Warrenton Hunt opened the Virginia Point-to-Point Season on the first hospitable Saturday in the month of March this year. It was a spring-like day everywhere except at the Airlie Racecourse, where it snowed!
It was St. Patrick’s Day, and a good day for the Irish at that, with trainer Jimmy Day winning one Hurdle and two Flat races and two Irish horses winning the Open Timber and the Foxhunter Timber Races.
The March 17 nine-race card started with the Open Hurdle Race. Five horses lined up for the start with last year’s Leading Hurdle Horse in Virginia, Orchestra Leader, jumping out to an early lead. Daneking established a close second and held it as the horses went out of sight briefly. When they came back into view, however, Daneking had the lead and held it to the wire despite a closing Orchestra Leader. Ross Geraghty rode the Ricky Hendriks-trained winner for owner Rosbrian Farm.
In the second race, Maiden Hurdle, trainer Jimmy Day saddled the first of his three winners for the day. Foxhall Drive, owned by Cristina Mosby and ridden by Liam McVicar, won authoritatively over an eight-horse field. Day went on to win two flat races, both winning flat horses owned by Bruce Smart.
Trainer Julie Gomena brought Balance the Budget back for a warmup race in the Open Flat, the first of the three flat races. Jockey Mark Watts held the chestnut gelding withing striking distance, allowed him to take the lead in the final quarter-mile, and crossed the finish a half-length ahead. Owned by Stoneleigh Stables in Aldie, Balance the Budget was the Maiden Hurdle winner at Warrenton just a few years ago.
He’s One Wild Dude and jockey Bruce Cullinane held off challenger Jump Through It by a half length in the Novice Rider Flat Race, and Officer’s Oath, Liam McVicar aboard, won the Virginia Bred or Sired Flat Race. Officer’s Oath took control of the race from the start and held off second-place Eryx in the stretch run. This was a repeat win for Officer’s Oath in the same race at Warrenton last year.
The Viola Winmill Sidesaddle Race Cup was the third race of the day, drawing a field of seven ladies. It ended as a two-horse stretch battle between Maureen Britell’s Tango, ridden by Teresa Croce, and King of Hearts with Devon Zebrovius. Tango was the winner by a nose.
A field of five went to the paddock for the Novice Timber Race. Albus was the decisive winner, going away at the wire for trainer Doug Fout with Virginia’s 2017 Leading Rider Kieran Norris aboard.
Chris Gracie, who recently morphed his career as a winning jump jockey into a successful bloodstock business, was back in the irons and winning the Open Timber Race on Vintage Vinnie. The Irish-bred nine-year-old went to the front of the three-horse field and just kept widening his lead, crossing the wire twenty-five lengths ahead of Mark Beecher’s Ray de Light. Vintage Vinnie is trained by Joseph Davies and owned by Armata Stables, the Maryland racing operation of Perry Bolton and Ben Griswold IV.
As a jockey, Gracie has won the Maryland Hunt Cup twice (Bug River in 2006 and Swayo in 2003) and the 2004 Grand National Timber Stakes on Make Me a Champ. His day job, Gracie Bloodstock LLC, foals about twenty-five to thirty mares a year, selling primarily at the Fasig-Tipton Timonium yearling sale and the December mixed sale at Timonium.
The last two races, Amateur and Novice Rider Timber (with just one entry, Air Maggy) and the Foxhunter Timber were combined to make a four-horse field. Air Maggy lost her rider, and the Irish horse, Pied Du Roi, took the lead after the last fence and won going away for trainer William Santoro, owner Starlight Racing, and jockey Alex Leventhal.
Posted March 22, 2018