including a narrow miss after rebounding from a poor jump at fence 13 last year. Dan Nevin, who piloted Vintage Vinnie to his first of two Hunt Cup scores in 2021, rides.

Tuscany Racing’s Monbeg Stream returned from a layoff of nearly a year and a half to finish second, narrowly beaten by Mr. Fine Threads, in a high-level allowance race at the Manor Races in April.Trained by Leslie Young, Monbeg Stream is a two time stakes winner (Grand National and Genesee Valley Hunt Cup) and makes his first start in the Maryland Hunt Cup. Jordan Canavan rides.

Riverdee Stable’s Queens Empire, winner of last season’s Brown Advisory stakes at Shawan Downs, is another first-time Hunt Cup starter. The Jack Fisher-trainee was third in last Saturday’s Grand National.

Gates open at 11 a.m. Post Time is 4 p.m. For full entries, including owners, trainers, and riders, click here.

At Foxfield

Anchoring the meet is the $75,000 Daniel Van Clief Memorial Sport of Kings novice stakes at 2 ⅛ miles, the distance of all hurdle races over the course. Foxfield will also host the second running of the $50,000 Good Night Shirt Sport of Kings Handicap Hurdle for horses rated at 130 or less. The race is named for Virginia horseman Sonny Via’s Hall of Fame star, who won six straight Grade 1 stakes among his 13 NSA triumphs. Via passed away last month at age 94.

The rest of the card features four hurdles races – a $30,000 optional claiming allowance hurdle; $30,000 maiden special weights contest; a $35,000 handicap for horses rated at 115 or less; and a $20,000 maiden claiming hurdle.

Gates open at 9 AM and post time is 12:30 PM. Post time is 12:30 p.m. For full entries, click here.

If you can’t make it to the races, you can watch the live stream via the NSA web site, www.nationalsteeplechase.com.