As the frozen ground softens to the warmth of the sun and the tree limbs give way the bud, an annual ride of spring begins in Maryland: The Steeplechase Season. The Historic sport is based on the historic challenge: My horse is faster than your horse.
Today's international sport
grew of the hunting field where riders depended upon the athleticism, Strength,
speed,and sun footedness of their horses to carry them safely over the fence,
and stream. Steeplechasing traces it lineage to the mid 18th century Ireland.
By the most accounts, the first steeplechase race was held in 1753 in County
Cork, where a horseman named O’Callaghan engaged Edmond Blake in a match
race covering approximately 4 1/2 miles from Buttervant Church to St. Mary’s
in Donersile, where tower was know as St. Leger Steeple. Church steeples were
the most prominent landmarks on the landscape, thus the sport took its name
the chase to the steeple: steeplechase. Unfortunately history does not record
the winner of the O’Callaghan-Blake match.
Cross Country racing over
fences became a popular way to keep hunt horses fit during the off seasons.
Eventually this form of competition spread to England, where the first reported
race involving more than two horses occurred in 1792. Steeplasing gradually
migrated from the field to establishing race course, and the first Grand National
was staged in 1839 at Aintree, outside Liverpool. The Grand National remains
the best -known of all steeplechase events.
Steeplechase racing is popular
spectator sport in England a national pastime with organized wagering. In the
United States, steeplechase remains largely a “ gentleman’s sport”
with many races organized by local hunt clubs.
However, in the late 19th
century and into this century, steeplechase also became an important and popular
fixture at major race throughout the US including Pimlico and Laurel Races Courses.
In the 1895, the National Steeplechase Association was found to oversee this
fast growing sport.
When racing feel on difficult
times in the 1970’s, many tracks discontinued because they felt they could
take in more dollars on the flat races. The steeplechase responded by returning
to its roots, back to the countryside, There, many race meets were established
in communities small and large, where they are operated by nonprofit organization
that donate the proceeds the worthy charitable causes, As a result of continued
growth throughout the last decade, steeplechase now gives out in prize money
approximately 4 million dollars per year encouraging more people to own, train,
and ride steeplechase horses. In the spirit of this “ gentleman’s
sport” an equal amount is paid each year to charity
In steeplechase horses either
race over hurdles ( some times referred to as brush: also includes an artificial
hedge called the national fence) or timber. Horses can jump flatter and through
the top the fence in stride and keep their pace. Because these races tend to
be faster and because they have more purse money, there are more hurdle races.
In contrast the horse must jump over a timber fence, which requires the horse
to set himself up and jump off his hocks,slowing down his place. Racing over
the timber fences, with their sturdy wood rails, is considered by some to be
far more dangerous than hurdle racing and thus Marylanders are thought by some
to be daft for engaging in it.
Timber racing is strongest
in Maryland, Pennsylvania,and Virginia. Virginians favor a sloped fence with
very little space between the rails. The Marlborough and Potomac races feature
the sloped fence, thus drawing many Virginia horse. Maryland, however, is traditionally
well known for its vertical timber jumps, with courses described as having “
open, airy Maryland fences.” The vertical fences are more challenging
for horse than the sloped jumps, as the verticals do not present so clear of
a ground line
The Maryland Hunt Cup is the grand dame of all Maryland Timber Races. The race
season progressively prepares the horse for the challenge of the Hunt Cup, with
its 4’10’’ high, uphill fence #3, made of virtually unbreakable
chestnut rails. But season begins benignly enough with the Howard County- Iron
Bridge Race. This race allows horses to ease into the season with fences of
2’9’’ to 3’6’’ with fences progressing to
3’8’’ at Elkridge- Hartford, 4’0’’ at My
Lady’s Manor, and 4’0’’ plus at the Grand National,
peaking at 4’10’’ for 4 miles at the Hunt Cup. To put the
Maryland Hunt Cup (which celebrated its celebrated in 1994) in perspective,
it has the largest solid of any race and is considered one of the three most
challenging steeplechase races in the world ( the others being the Grand National
at Antree, England, and the Grand Pardubice in Czechoslovakia). Ironically the
Maryland Hunt Cup receives more coverage in the Sunday London Times than in
the Washington Post.
Maryland’s demanding courses and Thoroughbred breeding industry have to produce some of the world’s best known steeplechase horses and jockeys. Entered into the Chronicle of the Horse’s Equine Hall of Fame is Elkridge bred in Monkton by Joseph in 1938. Elkridge went to set the record earnings for the time of $230, 680 over two seasons. Jay Trump and Tommy Smith, who won 3 Maryland Hunt Cup in the 1960s, went to be the first Maryland Hunt Cup horse horse and first American jockey to win the English Grand National in 1965. In 1980 by Ben Nevis and Charlie Fenwick, winners of the ‘77 and ‘78 Hunt Cups, won English Grand National by 20 lengths.
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