Tighten your girths, everybody. Virginia Gold Cup RECORD timber purse $100,000 this Saturday, and the weather forecast looks good. We got good rain last week, plus its a nicely irrigated course. Oh boy!!
Anybody else already picking out their sundresses and strappy sandals???!
[QUOTE=Hunter’s Rest;2398188]
Tighten your girths, everybody. Virginia Gold Cup RECORD timber purse $100,000 this Saturday, and the weather forecast looks good.[/QUOTE]
If the weather holds up - unlike Churchill which looks like it might be total slop - then I’ll hazzard a guess at breaking the 45,000 mark. Traffic is still traffic and the days of easily jaunting down to The Plains for day’s worth of fun in the country are fading fast.
Although social magazines like DC and Capitol File do push this as a being a must attend event on the urban social circuit.
Tally Ho for Gold Cup; Washington Post
While equestrian events are ostensibly the reason for the day, you’ll probably spend more time checking out the eye candy at your party than watching the horses.
Hey, nothing wrong with that with the net results. The more people, the more revenue which supports the preservation of the lands and facility and it keeps steeplechasing in the public eye to some degree.
I am quite annoyed I’m going to be out of town this weekend! But…I’m going to be getting updates via phone from the course (the lady I ride for is supposed to be hauling a horse there).
HR- Any rumors about supplemental nominations??? I was hoping Miles Ahead would run…but wasn’t sure what his story is since his last outing at the pt-to-pt.
Miles Ahead was injured - is turned out for the year (!)
Tons of early noms - no word yet on supp’s. I’ll know when you do - when entries are posted at nationalsteeplechase.com tomorrow afternoon. Bubble Economy was expected to come from Fisher’s barn since he skipped Maryland Hunt Cup.
Yeah, I confirmed Bubble Economy at the Hunt Cup. The connections for Fappa Fire weren’t so thrilled…I believe they were trying to avoid Bubble Economy by skipping the hunt cup but now are going to still end up running against him.
Too bad about Miles Ahead 
I really am fond of him…and there goes my timber horse for my ST fantasy stable!
Looking for a chasing fix on line?
ETV - the South Carolina PBS affiliate - covered the 2007 Carolina Cup and someone with that organization has made several of the races available on youtube.com
Check it out. Good quality. Good announcing although I’d love to hear Vic Stauffer (Hollywood Park) making a call of a 'chase
That is so fun to watch! I got to see my nephews ride without the fear! (already knew the results)
Did anyone go to Gold Cup today? Have not heard anything so I am guessing that is not good but not bad either!!! (as far as my family goes)
[QUOTE=Parminch;2411542]
That is so fun to watch! I got to see my nephews ride without the fear! (already knew the results)[/QUOTE]
Great, if I’m right in saying that is in response to the Carolina Cup being produced by ETV and put on youtube.com
The person behind the effort indicated they will be doing the same for the Colonial Cup too!
All I heard about the Gold Cup was that Salmo won, Mr. Bombastic was second, and Ghost Valley was third.
Salmo (known as ‘Slammo’ around the stable since he’s, uh, a ‘regular’ faller) won wire to wire in an absolutely lovely demonstration of jumping. Just a wonderful race. Mr. Bombastic lost on the nod. Ghost Valley never fired - jumped poorly each time over the fence I was posted at - and finished third, close up but not his devastating late kick. Seeyouattheevent was fourth, giving Jack Fisher 3 of the 4 top slots in America’s first $100k timber race.
Chip Miller rode - he was the only jockey willing to ride Salmo.
Salmo was bred just a few miles from Great Meadow in Casanova, bred by long time Virginia racing supporter Sara Collette. She was in tears in the winner’s circle. A fine tribute to a longtime breeding program. Score one for the little guy. I love that.
Last race was a nightmare. 14 maiden claimers (over hurdles.) 1 fell early, ran backwards around the track. 2 slipped next time around on the south turn. A U.S. Park Police horse was trying to help guard the fallen riders (from the 1st fall, I think) and the PP horse freaked out and ran backwards into the field, which had by this time come around again. PP horse got T-boned by a horse Matt McCarron was on (I think), popping Matt off, popping the PP officer off. PP horse, whose saddle was now under his belly, took off with the field and, now, 5 loose racehorses. PP horse made it down the backside, jumped 2 jumps, before exiting to the outer rail and collapsing with frothy blood gushing out of his mouth. My friend the attending vet said it was clearly a heart attack - the vet was unaware of hte T-bone collission but agreed that, probably, the collision caused a thump hard enough to knock the poor PP horse’s insides.
Kathy McKenna reported her horse (one of hte loose ones that was vanned off) was going to be ok; not sure if anybody else was injured badly.
It was like watching a horror film. Dozens of photographers watching out of four corners trying to avoid getting run down, jockeys hiking back in a group of a half dozen. Awful. Just awful.
I think the formal term for such an occurance is ‘cluster-fuck.’ No reason for it, no particular cause. Just a series of bad luck. I guess we in horse racing are lucky stuff like this doesn’t happen more often, as rife with possibilities the sport is.
Racing, otherwise, was clean and competitive. Very very good Gold Cup, and very very nice day. Cool, drizzly, good footing, good horses. The girls in their sundresses looked cute with goosebumps on their bare shoulders. I was snug in rubber boots and a barbour …
YIKES, the last race sounds like a nightmare. It is so horrible when one horse is loose on the track but that many … … looks like from my lack of frantic phone call from Tenn that the nephews survived that one. (Actually, I think one of them had scratched the last race). Hope everyone and everyone’s horses are okay this morning. I am sorry to hear about the PP horse.
Last week at the Aiken Spring Classic, Michael Traurig, gave me the first-hand description of seeing Jody Petty’s face get stepped on… and then I see he (Jody) was back in the irons and racing this weekend. WOW!
And yes, I was speaking of how fun it was to watch the you tube video of the races and be able to see it without your stomach in your throat. It is a lot easier to see it when you know the outcome.
thanks for the updates!!!
HR what a mess with the final race there at the Virginia Gold Cup. Silly question but was the race immediately red-flagged when you had two horses loose running the opposite way? You would think in the interest of everyone the race would be halted. Loose horses going with the flow of the course are one thing but geeze the other is horrific.
Sorry the event otherwise ended on such a terrible note.
ps. why am I not shocked Chip would be the one to step up to this challenge:
Chip Miller rode - he was the only jockey willing to ride Salmo.
The downed riders were not too injured, just shaken, and they were not ‘at’ a fence, so, no, no flagmen were waving riders off. I did not see the loose horse running the ‘wrong’ direction with my own little eyes so I don’t know what they did or could do about that.
The police reporter here at the paper is going to do a story – I’ll cc it to here when its up. I’ve given her quotes from Matt McCarron and Xavier Aizpuru (the race winner) and from the attending vet on the backside. She is contacting the Park Police.
My nephew said that they did not know how the PP horse got out there on the course, but he did know that the PP horse did indeed hit his horse while galloping. He said it knocked into his horse’s hind end but did not knock him down. He also did say that it was the wildest thing he had ever seen or been involved in and very scarey. Sounds as if everyone who was there in any capacity was lucky if they left that race unscathed.
The family had a pretty good day! Sixth in the Gold Cup, second in the Steeplethon and third in the craziness of the last race.
Let us know what you find out Hunters Rest!
Parminch - who’s the nephew???
The Park Police horses are posted around the course (4 of them) as crowd control etc. They are not actually supposed to be outriders or whatever, but the downed riders were quite near Officer Marklin’s station (on the infield) and he went, in concern, I am certain, to try to assist, with another officer. That his horse allegedly ran backwards into the oncoming field, rather than scooting forward out of hte way seems clear. I did not ‘see’ the incident other than I was at the fence before where it happened (last fence on the front-side - no one else posts there so I like having it ‘to myself’ for photos.)
Cops beat reporter is running into a stone wall with Gold Cup officials, cops and hasn’t gotten the USPP yet. I am running a piece about the incident (assigning no blame, just clearing up the rumors) and I will run it with, or without, cooperation from the named parties. They’d sure help out if they’d tell us ‘their side’ of the story.
Bruce is my brother so… Will and Russell Haynes are the nephews!
Keep trying to find out what happened!
Here is a series of first-hand reports I’ve transcribed and just sent to the cops reporter – stream of conciousness, but she’ll pluck from the quotes for her police report.
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From Don Yovanovich, Director of Racing for the Gold Cup:
A U.S. Park Police officer “was responding to the fallen riders” (2 of which fell the first time around the South Rail turn). “He had his horse behind the hedge”, out of the way of the continuing race, “but he lost control of his horse and got in the path of the oncoming runners.”
“The first (race) horse to hit the police horse flipped him (the officer) up into the air, and off. The police horse then took off with the race.”
“The police horse collapsed and died of a heart attack” shortly thereafter, apparently caused by the original collision.
“There were six horses running loose on the course at one time … It was a huge series of unfortunate events.” -
From jockey Paddy Young, who finished fourth aboard Fire Island Jet:
“I saw the Park Police horse sort of in the way” as the field approached the South Rail turn for the second time.
“Carl Rafter (aboard Notable Contender) had fallen on the turn first time 'round, and taken out Chip (Miller, on Focus on a Star) and Cyril (Murphy on Ed’s Empire) as he came down.”
“It looked like to me that the police officer was trying to protect the fallen riders when we came back around. But his horse backed up into us as we passed. James (Slater, on Competence) collided with the police horse, knocking his quarters around,” and knocking both the officer and Slater to the ground.
Later in the race, “Matt (McCarron, on Hey Doctor) was pushed out of a fence by one of the loose horses,” as were Liam McVicar on Meshwaar, and Michael Traurig on Cuse. -
The last race on the program, a $20,000 maiden claiming hurdle turned into a war of attrition as nine of 14 starters came to grief in a series of related occurences in the 2 1/4 mile event.
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Shiny Emblem was the eventual winner. “I could hear some of the commotion, and saw some of the loose horses,” said winning rider Xavier Aizpuru. “I was sure glad to be running on the front end, out of the way of all the mess.”
Wow! that is just crazy! Good Job Hunters Rest! I knew you would find out what happened. Will said that he could not figure out what the Policeman was trying to do but I guess by the time he got there the horse had already backed into the path of the race horses. Sounds as if everyone was trying to do the right thing… but when things go that awry I am not sure there is a right …or wrong for that matter.
thanks, PHM
In light of the purported bad news regarding maiden runner, Ten Cents A Shine, at Winterthur here is the only uplifting bit I can offer:
DE OnLine: Steeplechasing gone wild
She doesn’t exactly look violent or 40 yrs old for that matter … 
Otherwise 20,000 people enjoyed a nice day at the ex DuPont estate.
Parminch, I knew “of” Bruce’s family during the Rowdy Irishman days and cannot believe your nephews are old enough to be racing themselves now! (I lived in Abingdon for 7 years.)
And the bucking stock website is awesome! Best of luck with that venture!
