Mark Beecher riding Professor Maxwell, winners of the 2013 Maryland Hunt Cup / Noel Mullins photo
It’s always fascinating to talk with somebody successful in one equestrian discipline, challenges himself in another, changes continents, and proves immensely successful again. Now Mark Beecher has decided to step back from competitive riding and take up training.
I talked with Mark at his present home in Maryland in the USA. He is from a hunting and showjumping background. I was aware of some of his successes in the States, having seen him race riding, but I didn’t realise the enormity of what he has achieved in just eight years as a jockey in the USA. Surely, hunting and show jumping have contributed to that success.
Mark Beecher hoists the winning jockey’s trophy with his “good” arm in the company of his wife, Rebecca, and his father and mother, Tim and Marian. He rode the course with arm and shoulder injuries from a two-week prior fall and several of the fences without stirrups after being bumped. / Noel Mullins photo
Career Highlights in the USA
Mark is a modest man and a popular and respected figure in the American horse world. He has won every major jump race worth winning in the USA, including the Maryland Hunt Cup twice―one of the three great steeplechases in the world, together with the Aintree Grand National and the Velka Pardubice. In his last successful Maryland Hunt Cup―the stiffest timber race of all―he rode for five fences without irons over timber fences that cannot be brushed through while nursing a broken collar bone and fractured shoulder! Mark has also won three International Gold Cups, two Virginia Gold Cups, and one My Lady’s Manor. He was National Steeplechase Association (NSA) Leading Amateur Rider twice and swept the Maryland Steeplechase Association honours, winning the Leading Timber Rider and Leading Amateur Riders Awards.
The Beecher Family and Hunting
Mark Beecher grew up on the family’s Loughnatousa Farm in County Waterford in southern Ireland surrounded by over a hundred horses and ponies. His father Tim even trained winners on the track in Australia before coming home with his wife Marian to produce showjumpers, eventers, point-to-pointers, and hunters. They reared a family of talented riders who excelled at all levels of the sport. Mark’s brother Paul won the prestigious Hickstead Derby. It was a competitive environment from the start with brothers Paul and Tadgh and sisters Diane and Fiona (who is married to British international showjumper Joe Whitaker). Mark recalled, ‘If you were not performing on a particular horse you could be jocked off by one of your siblings!’
Tim and his son Paul are Joint-Masters of the West Waterford Foxhounds. Tim recalled loading the truck every Saturday morning with ponies and horses and the whole family going hunting during those great days when Elsie Morgan was hunting the pack and her husband Tom was Field Master. The highly respected U.S. Master and huntsman Ben Hardaway was also part of the Mastership.
What did hunting impart to Tim’s talented family from a young age? We asked him.
“Well, how lucky we are to have natural country to cross, as they learned to survive, communicate with their animals, put their leg on at a crucial time, and develop confidence,” Tim said. His son Tadgh added that you learned not to make the same mistake twice, not be afraid of a fall, and more importantly how to fall, hopefully safely! All the family’s young horses are hunted as part of their education, as well.
Showjumping Career
Mark Beecher was trained by Tim and European and World Eventing medal winner Rachel Bayliss. Mark made his presence felt from a young age in his first major showjumping competition as a nine-year-old by winning the Millstreet 128 CMS Derby, an event that had national television coverage. He won on his pony Loughnatousa Jack, just as his brother Paul had done the previous year on his pony, The Kerryman. Mark followed that with an illustrious junior showjumping career, competing at home and abroad and winning European Showjumping Championship medals in Spain and Sweden on Loughnatousa Gold Touch and Lougnatousa Andy.
Mark was a tough competitor in the showjumping ring and continued competing successfully. But at twenty-five years of age, he decided that he would take a break from showjumping. Why? He found it discouraging when, as soon as he had made a nice horse, it had to be sold. After all, the farm was a breeding and production operation.
Working with Thoroughbreds
Mark answered a call from family friend Alfie Buller of Scarva House Stud in County Down who is well known in eventing circles, as was his father Bill, an Olympian. Alfie’s wife Vina was an international showjumper. Alfie had thirty young Thoroughbreds to break and Mark obliged. It was not long before he was asked to ride in point-to-points, winning fifteen races in a short span and also a winner on the racetrack. Mark’s racing career was launched.
Race Riding in the USA
Mark then received an invitation in April 2010 from George Mahoney of Rosbrien Farms in Maryland to ride Rendered in his first race in the USA at the Loudoun Hunt Point-to-Point. It was a winning debut. Mark had planned on be in America for two weeks and ride in a few races, but he liked what he saw. He returned home, applied for his visa, and has been in the USA since.
From that point, there was no stopping him. His career as a jockey took off, proving that although over six feet tall, his talents as a showjumper were ideally suited to racing horses over the solid timber fences. What is more, he relished the responsibility of the big occasion.
In his first year, he rode twenty-seven winners, five seconds, and six thirds. Mark has had a commendable career strike rate from total starts of twenty-two percent firsts, twenty-two percent seconds, and eleven percent thirds. He won five National Steeplechase titles and twelve Maryland Steeplechase titles.
In 2010 Mark had his first run over the famous Maryland Hunt Cup on Sportsman Hall’s Private Attack. He came in second, which prepped the horse to win the following year with Blythe Millar Davies up.
2011 saw him winning the International Gold Cup in Virginia on Incomplete for Robert Kinsley, a race that attracts up to 60,000 spectators, and the same year he earned the titles of Leading Apprentice Rider and High Weight Timber Rider.
The following year 2012 Mark rode in sixty-eight races, and it was the start of his great partnership with Michael Wharton’s Grinding Speed. Of six races, the pair won three races and placed second twice, including the International Gold Cup Timber Stakes. He was Leading Apprentice Rider again for the second time, and Maryland Steeplechase Association’s Leading Timber Rider, Overall Leading Rider, and Leading Amateur rider.
2013 was a momentous year for Mark, linking up with Professor Maxwell. He placed second at Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds Point-to-Point and then onto the 117th running of the famous Maryland Hunt Cup, the most challenging timber race in the US: over four miles and twenty-two vertical solid timber fences, some nearly five feet high, with no take-off line. Mark went into the race with a broken collar bone and a fractured shoulder suffered just two weeks earlier. He started well but mid-way he got bumped and lost both stirrups taking the next five fences without irons. Fortunately, I was taking photos at the daunting thirteenth fence to witness this remarkable feat of horsemanship, and the large crowd gasped in disbelief at how Mark remained so balanced leading the field. He finished the job by being first across the line. It is still talked about when Mark’s name crops up. But what part did hunting and showjumping play in his survival? Well, over to Mark.
“We rode a lot bareback, and even showjumping without stirrups when I was young. And then, hunting teaches you survival and balance. It may not look the prettiest at times, but it works.”
Mark swept the Maryland rider titles again in 2014 and 2015. He was National Steeplechase Association Leading Rider Amateur Rider in 2015 and 2017. 2015 was the year he also won the Maryland Hunt Cup for the second time on Raven’s Choice, a horse he had won on in the previous year’s Grand National. He nearly fell at the twelfth fence, but again showed his skills as a horseman and managing to somehow collect the horse and keep him on his feet.
The only big jumps race that eluded Mark was the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. So thinking about retirement from the saddle he prepared to add this elusive trophy to his cabinet. The race is held on Michael and Ann (Kelly) Moran’s farm. Ann, a former Joint -Master of the Cheshire Foxhounds is from Bective in County Meath and has won the race herself twice. Her mother-in-law was Betty Moran, owner of Aintree Grand National winner Papillon in 2000, trained by Ted Walsh and ridden by his son Ruby. So in November 2018, Mark closed the book on his riding career as one of the most successful jumps jockeys in America by winning the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup on the Todd Wyatt-trained Biedermeier.
The Respect of His Peers
Recently I asked US Olympic eventing rider Boyd Martin how he rated Mark as a horseman. Here’s Boyd.
“Mark and I started riding together when we were in Aiken in the winter, where he was race riding and I was campaigning my eventers. He came cross country schooling with me, giving me advice on galloping fences out of stride, conserving horse’s energy, and making them more efficient on the cross country phase. He also gave me a good understanding of being in the most efficient galloping position. It’s awesome bouncing ideas off him on horse’s fitness and techniques on making my event horses quicker. He is a wonderful horseman, a brilliant rider, and a great trainer, and has a fantastic open mind to improving himself at his own game.”
When Boyd invited Mark to a George Morris Clinic at his and his wife Silva’s Windurra Farm with fellow Olympians Phillip Dutton and Matt Brown, veteran coach and former US showjumping Chef d‘Equipe Morris remarked when he saw Mark on horseback, “Just look at that position.”
Michael Wharton, owner of Grinding Speed, the three-time winner of the International Gold Cup ridden by Mark, said, “Mark Beecher is the finest rider of his generation, and we are lucky to have the gift of his talents here in the USA.”
Cheshire huntsman Ivan Dowling, trainer of Where’s the Beef, winner of the New Jersey Hunt Cup with Mark Beecher in the irons, made an interesting observation. “The description of horseman is thrown about quite a bit, but there is no doubt that Mark is the standard, as he has proven successful in every equestrian discipline that he has chosen to participate in,” said Dowling.
Hunting and Racehorse Training
I asked Mark why he retired from race riding and got a straight and convincing answer.
“I won all the big races in America over a period of eight years, and some more than once,” he said, “so now I would like to win all those races again, but this time as a trainer.”
Not forgetting his roots, Mark and his wife Rebecca have named their stable Port Lairge Stables and have started investing in their present string. They are buying good horses, and many of their patrons are owners who Mark rode for on the track.
Mark’s first winner as a trainer was My Afleet. The ten-year-old grey gelding will convert to racing over timber fences, but he already has career earnings of $380,000.
Another of his stars is the French-bred Invocation, previously trained by Alan King in the UK. Invocation has won three races already, including a race on International Gold Cup Day with Sean McDermott up.
Other horses in training are Rocket Star Red that will be aimed at the American Grand National, and if that goes well he will go on to the Maryland Hunt Cup. Cracker Factory, winner of four races over hurdles in the UK will be aimed at the bigger hurdle races. He finished third in his first run in the US. A real success story that illustrates the Beecher judgment in buying horses is Tommy Shelby by Super Ninety Nine. Tommy Shelby is their main runner on the flat, trained by Rebecca’s father Henry Walters at Pimlico. He was purchased by Rebecca for only $2,000 and has already won $156,000!
Mark and Rebecca hunt their racehorses, maintain that they enjoy mixing with other horses. It educates them, brings them forward, and teaches them to be brave. Their local pack is the Elkridge-Harford Hunt in Maryland, one of the premier packs in the country. Like steeplechasing in Ireland, the origins of the Maryland Hunt Cup race were in the hunting field, when in 1894 members of the Elkridge challenged the members of the local Green Spring Valley Hunt to a race over four miles of natural hunt country. The race was confined to amateurs, with no commercial activities allowed, and to this day a long list of hunting and racing patrons sponsor the race. It is the race that all jumps racing owners, trainers, and jockeys want to win. Many horsemen from the USA and Europe have tried, but it takes a special horse to win. The Beechers also hunt with the Green Spring Valley Hounds (MD), as one of their patrons is former Joint-Master George Mahoney (who was also at one time a Master of the United Hunt in Cork).
Dealing in Sport Horses and Thoroughbreds
Mark’s ambitions in dealing in horses are linked to the family Loughnatousa Farm that produces top-class showjumpers, eventers, hunters, and Thoroughbreds that they have been supplying clients in America for some years. Mark and Rebecca, based as they are in the heart of racing, eventing, and hunting country, can match clients with the most suitable horses. He also caters to hunt followers who ride Thoroughbreds, as he can select off-the-track horses with the right temperament for retraining as field hunters.
Coaching
Because Mark is recognised as such a stylish rider in many disciplines, he is in demand for coaching. His clinics, held in different parts of the US, are well attended. He has a very easy style with students, and he tailors his sessions according to experience level. Students benefit from his wide-ranging reservoir of knowledge across so many disciplines.
The Future
Life in America has been good to Mark Beecher. He has worked hard for his successes on the race track and now has moved seamlessly into training. He will admit that success also equates to having met his wife Rebecca and, in 2020, the birth of their daughter, Aine. Here’s to every success in the future for a thoughtful, hard-working, and skilled horseman.
Posted June 7, 2021
Noel Mullins is a photojournalist, lifelong foxhunter, and author of The Dublin Horse Show, The Irish Hunter, In Search of the Kerry Beagle, and other books on Irish horse sport. Visit him on the web.