Stage set for steeplechasing’s “Grand” day

By National Steeplechase Association | October 17, 2024

Large Crowd at Far Hills 2023 © Tod Marks

American steeplechase racing’s crowning day features a six-race, all-stakes lineup and $720,000 in prize money. The races will be broadcast nationally on America’s Day at the Races on Fox Sports. First race post time is 12:50 p.m.

They don’t call the Far Hills Races steeplechasing’s championship day for nothing, and this Saturday year-end honors are on the line at Moorland Farm in the bucolic borough in Somerset County, N.J.

The Grade 1 $250,000 American Grand National at 2 ⅝ miles, centerpiece of Saturday’s event and the fifth race on the program, has drawn a field of nine, and most of the best horses in training in the various divisions are expected to see action.

Unlike all but one of the other Grade 1s that have been contested this year, the Grand National is not a handicap; it will be run at level weights. All starters carry 156 pounds. Moreover, three of the entries – Bruton Street-US’ Snap Decision, Madaket Stables and Paul and Molly Willis’ Jimmy P, and Hudson River Farms’ L’Imperator – have the opportunity to become two-time 2024 Grade 1 winners, which would give them a leg up in the race for championship honors since all six G1s to date have been captured by different horses.

Snap Decision has two stakes victories this season, the Iroquois in Nashville (the other G1 run at equal weights), and the G2 Temple Gwathmey at Middleburg. L’Imperator took the inaugural Beverly Steinman at Aqueduct in June, but was no factor in the A.P. Smithwick at Saratoga, then rebounded to finish a close second to Freddy Flintshire in the Lonesome Glory at Aqueduct last month. Jimmy P was sixth in the Iroquois and fourth in the Steinman prior to his breakout 34-length score in the Jonathan Sheppard at Saratoga, a race in which no previous G1 winner was part of the field.

This year the Grand National, though arguably the most important event on the calendar, isn’t the final G1 of the season. There are two more to go: the inaugural Will Allison at the International Gold Cup Races in Virginia on Oct. 27 and the resurrected Colonial Cup in South Carolina on Nov. 17.

This year’s Grand National has also attracted the 2023 Eclipse Award winner, Hurricana Farm’s Merry Maker, who has been on the sidelines since finishing third in the race a year ago. Keystone Thoroughbreds’ Noah and the Ark, the 2023 Grand National winner at 18-1, is in the field, too, following two starts this season, finishing second in the G2 Temple Gwathmey in April and fifth in the Iroquois, both to Snap Decision, who has amassed $959,400 in NSA career earnings, fourth on the all-time list. Despite his towering presence and 13 stakes wins over the past six seasons, Snap Decision has never won the Grand National. His best finish was a second in three tries.

C and C Boultbee Brooks’ Sebastopol, an eight-time winner in the UK for trainer Tom Lacy, comes into the Grand National in top form, having upset Snap Decision, his Jack Fisher-trained stablemate, two weeks ago in the G3 Tejada Memorial at Foxfield. But he was getting a 12-pound break in the weights that day. Before the Tejada, Snap Decision had defeated Sebastopol twice. However, his race in the Iroquois was solid, beaten less than three lengths by the winner.

A question mark is Leipers Fork Steeplechasers’ High Definition. An accomplished G1 placed European flat runner, formerly trained by Aiden and later Joseph O’Brien, High Definition made the transition to NSA jump racing at the allowance level with a victory at Middleburg Spring. The six-year-old son of Galileo rallied from fifth to first, defeating stablemate Rampoldi Plan, who went on to take the G1 Commonwealth Cup at the Virginia Gold Cup Races. In his next outing, High Definition, who also earned a maiden victory over jumps at Leopardstown before coming stateside, was second to the talented Abaan in the Green Pastures novice stakes at the Iroquois Races in Nashville in May.

Europe will be represented by top Irish conditioner Gordon Elliott, who landed the 2018 Grand National with Jury Duty. Elliott saddles R.A. Bartlett’s Galvin, a formidable invader who has won 13 races and more than a half-million dollars. Galvin was most recently fourth (of 32) – beaten less than nine lengths – in the grueling four-mile English Grand National at Aintree in April, the world’s most famous jump race.

Galvin has raced 30 times in the UK and Ireland, and is a 2021 Cheltenham Festival winner. Like Snap Decision, Sebastopol, and Noah and the Ark, Galvin is 10, and he gets the services of top Irish jockey Jack Kennedy, a 12-time Cheltenham Festival winner. Like Elliott, Kennedy is no stranger to American jump racing; in three previous trips to Far Hills, he’s won five stakes, but not the Grand National.

If Galvin triumphs in the Grand National, he would become the third Irish-trained horse to do so in the past six runnings – Brain Power and Hewick being the other two.

The longest shot in the field, Straylight Racing’s Frontline Citizen, is aiming high in his first stakes appearance. He has two wins in 11 NSA starts, most recently a narrow score in a non-winners of one other than a maiden, claiming, handicap of 115 or less, or race restricted to three-year-olds.

The rest of the card contains powerhouse fields as well. Click here for full entries: https://nationalsteeplechase.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Final-Overnight-for-Far-Hills.pdf

Here’s the race schedule:

1st race: 12:50 p.m. $50,000 Harry E. Harris Sport of Kings at 2 ⅛ miles for 4-year-olds.

2nd race: 1:32 p.m. $70,000 McDynamo maiden hurdle stakes at 2 ⅛ miles for 4-year-olds and up.

3rd race: 2:11 p.m. $100,000 Peapack Sport of Kings filly & mare handicap hurdle stakes at 2 ⅛ miles for 4-year-olds and up.

4th race: 2:57 p.m. $100,000 Foxbrook Champion novice hurdle stakes at 2 ½ miles for 4-year-olds and up.

5th race: 3:42 p.m. $250,000 Grand National Sport of Kings hurdle stakes (Grade 1) at 2 ⅝ miles for 4-year-olds and up.

6th race: 4:32 p.m. $150,000 John Forbes Memorial flat stakes at 2 miles on the turf for 4-year-olds and up.

How to watch

The Grand National will be broadcast live on America’s Day at the Races, produced by the New York Racing Association in partnership with Fox Sports. Coverage begins at noon and continues through 6 p.m. on FS2. Or on the NYRA Youtube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@thenyra/streams

As always, you can watch Saturday’s races via live stream from the link on the NSA homepage, www.nationalsteeplechase.com.

How to wager

Wagering on this year’s Far Hills Races will be available only via a smart phone app through 4NJBets, Powered by TVG, or Monmouth Bets. To sign up, deposit, and wager, click on one of the following options:

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