Featuring the photos of Douglas Lees
Fall Colors (Amber Hodyka up) and Slaney Rock (Erin Swope up) neck and neck in the Amateur/Novice Rider Hurdle Race.
Point-to-Point Racing in Virginia finally got its start on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at Airlie Racecourse with the Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point. (The Blue Ridge Races, scheduled for the previous Saturday, were postponed because of weather until Sunday, April 23.)
Of the ten races carded, nine went into the books, entries being on the light side. The trainer/rider team of Neil Morris and Kieran Norris—last season’s leading trainer and rider respectively in Virginia—were certainly consistent. No appearances in the winners circle, but placing second three times: Open Hurdle, Maiden Hurdle, and Virginia Bred/Sired Flat Race.
In the Open Hurdle, Pac Yer Tack with Gerard Galligan aboard took the lead from Morris’s/Norris’s pace-setting Cognashene with four fences remaining and comfortably won by three lengths.
In the first division of the Maiden Hurdle, Quarla with Ross Geraghty in the irons stalked Morris’s/Norris’s pace-setting Balistes, moved up at the last fence, and proved best at the wire by a half-length.
Officer’s Oath (Liam McVicar up for trainer Jimmy Day) takes advantage of Life Fortune’s mistake to win the Virginia Bred/Sired Flat Race ahead of Akubra (Kieran Norris up).
Finally, in the $2,000 Virginia Bred/Sired Flat Race, the leader, Life’s Fortune, went off course giving Jimmy Day-trained Officer’s Oath ridden by Liam Vicar the win over Morris’s/Norris’s Akubra. That was owner Bruce Smart’s and trainer Jimmy Day’s second win of the day, their first coming in the Amateur/Novice Rider Hurdle, with Amber Hodyka guiding Fall Colors to the wire. Fall colors was bred by Mr. and Mrs. Smart. In that race, as in their previous win, the owner/trainer team of Smart and Day were the beneficiaries of a disqualification. Erin Swope, rider, owner, and trainer of her Irish-bred Slaney Rock led through the two-horse race but was disqualified for carrying insufficient weight.
Jeff Murphy pilots Jesse O wire-to-wire for the win over a 7-horse field in the Maiden Hurdle.
In the second division of the Maiden Hurdle, Jeff Murphy brought Jesse O to the lead at the drop of the flag and went to the wire unchallenged for trainer Jazz Napravnik.
2013 Maryland Hunt Cup winner Mark Beecher chalks up a win in the Open Timber Race on Le Chevalier.
The three timber races drew the fewest entries. Mark Beecher, who won the Maryland Hunt Cup on Professor Maxwell in 2013, booted home the winners of both timber races for which he was qualified. In the Open Timber, he remained patient with Le Chevalier trailing pace-setter Adios Diablo, took over the lead with a half mile to run in the three-horse field, and the Julie Gomena-trained gray gelding drew away to a ten-length lead at the finish. Riding Boogie Biz in the Novice Timber, which Beecher also trains, he won easily over Irvin Naylor’s novice horse, Aquies, under Gerard Galligan.
Click for complete results of the day’s racing.
Posted March 27, 2017
Zoe Valvo owns, trains, and rides Addones Last Hurrah to victory in the Amateur and Novice Rider Timber Race.