Why We Cover the Hunt Races
My answer to the question is threefold: first, the very notion of the point-to-point race originated with foxhunters; second, many of our great field hunters have come from the ranks of the timber horses, and conversely many of the best steeplechase horses have their start in the hunting field; and third, most of the steeplechase jockeys are foxhunters as well.
As Catherine Austen reminds us in Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder, “Hunt racing has its roots firmly lodged in the hunting field. Point-to-pointing started when two hunting men, Edmund Blake and Cornelius O’Callaghan, challenged each other to a race in 1752 for four-and-a-half miles across country from Buttevant Church to Donraile Church in County Cork. They jumped everything in their path, and by keeping the steeple of Donraile Church in sight (steeple-chasing), the two men kept to the planned route along the banks of the Awbeg River. The same line can still be taken while hunting with the Duhallow Foxhounds now.
“Amateur jump racing evolved from there….”
Why We Cover the Hunt Races
My answer to the question is threefold: first, the very notion of the point-to-point race originated with foxhunters; second, many of our great field hunters have come from the ranks of the timber horses, and conversely many of the best steeplechase horses have their start in the hunting field; and third, most of the steeplechase jockeys are foxhunters as well.
As Catherine Austen reminds us in Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder, “Hunt racing has its roots firmly lodged in the hunting field. Point-to-pointing started when two hunting men, Edmund Blake and Cornelius O’Callaghan, challenged each other to a race in 1752 for four-and-a-half miles across country from Buttevant Church to Donraile Church in County Cork. They jumped everything in their path, and by keeping the steeple of Donraile Church in sight (steeple-chasing), the two men kept to the planned route along the banks of the Awbeg River. The same line can still be taken while hunting with the Duhallow Foxhounds now.
“Amateur jump racing evolved from there….”
Why We Cover the Hunt Races
The first point-to-point race of the 2022 season is scheduled in Virginia for March 5 (rain date, March 12). The eighth and final hunt point-to-point of the season will be run on May 1. Foxhunting Life reports on most of these jump races as the season progresses. Some readers across North America might wonder why.
My answer is threefold: first, the very notion of a steeplechase race originated with foxhunters; second, many of our great field hunters have come from the ranks of the timber horses and conversely, many of the best steeplechase horses have their start in the hunting field; and third, most of the steeplechase jockeys are foxhunters as well.
Wise Dan in Rarified Company after Second Horse of the Year Title
Not since 1971—the introduction of the modern system of Eclipse Award voting—has a horse won three categories of awards—Horse of the Year, Older Male, and Male Turf Horse—two years in a row. Wise Dan did so by winning six of his seven starts on turf, carrying high weight in five races, and winning four Grade […]
Troubled Illinoios Racing Industry Gets Windfall
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan paved the way for a $141 million windfall to Illinois race tracks and horse owners when she denied the request of the state’s casino companies to continue holding the funds in escrow. The funds, earmarked for the racing industry pursuant to a 2006 law, had been collecting in the […]
Why This Foxhunter Cares About Horseracing
Karen L. Myers photo
Over the past couple of months we have run a few News items about the Triple Crown season, kicked off just last Saturday by the Kentucky Derby. We wrote about Uncle Mo, who many in the Thoroughbred industry hoped would be a legitimate Triple Crown contender and breathe new life into the industry. We wrote about Rosie Napravnik who with nearly one thousand wins to her credit hoped to be the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby. True, this isn’t foxhunting, and the question arises whether or not I should be publishing these stories in Foxhunting Life. Why do I?
My answer is because that’s where our great horses come from. The Thoroughbred is the elite athlete of the equine world, and many of our field hunters are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, Thoroughbred crosses, or have Thoroughbred bloodlines in their foundation stock.
If when you take to the field you care at all about grace, generosity, and/or athleticism, you have to thank those bloodlines and those beautiful dreamers—the breeders, trainers, owners, and jocks—who commit their lives, their fortunes, and all their energies to the mostly unforgiving quest of producing a better racehorse. And except for one happy outcome last Saturday, weren’t the hopes of many of those beautiful dreamers cruelly dashed?
Will Rosie Napravnik Make History at the Kentucky Derby?
Rosie Napravnik is a goal-oriented girl. After her first pony race at the age of seven, she decided she wanted to be a jockey. Done. Check. At the age of sixteen, she decided she wanted to be the first girl to win the Triple Crown. Pending. Now at the age of twenty-three, her first opportunity […]
Stubbs Painting Could Fetch $33 Million at Auction
You have until July 5 to save up if you want to bid on Christie’s offering of a George Stubbs portrait of Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath with trainer, stable lad, and jockey. The large painting, which measures more than six feet by three feet, is described by Christie’s senior director John Stainton as “one of […]
Excitement Builds for Triple Crown Season
Dialed In proved himself a legitimate contender to pre-race favorite Uncle Mo for the upcoming Kentucky Derby on May 7. The dark brown colt electrified the crowd at Gulfstream by coming from a fourteen-length deficit to win the Florida Derby on Sunday. The Nick Zito-trained colt bested what was considered the deepest field in a […]