After winning three consecutive Amateur/Novice Hurdle Races and placing second in four starts, Annie Yeager and Mischief wind up in the turf at Old Dominion.The Amateur/Novice Hurdle team of Annie Yeager and her brilliant gray horse Mischief experienced a frightening moment at the Old Dominion Point-to-Point on Saturday, April 7, 2012 at Ben Venue Farm in Flint Hill, Virginia. With three consecutive wins and a second place finish in four starts in the division, Mischief went down with Yeager, who was airlifted from the course.
The good news is that the horse is fine, and Yeager was released from the hospital the following day with a concussion and a broken collar bone. Those who witnessed the fall close up, including this reporter, expected a far worse outcome, and that expectation clouded the rest of the day’s racing.
Eva Smithwick-trained Fogcutter (Woods Winants) was declared the winner of the race after Michael Harris on Mariah’s Promise was disqualified for interference.
The turf was hard, and there were many more scratches after Yeager’s fall. Those horses that raced were settled into conservative paces by their jockeys for the early turns around the course.
What a Warrior (Carl Rafter) owned by Tom Hulfish III easily wins the Open Timber Race.The next race, Lady Rider Timber, was won in a walkover by Swimming River (Mary Motion) also trained by Smithwick. Smithwick was the leading trainer of the day, garnering her third win in the Open Timber race with What a Warrior. Jockey Carl Rafter took his horse to the front, led most of the way, and crossed the wire by a wide margin over second place finisher Sand Box Rules (Chris Read).
The owner riders over timber provided a thrilling finish with Steve Green’s Forever Gleaming edging out Ben Swope’s Incaseyouraminer by three-quarters of a length in a hard-fought stretch duel.
Another exciting duel down the stretch produced a dead heat when the placing judges couldn’t separate Forest Bell and Wahoo at the wire in the Virginia Bred/Sired Flat Race. Simon Hobson’s Forest Bell with Eilidh Grant in the irons already had two wins—Warrenton and Blue Ridge—under its girth, but has to share this one with Wahoo, ridden by Chris Read and trained by Neil Morris.
Posted April 16, 2012
Wahoo (Chris Read) and Forest Bell (Eilidh Grant) race to a dead heat in the
Virginia Bred/Sired Flat Race.