timber race
Horse Collides with, Injures Racing Official at Gold Cup
Foxhunter and amateur whipper-in Peter Hitchen was injured while officiating at the Virginia Gold Cup Races at Great Meadow Park, Warrenton, Virginia, Saturday, May 2, 2015. Hitchen, who was on foot, was hit by a racehorse and suffered multiple breaks. Hitchen was taken to a hospital in Fairfax where the damage was assessed: fourteen broken ribs, collar bone broken in two places, and three broken vertebrae. Surgery was considered, but after a second opinion the decision was made to move him to the Reston Spine Center. Currently in a cast, Hitchen faces a long recovery. This report will be updated as new information becomes available. Posted May 7, 2015
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Maryland Hunt Cup 2015: One for the Books
Fence 3: (l-r) Imperial Way (Bethany Baumgardner up) about to jump; Raven’s Choice (Mark Beecher up) 1st; Almarmooq (James Slater up); Guts For Garters (Jody Petty up) 2nd; Twill Do (James Stierhoff up) / Douglas Lees photo
Ten minutes after crossing the wire first, a half length in front of Raven’s Choice, Imperial Way was disqualified. His jockey Bethany Baumgardner failed to weigh out with all the weight she carried into the race. Somewhere, during the course of the race, a twenty-pound weight slipped out of her saddle pad—a first in the 119 runnings of the Maryland Hunt Cup.
It was a double disappointment for Imperial Way, who was beat by just a nose in last year’s race by Stewart Strawbridge’s Guts for Garters. The odds-on favorite this year, Guts for Garters was trying for his second consecutive win, but placed second to Raven's Choice by six lengths after the disqualification.
David Hopkins Semmes, ex-MFH
Joint-Masters David Semmes and Mildred Riddell move off at the head of the Old Dominion field from a meet at the Honorable and Mrs. Joseph W. Barr's Houyhnhnm Farm near Hume, Virginia / Douglas Lees photo
David Hopkins Semmes—longtime Master of the Old Dominion Hounds (VA), amateur steeplechase rider, and deep-water sailor—died peacefully at his home, Indian Run Farm, near Flint Hill, Virginia, on New Years Day, just four days shy of his eighty-seventh birthday.
Born in Washington, D.C., Semmes graduated from Episcopal High School then served a tour of duty in World War II as an aviation radio crewman. He graduated from Princeton in 1949, and in 1950 served in Army intelligence on the Pusan perimeter during the Korean conflict. He worked as a government service officer in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong before returning to Washington to practice law.
Semmes managed intellectual property for forty-one years, notably patenting the so-called “black box” used on airplanes, and the technology used for protective vests for jockeys.
Professor Maxwell Wins Maryland Hunt Cup
Look, Ma, no stirrups! Mark Beecher flies four timber fences without stirrups on his way to victory aboard Professor Maxwell in the 117th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup.
In a gutsy performance, Mark Beecher rode Mrs. George Ohrstrom’s Professor Maxwell to victory in the Maryland Hunt Cup despite a recently broken collarbone and a lost stirrup.
The collarbone was broken only two weeks earlier at the My Lady’s Manor races. Fortunately, the horse is a careful jumper and, according to Beecher, requires only that the rider sit quietly and do nothing. Beecher did just that without stirrups over four of the imposing solid timber fences.
Trainer Richard Valentine called Beecher’s ride “remarkable.”
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.
Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point
Annie Yeager's Mischief (rt) on the way to winning his third hurdle race in three starts. Mary Motion riding Fogcutter (left) finished fourth.Annie Yeager and Mischief scored a hat trick in the Amateur/Novice Rider Hurdle Race at the Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point Races on Saturday, March 17, 2012, posting their third win in three starts this year. Mischief passed pace-setter Mariah’s Promise before the last fence to take the lead. Mariah’s Promise challenged in the stretch but had to settle for second place by a head. Mischief is owned by Yeager and trained by Don Yovanovich.
Private Attack and Blythe Miller-Davies Formidable in Maryland
Blythe Miller-Davies on Private Attack is congratulated by husband Joe Davies after winning the Maryland Hunt Cup. Michael Wharton leads the winner.First the Grand National on April 23, then the Maryland Hunt Cup on April 30. Two winning performances for Blythe Miller-Davies and Private Attack. Yet the circumstances made it all the more dramatic.
Miller-Davies—former champion jump jock, mother, and trainer—had retired from riding races more than eight years ago. Mark Beecher was to ride Sportsmans Hall’s Private Attack in the Grand National for trainer Alicia Murphy, but was having visa problems in Ireland. Murphy turned to Miller-Davies, and the pair won by a neck.
Meanwhile, Miller-Davies had been training her husband’s horse Fort Henry which she had intended to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup one week later. The Grand National win changed those plans, and husband Joe Davies, a former three-time winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup, graciously scratched his horse so his wife could ride Private Attack in that race.
Piedmont Fox Hounds Point-to-Point
Trainer Richard Valentine continued his winning ways by saddling winners in the first two timber races at the Piedmont Fox Hounds Point-to-Point on Saturday, March 26, 2011 near Upperville, Virginia. Valentine-trained horses won two races at Warrenton the previous week.
Gus Brown was first at the wire with Beech Cay in the Maiden Timber for Augustin Stables, and George Hundt, Jr., pictured here, won the Owner-Rider Timber on Westbound Road. This was the second win in two weeks for Hundt, who won the Owner-Rider Timber at Warrenton on Justpourit.
