point-to-point races
Timber Horses Romp at Piedmont
Running for the Rokeby Bowl are (l-r) winner Dakota Slew (Robert Walsh up) and Zulla Road (Woods Winants up). / Douglas Lees photo
Virginia point-to-point fans were treated to a full weekend of racing on March 22 and 23, 2014. The Piedmont Fox Hounds Point-to-Point went off as scheduled on Saturday and the Blue Ridge Hunt races, postponed from their original date, were held on Sunday. In a spirit of cooperation, races over fences were split so that Piedmont ran timber races and Blue Ridge ran just hurdle (brush) races, thus assuring a good field of entries for each specialty.
In the Open Timber Race, Zulla Road (Woods Winants up) set the pace for the first mile, but Dakota Slew ridden by Robert Walsh took control from there to the wire. Skunked ran a strong second, but Dakota Slew in prevailing notched his second consecutive Rokeby Bowl win. Dakota Slew is owned by Magalen Bryant and trained by Richard Valentine. Ms. Bryant shared last season’s Virginia Leading Owner title with Pennsylvanian Irvin Naylor. Although Winants pulled up Zulla Road in that race, the fourth on the card, he had earlier shown his 2013 Virginia Leading Rider form by winning the first two races of the day, Maiden Timber and Amateur Highweight Timber.
Blue Ridge Runs Postponed Point-to-Point
Whodoyoucallit (Woods Winants) wins Novice Timber. / Liz Callar photoThe Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point Races, originally scheduled for Saturday, March 9 but postponed due to a snowstorm, were finally held on a sunny but cool Sunday, April 21, 2013—six weeks later. A good crowd of spectators enjoyed a brilliant day out-of-doors, but entries were down with the sanctioned Middleburg Spring Races having been run the day before.
Eva Smithwick—2012 leading trainer in Virginia—saddled two winners for Indian Run Farm, both ridden by Woods Winants. Fogcutter, with two previous hurdle wins at Thornton Hill and Old Dominion, won the Amateur/Novice Rider Hurdle, and Whodoyoucallit, with a win earlier in the season at Thornton Hill, won the Novice Timber. Neither horse was seriously challenged.
A Brilliant Day at the Piedmont Races
Amateur Highweight Timber (l-r): Dr. Alex (Teddy Zimmerman) will beat Justpourit (George Hundt) after a hard-fought duel in the stretch.
The Piedmont Fox Hounds 2013 Point-to-Point Races went off under brilliant skies on Saturday, March 23, 2013 with some exciting racing over the big, rolling timber course that includes stone walls, drop fences, and reverses of direction. Here are a few highlights, with complete results just a click away.
Old Dominion Hounds Point-to-Point
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.
Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point Races
Kellie Witte piloted her Twin Kiss to a second victory in two starts this season in the Junior Field Masters Chase.The sixty-third running of the Blue Ridge Hunt Point-to-Point Races was held Saturday, March 10, 2012 under a brilliant blue sky and over good footing at the Woodley Farm racecourse.
Two horse-rider combinations repeated their winning ways of the previous week at Thornton Hill: Twin Kiss ridden by Kellie Witte in the Junior Field Masters Chase and Mischief with Annie Yeager aboard in the Amateur/Novice Rider Hurdle Race.
Trainer Jimmy Day posted a win and two second place finishes. Top jockey was Carl Rafter with two wins and a second. Rafter rode Day's winner, Trappe d'Or owned by Bruce Smart in the Maiden Flat Race; Zoe Valvo's Triton Light to the wire in the Open Hurdle Race; and posted a second on Red Ghost in the Novice Timber.
Jockey Jeff Murphy rode trainer Teddy Mulligan's The Editor to a win in the Novice Timber Race and posted two second place finishes for the day as well.
First Running of the Thornton HIll Fort Valley Hounds Point-to-Point Races
Brett Jackson, MFH leads the Junior Field Master's Chase. Erin Swope keeps in touch.
The Thornton Hill Fort Valley Hounds (VA) is the result of a recent merger between the Thornton Hill Hounds (previously unregistered) and the Fort Valley Hunt (registered with the MFHA in 1992). The hunt’s point-to-point races were run for the first time on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at the beautiful Thornton Hill Racecourse near Sperryville, Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Masters are Jim Kincheloe, Brett Jackson, and the father and son team of Larry and Jeff Lehew.
At the end of the day, Jeff Murphy was top jockey, bringing home two winners—Orebanks in the Open Hurdle Race and Dealer Beware in the Novice Timber.
Raymond Carter: Complete Horseman
Ray Carter hunting the New Market-Middletown Valley hounds in 1981 / Janet Hitchen photoRaymond Allaeys Carter died peacefully at home in Middletown, Maryland on June 20, 2011 from complications related to prostate cancer. Ray was born in Yorkshire, England in 1930. Times were tough in those years and money was scarce. Ray, however, with a natural love of horses always found a way to beg rides on farmer’s draft horses returning from work in the fields.
He cleaned stalls at a local stable to be able to ride. He was a natural athlete and was soon riding some of the fancier ponies in local gymkhanas. When he finished school at age fourteen, his parents, loath to let him work in the local mines, arranged an apprenticeship for him with a racing stable in Newmarket. He was basically an indentured servant, receiving only a pound a month for learning a trade. At the end of five years he was earning twenty pounds a year.
Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point Attracts American Visitors
The Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point Races in County Wexford, Ireland are probably the last point-to-point bank races still run in Ireland. Traditionally, point-to-points featured members’ and farmers’ races that were run over natural fences such as the double bank fence in the photograph. Now most Irish point-to-points are run over standard chase fences. Martha C. Wadsworth, Ann Morss, and Sarah Batzing-Cole, all from the Genessee Valley Hunt (NY), had traveled to Ireland for the wedding of Island Foxhounds huntsman Mark Ollard to Clare Lambert. While there, the American trio took in the Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point races and also rode with the Premier Harrier Hounds in the Saint Patrrick’s Day Parade in Cashel, County Tipperary. Prior to the wedding, Martha hunted with the Killinick Harriers, the Premier Harriers, the Island Foxhounds, and the County Clare Hounds. In the photo are (l-r) Ann Morss, Jack Lambert, Emer Mullins, Martha C. Wadsworth, and Sarah Batzing-Cole. Ann Morss and Martha Wadsworth are whippers-in at the Genessee Valley Hunt; Jack Lambert, 79, father of the bride, is a well-known Irish Draught Horse stallion master and breeder; he hunts his five stallions with the Killinick Harriers. Emer Mullins is the author’s wife. Sarah Batzing-Cole is a dairy farmer in the Genessee Valley. Posted April 27, 2011
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Hat Trick for Neil Morris at Old Dominion
Lake Placid and Matthew McCarron hold off Fantastic Foeand Jeff Murphy for the Open Hurdle win.Trainer Neil Morris scored a hat trick at the Old Dominion Point-to-Point races on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at Ben Venue Farm. Morris saddled three winners: Maiden Hurdle, Open Hurdle, and Open Timber.
Morris’s first two wins were the easy ones. In the Maiden Hurdle, Last Noble with Jacob Roberts aboard led the field all the way and won easily. In the Open Hurdle, Lake Placid with Matthew McCarron in the irons raced around the course on the lead, turned back a challenge by second place finisher Fantastic Foe, and won by four-and-a-half lengths.
Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point
Julie Gomena owned the hurdle races, and Richard Valentine made his statement in the timber races, as both trainers brought home two winners each in the Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point on Saturday March 19.
In this photo, Pizarro (left) with Natalie Wales up and Justpourit with George Hundt, Jr. aboard fight for first in the Owner-Rider Timber Race.
