Teddy Davies on Our Friend (IRE) © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Our Friend notches first stakes victory at The Manor, while Go Poke the Bear scores in Tryon feature. Not only was it a big day for Armata Stable with Our Friend taking the featured $50,000 My Lady’s Manor timber stake, but there were plenty of cheers for Hyggelig Haven’s Druid’s Altar, trainer Willie Dowling and jockey Dan Nevin, who captured the first division of the Tom Voss Memorial maiden, along with Merriebelle Stables’ Wagner, a Maryland Hunt Cup hopeful for Blythe Miller and jockey Freddie Procter, who was very impressive in his ..read more

Royal Ruse © Tod Marks By Tod Marks A 10-race doubleheader is on tap for Saturday as timber specialists head to Monkton, Md., while hurdlers travel toward the mountains of Western North Carolina for the 76th Tryon Block House races in Columbus. The historic Maryland Timber Triple gets underway in Monkton, about 30 miles north of Baltimore, with the $50,000 My Lady’s Manor Stakes, the marquee event on the five-race, $130,000 card. The race, first contested in 1902, has drawn an accomplished and familiar field of five led by Charlie Fenwick’s Royal Ruse, who captured the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup to ..read more

© Tod Marks By Tod Marks Three races, three different winning combinations score at Virginia Point to Point With substantial purse money on the line, Saturday’s Old Dominion Hounds Point to Point in Washington, Va., attracted some budding maiden and veteran timber talent. And by day’s end trainers Doug Fout, Sean McDermott, and Parker Hendriks had their first winners of the young season while leading 2023 rider Graham Watters notched his initial score. McDermott and Hendriks, who also do double duty as jockeys, also had winners on the card. For McDermott it was his first of the year, while He ..read more

© Tod Marks By Tod Marks For the second straight year, National Steeplechase Association horsemen will be competing for purse money at the Washington, Va., meet on Saturday with three races worth $80,000. The trio of races have gotten a purse bump of $15,000 over 2023. The sanctioned events, which include two $30,000 maiden hurdles, one for fillies and mares, at 2 miles, and a 3-mile $20,000 allowance over timber fences, are part of a day-long program at Ben Venue Farm in Washington, Va., in the Eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The NSA races are set to go off at 1:10 p.m., 1:45 ..read more

Abaan (#1) and The Hero Next Door (#2) © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Eleven races worth $270,000 were up for grabs during the only triple header of the spring, with an estimated 40,000 fans on hand for the 89th running of the Carolina Cup Races. Only four horses went postward in the $75,000 Carolina Cup novice stakes at Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C., but the race itself was anything but ho-hum. Michael Smith’s The Hero Next Door, under Jamie Bargary, assumed the lead from the break, with Bruton Street-US’ Neotropic, Hudson River Farms’ L’Imperator, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Dai ..read more

Abaan and The Hero Next Door © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Six races worth $190,000 are on tap for South Carolina’s premier spring social event, while a pair of point to points in Virginia and Pennsylvania host five additional contests, mostly over timber. Racing returns to historic Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C., on Saturday for the 89th running of the Carolina Cup Races. Anchored by the $75,000 Carolina Cup, which this year will be run as a stake for novice jumpers ages four and up at 2 ⅛ miles, the card includes four other hurdle races, all of which will be contested at the same distance ..read more

Lightning Ridge wins the Maiden at Shawan Downs © Tod Marks By Tod Marks Defying the weatherman, Saturday proved to be a lovely day in Aiken with plenty of exciting races. Harry Beswick and Ricky Hendriks teamed up for a pair of wins, including a score with Upland Flats Racing’s West Newton in the featured Imperial Cup. Jockey Bernie Dalton also doubled, winning aboard Layton Register’s maiden filly Haint Blue for wife-trainer Kate Dalton, and Jordan Wycoff and Frank Mullins’ Clara Belle for Keri Brion. Hurricana Farm and Arch Kingsley, who campaigned 2023 Eclipse Award winner Merry Maker, rol ..read more

Beverly R. “Peggy” Steinman © Tod Marks by: NYRA OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) today announced the addition of the Grade 1, $150,000 Beverly R. Steinman, a 2 3/8-mile steeplechase event for older horses to be contested Sunday, June 9 as part of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course. The race is named for Beverly R. “Peggy” Steinman, who has successfully balanced decades of ownership in both the steeplechase and flat racing worlds with stars such as Dark Equation, who captured the 2008 Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup, and Colstar, a multi ..read more

Lightning Ridge wins the Maiden at Shawan Downs © Tod Marks By Tod Marks The National Steeplechase Association Spring campaign gets underway on Saturday after a four-month hiatus with a six-race card worth $140,000 in South Carolina at Aiken’s showcase racecourse on Richland Avenue. The meet is the first of 16 worth $2.6 across seven states on the NSA Spring calendar, which runs through May 18. 2024 marks the third straight year that the season will begin at the Aiken Steeplechase Association’s sparkling new facility. First run in 1930, the Aiken Races have ushered in the year since the Little ..read more

© Tod Marks By Tod Marks The new stake coupled with an enriched Iroquois program makes for an unprecedented cross-country racing spectacular with two meets worth nearly $1 million on successive weekends. The Virginia Gold Cup Association revealed plans for a new Grade 1 fixture to be run as part of the sensational $430,000 card at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains, Va. on May 4. The $150,000 Commonwealth Cup will be contested as a handicap hurdle stake for four-year-olds and up at 2 1/8 miles over a dozen national fences. The race creates an unprecedented one-two punch for the National St ..read more