The five meets that qualify for this program this year are: My Lady's Manor, Grand National, Maryland Hunt Cup, Fair Hill, and Legacy Chase at Shawan Downs. The bonus applies to NSA-sanctioned steeplechase and flat races with listed purses at Maryland meets. Bonuses will not apply to training flat races.

“We believe this program rewards those Maryland-bred horses that have successful careers over jumps and the people who breed, own and race them here,” said Richie Blue, Jr., MHBA president. “This community is an important part of Maryland's horse industry. Much of the land that is called 'horse country' is due to their vision and efforts to preserve green space.”

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Though steeplechase trainer Keri Brion is based in Virginia when in the U.S. and is currently scouting new racing prospects in Ireland, the 30-year-old conditioner enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2021, sweeping all three of NYRA's Grade 1 jump races and winning all but one of America's Grade 1 steeplechase events.

Brion, who worked for 11 years as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, has put together a quality stable in her first year on her own, becoming the first American-based trainer to win on the hurdle circuit in Ireland in April and conditioning Baltimore Bucko and The Mean Queen to Grade 1 wins in the second half of the year.

After picking up her first graded win with Galway Kid in the Grade 3 David Semmes Memorial in May, Brion won her first Grade 1 in the A.P. Smithwick Memorial at Saratoga Race Course in July, visiting the winner's circle with Baltimore Bucko.

Brion wrapped up 2021 with a record of 14-15-12 from 105 starts and earnings just shy of $800,000, thanks in part to a trio of Grade 1 wins by The Mean Queen in Saratoga's Jonathan Sheppard Memorial, Belmont Park's Lonesome Glory, and the Grand National at Far Hills.

How would you summarize your 2021 campaign?

Brion: “It's still hard to put into words even now. It was some year. It started when I was in Ireland this time last year and took over for Jonathan when he retired. I made history there this year as the first [American based] jumper and hurdle winner. Then I went back to America and won my first graded stakes in May. Things were going well and then Saratoga happened. You couldn't write that again and it will probably never happen again as long as I live. Being first and second in both Grade 1's is something I would have never dreamed of. It really helped my career and also to gain the support in the big races. It was important for me to have those horses win at Saratoga. It's mind blowing.”

How does steeplechase racing in New York compare to other prestigious meets?

Brion: “NYRA is where you dream of racing. Flat racing, jump racing, it doesn't matter. It's the best of the sport in America in my opinion. Obviously you're running for good money and that's always a big plus. NYRA does an amazing job of supporting steeplechase and we have really good purses for allowances and stakes races which is brilliant. This is my first year training, but going forward, you train for Saratoga. You start in the spring and you know you're prepping horses for Saratoga. That's the big stage and where you want to win. To have won both big races there and the Lonesome Glory at Belmont is amazing. There's not a better place to win a race than in New York.”

What does it take to reach the top level in steeplechase?

Brion: “It's finding horses of that caliber. I have been lucky enough to have a trainer in Ireland who helps me source horses. It's helped me get them young and to mold them and bring them along in my own way. Working for Jonathan Sheppard for all those years was the biggest thing. Happy horses really do run the best. The Mean Queen, for instance, ran every month from April to October and stayed sound, healthy, and happy. Listening to the horse as an individual is key. You also can't be the best if you don't have the best staff and best owners. Good horses are good horses, but there's a lot that goes into it as well.”

What advice can you give other women looking to build a career in horse racing?

Brion: “I feel like at this stage now I have gained the respect of a lot of people. I've worked very hard to get here and I hope that other women who want to be trainers, exercise riders, jockeys, or anything else in his industry can look to me as an example that women can do it. You can be successful if you work hard.”

Which win this year was the most meaningful to you?

Brion: “It's a toss-up between the Grand National and the Jonathan Sheppard, but winning the Jonathan Sheppard is the stuff you can't script. They had renamed that race after Jonathan and I had four runners in it. Three of them were first, second, and third. I was very proud of that and of my horses. It was a summer I will never forget.”

What do you hope to accomplish in 2022 and beyond?

Brion: “I won four of the five American Grade 1's this year so I really hope to win the Iroquois [at Percy Warner Park] too. I don't know if that will happen this coming year, but it's on my list. The biggest thing is to continue at this level. I'm not saying I'm going to keep sweeping four or five Grade 1's every year, but I just want to be successful at the higher levels. I don't want this year to be a fluke and I want to continue to prove that I can do it – not just with The Mean Queen, but with other horses.

“When I set out training, I said I would be happy if I could win an Eclipse Award within 10 years of training. Now I'm probably going to be getting on a plane to California in February to get a trophy for the Eclipse Award.”

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The 12th running of the Lonesome Glory, slated as Race 2 on the nine-race card, will see a seven-horse field compete over National fences, including the Keri Brion-trained The Mean Queen, who captured a prestigious steeplechase stakes during the Saratoga summer meet with a 4 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1, $150,000 Jonathan Sheppard on August 18.

The Mean Queen has already provided Brion with a slew of memorable moments this year, including a victory in April at Ireland's Wexford Racecourse that made her conditioner the first U.S.-based trainer to win an Irish hurdle race. In just her third start overall and first over jumps, the 5-year-old daughter of Doyen was victorious and parlayed that momentum by racking up wins in her first two starts in North America.

Making her Saratoga debut, The Mean Queen led in the stretch in the Jonathan Kiser Novice on July 28 before she ducked in and unseated rider Thomas Garner. But with Garner back aboard in the Jonathan Sheppard – formerly the New York Turf Writers Cup that was renamed for the Hall of Famer in 2021 – The Mean Queen tracked in third for most of the trip before rallying past pace-setting Baltimore Bucko [also trained by Brion] and cruising to a score.

“It's crazy to say, but she actually gets better after every race,” Brion said. “She's doing the best now since I've had her. I'm really looking forward to it. This will probably be her toughest test. To be honest, I don't know how good she is. Everyone she works with in the morning, she just toys with. She's toyed with every field she's been against so far, but this is how we find out.”

Brion, who was an assistant to Sheppard before going out on her on upon his retirement, trained the trifecta in the Jonathan Sheppard, with Baltimore Bucko holding off French Light for second. She will now be looking to notch a victory in the lone Grade 1 steeplechase contested at Belmont this meet as she looks to see if The Mean Queen can sustain her form.

“She's really special,” Brion said. “I know it's early in my training career, but I'm not sure if I'll ever train a horse like her again. I worked for Jonathan for 11 years and no one he trained in that time compared to her. I don't know exactly how good she is, but I'm just really fortunate to get the opportunity to train her. She's different.”

Richard Condon will pick up the mount from post 2 with The Mean Queen carrying 157 pounds.

Brion will also send out Hudson River Farms' Galway Kid, who will making his third straight Grade 1 appearance after being eased in the Iroquois on June 26 at Prairie Meadows and finishing fifth last out in the A.P. Smithwick Memorial going 2 1/16 miles on July 22 at Saratoga.

After recovering from an illness following that race, Brion said Galway Kid will look to surprise as he enters on full rest.

“He was actually very sick coming out of his race in the A.P. Smithwick. He had a bad infection deep down in his lungs and that's why he missed the Jonathan Sheppard,” Brion said. “I was really happy with him going into the Smithwick. I do expect him to run a really good race. But he hasn't run in a little while and we're using this more as a race for him and then go on to Far Hills, which is more suitable to his running type and style.

Parker Hendricks will ride from post 3 with Galway Kid carrying 146 pounds.

“I could see him getting a piece of it and he's in at a nice, light weight,” Brion said. “He'll love the distance; the two and a half. I'm happy with him and I think he'll run a really good race.”

Bruton Street's Snap Decision enters off a nine-race win streak dating to 2019 and will be seeking his second consecutive Grade 1 victory after a 3 1/2-length score in the Calvin Houghland Iroquois in June at Percy Warner for Hall of Fame trainer Jack Fisher. That marked the second consecutive graded stakes win for the 7-year-old Hard Spun gelding, who started his campaign with a win in the Grade 2 Temple Gwathmey Handicap in May at Glenwood Park.

Snap Decision, the 164-pound highweight, is 9-2-0 in 11 career starts over jumps. Previously trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey at the start of his career for flat racing, Snap Decision finished second in his first two races over hurdles before crafting his winning streak.

Graham Watters will be aboard Snap Decision from post 6.

“The Mean Queen is obviously going in against Snap Decision, who is a great horse, and it's the first time she's really been tested like that,” Brion said.

Silverton Hill's Bodes Well had his picture taken for the Jonathan Kiser at the Spa, powering to the wire a 4 1/2-length winner after looking like she was on her way to a strong second-place showing before The Mean Queen's late misstep. The 6-year-old Rock of Gibraltar gelding has finished on the board in his last three starts, posting consecutive third-place finishes in handicaps before winning his first North American stakes last out for trainer Leslie Young.

Garner will be in the irons from post 4. Bodes Well will carry 144 pounds.

Young will also saddle Sharon Sheppard's Redicean [carrying 148 pounds], who will be looking for his first win since the 2019 Jonathan Kiser. Redicean, fourth in the A.P. Smithwick and seventh in this Jonathan Sheppard, will see a slew of familiar faces in the Lonesome Glory, drawing post 5 with Gerard Galligan aboard.

Irvin Naylor's Amschel has earned black type in both starts to commence his 7-year-old campaign, running third in the Grade 2 Temple Gwathmey before running second in the Grade 1 Iroquois in for trainer Cyril Murphy. Barry Foley will be aboard Amschel [carrying 150 pounds] from post 1.

M.K. Johnston, Jr.'s Brianbakescookies was a stalwart on the NYRA flat circuit from 2015-18, winning three races in 24 starts before contesting hurdles starting in 2019 for Fisher. The now 8-year-old Giant's Causeway gelding has revived his career over jumps, posting a 3-3-1 mark in 12 starts, including a win in the Queen's Cup MPC in April at Charlotte.

Brianbakescookies [carrying 144 pounds] will be making his first steeplechase appearance at Belmont and first start overall at the historic track since a seventh-place finish in June 2018 in his penultimate flat start. Skylar McKenna will have the call from the outermost post.

Thursday at Belmont will also feature the $75,000 William Entenmann Memorial steeplechase and 4-year-olds and up going 2 1/4 miles in the opening race at 2:05 p.m. Eastern.

Brion will send out Baltimore Bucko [post 3, Condon] and French Light [post 6, Hendricks], the respective second-and-third-place finishers in the Jonathan Sheppard, along with A Silent Player [post 4, Ross Geraghty]. The trio will compete against a field that includes the Young-trained Booby Trap [post 1, Galligan], Perfect Tapatino [post 2, Barry Foley] and Bassmatchi [post 5, Garner], as well as the Irvin Naylor-conditioned A Silent Player [post 4, Ross Geraghty] and Rtiz A.P., trained by Leslie Knopp [post 7, Watters].

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont Park, and the best way to bet every race of the meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

Admission for the Belmont fall meet is available for just $5. Buy online at Ticketmaster.com or at the gate. Group hospitality seating in the West Wing and Top of the Stretch can be purchased by calling the NYRA box office at 844-NYRA-TIX. Box Seats can be purchased by emailing boxseats@nyrainc.com or calling 718-296-5172.

The Belmont Room will be open every Saturday and Sunday for dining reservations. Reserve your spot today at nyra.com/belmont/visit/dining.

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Baltimore Bucko, carrying 142 pounds under rider Thomas Garner, surged to the front of the inner turf course, leading the six-horse field, and maintained his position through the entire 2 1/16-mile course.

The Keri Brion trainee cleared all the jumps easily and, when straightened for home out of the final turn, maintained his advantage over stablemate French Light, who gave Brion the exacta when finishing 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Gibralfaro for second.

The British-bred Baltimore Bucko, making his graded stakes debut, won for the first time in five starts in his 5-year-old campaign. Off as the 5-2 favorite, he paid $7.80 on a $2 win wager.

Brion, who also saddled fifth-place finisher Galway Kid, credited Garner for an astute ride.

“My other two need something to run at and I didn't think there was much pace, so I figured maybe he would get loose on the lead and no one would catch him,” said Brion, who won her first career Grade 1. “That was the tactical plan. It's hard to have three in a race and figure out what the best thing to do is. Tom gave him a great ride and no one came after it. They kind of gave him the race, but I'm not complaining.”

Gibralfaro, one of two entrants for Hall of Fame conditioner Jack Fisher, ran third in the Smithwick for the second consecutive year. Redicean, Galway Kid and Cite completed the order of finish.

Garner won a Grade 1 at Saratoga for the third consecutive year, after piloting Winston C to scores in both the 2019 A.P. Smithwick edition and that year's New York Turf Writers Cup in addition to winning the 2020 New York Turf Writers Cup [renamed in 2021 for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard] with Rashaan.

“I rode him exactly how I wanted to,” Garner said. “I was worried Jack might put Cite in front, but we got a nice easy lead of the race and I jumped off into a real strong gallop. I took a pull three or four times just to stack them up behind me and I could use his jumping to kick on down the back. I really thought someone should have come to me a lot sooner, but then again my lad may have actually carried me further. He's done it really nicely and I haven't even given him a smack with my stick. I was really happy with the way he won it, and he's a horse for the future.

“The ground is still on the slower side, so I kept taking a pull to let him fill his lungs up a little bit,” Garner added. “He's helped me out as much as I helped him out. I was almost a passenger for most of the way and I just had to help him out that last couple of furlongs.”

French Light, bred in his namesake country, earned black type in his first graded stakes appearance under rider Richard Condon. It marked French Light's first race since April when running ninth in a two-mile race in Ireland.

“The difference between Baltimore Bucko and French is that Bucko had a run. French hasn't run since Ireland,” Brion said. “In a month, the tables might turn. But I was delighted with them. Galway Kid, to be fair, isn't as fast as the other two. He needs farther, but I was happy with him.”

Brion was an assistant to Sheppard for 11 years, learning under one of the best jumps trainer in history who himself won the A.P. Smithwick six times. Following Sheppard's retirement in January, Brion took over for a legend, with this race marking her first Saratoga starters. Now, Baltimore Bucko has a chance to compete in a race named for Brion's mentor in the Grade 1, $150,000 Jonathan Sheppard on August 19.

“When I heard they changed the name that has been in the back of my mind the whole time, so I hope I can come back with these two [Baltimore Bucko and French Light] and maybe another one and give it a go,” Brion said.
Brion credited Sheppard, who won at least one race for 47 consecutive meets from 1969-2015 at Saratoga, with giving her the tools necessary to succeed on her own.

“I learned so much from him. Even how I brought them up here and how I got them here two days ahead of time, which is something Jonathan always did,” Brion said. “There's just a lot of preparation. We worked him in the field two weeks ago, worked him on the track last week and that's what he always did to get ready for the Smithwick. I feel like I'm so fortunate to have worked for him, I have learned so much. My success is just the product of him, honestly. I'm very lucky.”

Live racing resumes Friday with a 10-race card highlighted by the Grade 3, $150,000 Lake George for 3-year-old fillies going one mile on the inner turf in Race 9 at 5:39 p.m. Eastern. First post is 1:05 p.m.

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“To me, this was never even a dream,” Blackmore told racingpost.com. “It was so far from what I ever thought could happen in my life. To be in Cheltenham, riding the winner of a Champion Hurdle, it's so far removed from anything I ever thought could be possible. Maybe there's a lesson in that for everyone out there.

“To young people out there, male, female or whatever, if you want to do something go and do it because to me standing here right now, literally anything can happen.”

Trainer Henry de Bromhead added: “Rachael was amazing on her, she was as cool as a breeze. The combination of them is deadly – they're the perfect storm.”

Read more at racingpost.com, and check out the race replay below:

Rachael Blackmore becomes the first female jockey to win a championship race at The Festival

Honeysuckle remains unbeaten with a spectacular victory in The @UnibetRacing Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy#CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/KjfnX2g7Ds

— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) March 16, 2021

The post Rachael Blackmore First Female Jockey To Win Champion Hurdle At Cheltenham appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Sheppard, who turned 80 last month, won every race and prize worth winning in American steeplechase racing over a 56-year career. He is the National Steeplechase Association's all-time leading trainer by wins (1,242) and purse earnings ($24,902,442). He has been the champion trainer by wins 26 times, and he has led the sport by purses in 29 years, both records.

He also had the distinction of winning a race at Saratoga Race Course in 47 straight years through 2015.

He has won 15 Eclipse Awards, behind only D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, and his 11 individual winners have included two Hall of Fame members, Augustin Stables' Cafe Prince and Flatterer, the four-time champion (1983-1986) who was bred by Sheppard and William Pape, a longtime client and partner. Sheppard was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1990.

Also among Sheppard's Eclipse winners were Forever Together, the 2008 female turf champion, and Informed Decision, the champion female sprinter the following year. Both were owned by George Strawbridge Jr.'s Augustin Stable. He also trained William T. Young's Storm Cat, a Grade 1 winner who became America's foremost stallion in the 1990s.

Over the years, Sheppard has provided leadership to the steeplechase sport. He served as the NSA's president from 2004 to 2006 and received the sport's highest honor, the F. Ambrose Clark Award, in 2013.

He also has provided leadership in other ways. Throughout his career, he has been the go-to interview for race meets looking to provide media stories that were positive, honest, and easy to understand. With the late Jack Van Berg, he has been an innovator in marshaling large training stables similar to those in his native England.

He also has participated in groundbreaking research projects with the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, not far from his training base in West Grove, Pa., approximately 35 miles west of Philadelphia. Throughout his career, he has strived successfully to bring new owners into Thoroughbred racing.

His impact on the sport has continued to today. His most recent champion, in 2019, was Hudson River Farms' Winston C (Ire), now in training in Ireland, and he won the steeplechase trainer titles by wins and purse earnings in the recently concluded 2020 season.

“People undoubtedly will ask why I am retiring now,” Sheppard said. “There's no one single reason, and the reasons combined to say that now was the time to step back from American racing. I always wanted to go out on top, and the past year's championships checked that box.

“I had a flare-up of my Lyme Disease last year that kept me away from the horses and the races. It's in remission now, but in fairness to my owners, I didn't want to have another Lyme episode interfere with their horses' careers. My staff at Ashwell in Pennsylvania did a marvelous job with the horses last year, but I don't want to repeat that.

“And, I just turned 80, so it seems to be a good time to pass the reins to a younger generation here in the U.S. I'm not ready to retire completely, and that's why I am retaining a small stable in Ireland for now.”

Jonathan E. Sheppard was born Dec. 2, 1940, in the Hertfordshire hamlet of Ashwell, approximately 45 miles north of London. His father, Daniel, was a Jockey Club handicapper, and as a result Sheppard was exposed to racing at an early age. For several reasons, however, a racing career in England was impossible.

Because of his father's position, conflict-of-interest regulations prohibited him from participating under rules in England even though he was an accomplished point-to-point jockey. Beyond that, he had neither the financial resources nor the connections to train in England or France.

After completing his education at Eton, he proved conclusively to himself and everyone else that he was not cut out to be a stockbroker during a stint at a brokerage firm bearing the family name.

In the early 1960s, he turned his eyes westward to the United States. He landed in the Pennsylvania operation of W. Burling Cocks, himself a future Hall of Fame member. Sheppard absorbed a knowledge of American flat and steeplechase racing, and—after a return to England and a brief period working in France's racing center in Chantilly—came back to the U.S.

He took out his trainer's license in 1965 and won one start on the flat that year, according to Equibase statistics. His first steeplechase winner was Redmond Stewart's Haffaday in the 1966 John Rush Street maiden timber race at My Lady's Manor in Maryland. Two years later, Haffaday won the Maryland Hunt Cup for him.

Sheppard concluded 1966 with seven jumps victories and tied for seventh in the steeplechase trainer standings. The prior winter, Sheppard had met Strawbridge at an Aiken, S.C., dinner, and they immediately developed a rapport. It was misfortune, rather than success, that cemented a relationship that would endure for five decades.

George Strawbridge, Jr.

When one of Strawbridge's early horses sustained a career-ending injury, Sheppard volunteered that his actions—bandages applied too tightly and improper jumping boots—had led to the breakdown. Strawbridge said in a 1970s interview that he was impressed with Sheppard's honesty and decided to continue their relationship. They notched their first victory together with Brandon Hill at Aqueduct in September 1966.

It was a partnership that blossomed over the following decades and took off at a turning point of American steeplechase racing. The arrival of New York off-track betting in the early 1970s led to the virtual banishment of jump racing from the metropolitan tracks. Steeplechase racing pivoted to its roots, the race meets that grew out of fox hunting and became increasingly popular as upscale community activities.

Strawbridge, a descendant of Campbell Soup Company's founder and a history professor, was a highly talented amateur jockey, and many of his Sheppard-trained horses were suited to the hunt meets. Augustin would become the NSA's all-time leading owner with more than $9 million in purses and 23 annual championships from 1974 through 2005.

Sheppard won his first steeplechase title by wins in 1970 and, as racing moved away from Aqueduct and Belmont Park, his first earnings title in 1973.

The best member of the Augustin-Sheppard steeplechase team was Cafe Prince, who was bred in California by Verne Winchell and won four times over fences at three in 1973. He achieved his best form in 1977 and 1978, when he was voted Eclipse Awards as North America's champion steeplechase horse.

Cafe Prince won the International Gold Cup at the Rolling Rock Races in Ligonier, Pa., in his championship years, and he twice won the Colonial Cup in Camden, S.C., in 1975 and 1977. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

Sheppard collected his first Eclipse Award in 1973 with Athenian Idol, a $2,200 purchase who had started in Sheppard's name in 1971. Athenian Idol missed the following season, and Sheppard offered a half-interest in him to Pape, a Long Island auto dealer who was beginning to expand his involvement in jump racing.

Athenian Idol won six times in 1973, including victories in the International Gold Cup and the Temple Gwathmey, to sew up his Eclipse Award and launch a partnership that included four more champions: Martie's Anger in 1979, Flatterer from 1983 through 1986, Mixed Up in 2009, and Divine Fortune in 2013.

None shone brighter than Flatterer. Always frugal, Sheppard bred him with a free season to Mo Bay, a multiple stakes winner he had trained for Augustin. Sheppard and Pape also owned the mare, Horizontal, by Nade, who was a modest winner.

Flatterer was good from the start.

“He was exceptional. You know you were a part of something special while it was happening,” Sheppard told The BloodHorse's Esther Marr shortly after Flatterer's death at age 35 in 2014.

At four in 1983, Flatterer sealed his first Eclipse Award by winning the steeplechase triple crown — the Grand National, Temple Gwathmey, and Colonial Cup. He would win the Colonial Cup, then a championship year-end race, three more times. He became so dominant that in 1986 he carried a record 176 pounds to victory in the National Hunt Cup in Malvern, Pa.

In all, he started 52 times, won 24 of those starts, and had eight second-place finishes and five third-place finishes. Two of his best races were second-place finishes.

In 1986, Sheppard and Pape dispatched Flatterer to France for the French Champion Hurdle. The heavily-watered Auteuil course was a bog, but Flatterer ran bravely to finish second, beaten five lengths. Accompanying Flatterer on that trip was assistant trainer Graham Motion, a fellow Englishman who would go on to a distinguished training career of his own.

Flatterer recovered from that grueling test to win his fourth Colonial Cup that fall. Sheppard brought him back in early spring for a shot at England's Champion Hurdle at the 1987 Cheltenham Festival. He again finished a valiant second, beaten less than two lengths by the champion hurdler See You Then.

He came home to win the Iroquois Steeplechase in May before bowing a tendon in the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase that fall and retiring to Pape's Pennsylvania farm. Flatterer joined Sheppard in the Hall of Fame in 1994.

The late Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm

By then, it was clear that Sheppard could train any type of horse, and Kentucky businessman William Young entrusted him in 1985 with Storm Cat, a two-year-old by the Northern Dancer stallion Storm Bird and out of the stakes-winning Secretariat mare Terlingua. The colt was foaled at Derry Meeting Farm in Pennsylvania so that Terlingua could be transported easily to Windfields Farm in Maryland to be bred to Northern Dancer.

Despite offset knees, the powerfully built Storm Cat showed he was something special by winning the Meadowlands' Young America Stakes (G1), then one of the top juvenile stakes races, and he went off as the second favorite in the second Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Aqueduct. He led by 2½ lengths in the stretch but could not resist Tasso, who won by a nose and claimed the 1985 Eclipse Award.

Storm Cat underwent surgery for knee chips over the winter, won at a moderate level at four, and did not race at five. Young wanted to sell him as a stallion prospect, but Sheppard's wife, former jockey Cathy Montgomery Sheppard, counseled Young to stand him at the owner's Overbrook Farm in Lexington. She had frequently galloped the headstrong Storm Cat and believed he would prosper at stud.

Young changed his mind and prospered. Storm Cat became the dominant sire of his generation as well as a sire of sires, among them the prominent stallion Giant's Causeway. Storm Cat passed along his precocity and was the leading North American sire of juveniles a record seven times.

By then, Sheppard was maintaining a schedule that would break a less committed or less competitive person. He had horses stabled at the Pennsylvania farm and horses in Camden for the winter months; he had horses at Philadelphia Park and, during its fall season, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

He also was an inveterate multitasker who was pulled over on occasion for reading the Daily Racing Form while driving between racetracks and the farm. His formidable intellect gathered information, processed all the data, and applied the acquired knowledge when appropriate.

No horse illustrated Sheppard's process better than Forever Together, who was a Grade 2 winner at three but had a condition—a compromised ability to sweat, or anhidrosis—that limited her prospects. Sheppard remembered an old Irish remedy, Guinness Stout, and began mixing it into her feed. She began to sweat, and Sheppard moved her onto the turf, where she won three Grade 1 races and an Eclipse Award in 2008.

The following year, Sheppard accounted for two champions, Augustin's Informed Decision as the year's leading female sprinter and Mixed Up as the steeplechase champion. He closed out the most recent decade with two more champions, Divine Fortune and Winston C, both over fences.

Divine Fortune, in particular, provided ample evidence that, if correctly handled, a horse's career need not end at three or four. Bred by Pape and Sheppard, Divine Fortune won his Eclipse Award at age 10, capped by a dominant victory in the Grand National (G1) in New Jersey.

On the flat, Strawbridge's homebred With Anticipation had his best seasons at age six and seven, earning more than $2.3-million over those two years.

Between the jumps and the racetrack, Sheppard has accounted for almost 21,000 starts, and he has won 3,426 races. His career earnings total $88.7 million. It has been a marvelous career, the sum total of intelligence, experience, instinct, horse knowledge, and horse sense.

Charles Fenwick Jr., a retired steeplechase jockey and trainer, summarized the marvel that is Jonathan Sheppard in a 1980 interview with Sports Illustrated's Douglas S. Looney. “You can't explain brilliance,” he said. After 56 brilliant years, Jonathan Sheppard has closed the book on his history-making American training experience.

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Sheppard, who turned 80 last month, won every race and prize worth winning in American steeplechase racing over a 56-year career. He is the National Steeplechase Association’s all-time leading trainer by wins (1,242) and purse earnings ($24,902,442). He has been the champion trainer by wins 26 times, and he has led the sport by purses in 29 years, both records.

He also had the distinction of winning a race at Saratoga Race Course in 47 straight years through 2015.

He has won 15 Eclipse Awards, behind only D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, and his 11 individual Eclipse Award winners have included two Hall of Fame members, Augustin Stables’ Cafe Prince and Flatterer, the four-time champion (1983-1986) who was bred by Sheppard and William Pape, a longtime client and partner. Sheppard was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1990.

Sheppard in his Ashwell Stables Office | Eclipse Sportswire

Also among Sheppard’s Eclipse winners were Forever Together (Belong to Me), the 2008 female turf champion, and Informed Decision (Monarchos), the champion female sprinter the following year. Both were owned by George Strawbridge Jr.’s Augustin Stable. He also trained William T. Young’s Storm Cat, a Grade I winner who became America’s foremost stallion in the 1990s.

Over the years, Sheppard has provided leadership to the steeplechase sport. He served as the NSA’s president from 2004 to 2006 and received the sport’s highest honor, the F. Ambrose Clark Award, in 2013.

He also has provided leadership in other ways. Throughout his career, he has been the go-to interview for race meets looking to provide media stories that were positive, honest, and easy to understand. With the late Jack Van Berg, he has been an innovator in marshalling large training stables similar to those in his native England.

He also has participated in groundbreaking research projects with the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, not far from his training base in West Grove, PA, approximately 35 miles west of Philadelphia. Throughout his career, he has strived successfully to bring new owners into Thoroughbred racing.

His impact on the sport has continued to today. His most recent champion, in 2019, was Hudson River Farms’ Winston C (Ire), now in training in Ireland, and he won the steeplechase trainer titles by wins and purse earnings in the recently concluded 2020 season.

“People undoubtedly will ask why I am retiring now,” Sheppard said. “There’s no one single reason, and the reasons combined to say that now was the time to step back from American racing. I always wanted to go out on top, and the past year’s championships checked that box.

“I had a flare-up of my Lyme Disease last year that kept me away from the horses and the races. It’s in remission now, but in fairness to my owners, I didn’t want to have another Lyme episode interfere with their horses’ careers. My staff at Ashwell in Pennsylvania did a marvelous job with the horses last year, but I don’t want to repeat that.

“And, I just turned 80, so it seems to be a good time to pass the reins to a younger generation here in the U.S. I’m not ready to retire completely, and that’s why I am retaining a small stable in Ireland for now.”

Jonathan E. Sheppard was born December 2, 1940, in the Hertfordshire hamlet of Ashwell, approximately 45 miles north of London. His father, Daniel, was a Jockey Club handicapper, and as a result, Sheppard was exposed to racing at an early age. For several reasons, however, a racing career in England was impossible.

Because of his father’s position, conflict-of-interest regulations prohibited him from participating under rules in England even though he was an accomplished point-to-point jockey. Beyond that, he had neither the financial resources nor the connections to train in England or France.

After completing his education at Eton, he proved conclusively to himself and everyone else that he was not cut out to be a stockbroker during a stint at a brokerage firm bearing the family name.

In the early 1960s, he turned his eyes westward to the United States. He landed in the Pennsylvania operation of W. Burling Cocks, himself a future Hall of Fame member. Sheppard absorbed a knowledge of American flat and steeplechase racing, and–after a return to England and a brief period working in France’s racing center in Chantilly–came back to the U.S.

Mementos of an extraordinary career | Eclipse Sportswire

He took out his trainer’s license in 1965 and won one start on the flat that year, according to Equibase statistics. His first steeplechase winner was Redmond Stewart’s Haffaday in the 1966 John Rush Streett maiden timber race at My Lady’s Manor in Maryland. Two years later, Haffaday won the Maryland Hunt Cup for him.

Sheppard concluded 1966 with seven jumps victories and tied for seventh in the steeplechase trainer standings. The prior winter, Sheppard had met Strawbridge at an Aiken, SC, dinner, and they immediately developed a rapport. It was misfortune, rather than success, that cemented a relationship that would endure for five decades.

When one of Strawbridge’s early horses sustained a career-ending injury, Sheppard volunteered that his actions–bandages applied too tightly and improper jumping boot–—had led to the breakdown. Strawbridge said in a 1970s interview that he was impressed with Sheppard’s honesty and decided to continue their relationship. They notched their first victory together with Brandon Hill at Aqueduct in September 1966.

It was a partnership that blossomed over the following decades and took off at a turning point of American steeplechase racing. The arrival of New York off-track betting in the early 1970s led to the virtual banishment of jump racing from the metropolitan tracks. Steeplechase racing pivoted to its roots, the race meets that grew out of fox hunting and became increasingly popular as upscale community activities.

Strawbridge, a descendant of Campbell Soup Co.’s founder and a history professor, was a highly talented amateur jockey, and many of his Sheppard-trained horses were suited to the hunt meets. Augustin would become the NSA’s all-time leading owner with more than $9 million in purses and 23 annual championships from 1974 through 2005.

Sheppard won his first steeplechase title by wins in 1970 and, as racing moved away from Aqueduct and Belmont Park, his first earnings title in 1973.

The best member of the Augustin-Sheppard steeplechase team was Cafe Prince, who was bred in California by Verne Winchell and won four times over fences at three in 1973. He achieved his best form in 1977 and 1978, when he was voted Eclipse Awards as North America’s champion steeplechase horse.

Cafe Prince won the International Gold Cup at the Rolling Rock Races in Ligonier, PA, in his championship years, and he twice won the Colonial Cup in Camden, SC, in 1975 and 1977. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

Sheppard collected his first Eclipse Award in 1973 with Athenian Idol, a $2,200 purchase who had started in Sheppard’s name in 1971. Athenian Idol missed the following season, and Sheppard offered a half-interest in him to Pape, a Long Island auto dealer who was beginning to expand his involvement in jump racing.

Athenian Idol won six times in 1973, including victories in the International Gold Cup and the Temple Gwathmey, to sew up his Eclipse Award and launch a partnership that included four more champions: Martie’s Anger in 1979, Flatterer from 1983 through 1986, Mixed Up in 2009, and Divine Fortune in 2013.

None shone brighter than Flatterer. Always frugal, Sheppard bred him with a free season to Mo Bay, a multiple stakes winner he had trained for Augustin. Sheppard and Pape also owned the mare, Horizontal, by Nade, who was a modest winner.

Flatterer was good from the start.

“He was exceptional. You know you were a part of something special while it was happening,” Sheppard told The BloodHorse‘s Esther Marr shortly after Flatterer’s death at age 35 in 2014.

At four in 1983, Flatterer sealed his first Eclipse Award by winning the steeplechase triple crown–the Grand National, Temple Gwathmey, and Colonial Cup. He would win the Colonial Cup, then a championship year-end race, three more times. He became so dominant that in 1986 he carried a record 176 pounds to victory in the National Hunt Cup in Malvern, PA.

In all, he started 52 times, won 24 of those starts, and had eight second-place finishes and five third-place finishes. Two of his best races were second-place finishes.

In 1986, Sheppard and Pape dispatched Flatterer to France for the French Champion Hurdle. The heavily watered Auteuil course was a bog, but Flatterer ran bravely to finish second, beaten five lengths. Accompanying Flatterer on that trip was assistant trainer Graham Motion, a fellow Englishman who would go on to a distinguished training career of his own.

Flatterer recovered from that grueling test to win his fourth Colonial Cup that fall. Sheppard brought him back in early spring for a shot at England’s Champion Hurdle at the 1987 Cheltenham Festival. He again finished a valiant second, beaten less than two lengths by the champion hurdler See You Then.

He came home to win the Iroquois Steeplechase in May before bowing a tendon in the Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase that fall and retiring to Pape’s Pennsylvania farm. Flatterer joined Sheppard in the Hall of Fame in 1994.

By then, it was clear that Sheppard could train any type of horse, and Kentucky businessman William Young entrusted him in 1985 with Storm Cat, a 2-year-old by the Northern Dancer stallion Storm Bird and out of the stakes-winning Secretariat mare Terlingua. The colt was foaled at Derry Meeting Farm in Pennsylvania so that Terlingua could be transported easily to Windfields Farm in Maryland to be bred to Northern Dancer.

Despite offset knees, the powerfully built Storm Cat showed he was something special by winning the Meadowlands’ GI Young America S., then one of the top juvenile stakes races, and he went off as the second favorite in the second GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Aqueduct. He led by 2 1/2 lengths in the stretch, but could not resist Tasso, who won by a nose and claimed the 1985 Eclipse Award.

Storm Cat underwent surgery for knee chips over the winter, won at a moderate level at four and did not race at five. Young wanted to sell him as a stallion prospect, but Sheppard’s wife, former jockey Cathy Montgomery Sheppard, counseled Young to stand him at the owner’s Overbrook Farm in Lexington. She had frequently galloped the headstrong Storm Cat and believed he would prosper at stud.

Young changed his mind and prospered. Storm Cat became the dominant sire of his generation as well as a sire of sires, among them the prominent stallion Giant’s Causeway. Storm Cat passed along his precocity and was the leading North American sire of juveniles a record seven times.

By then, Sheppard was maintaining a schedule that would break a less committed or less competitive person. He had horses stabled at the Pennsylvania farm and horses in Camden for the winter months; he had horses at Philadelphia Park and, during its fall season, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

He also was an inveterate multitasker who was pulled over on occasion for reading the Daily Racing Form while driving between racetracks and the farm. His formidable intellect gathered information, processed all the data, and applied the acquired knowledge when appropriate.

No horse illustrated Sheppard’s process better than Forever Together, who was a Grade II winner at three but had a condition—a compromised ability to sweat, or anhidrosis—that limited her prospects. Sheppard remembered an old Irish remedy, Guinness Stout, and began mixing it into her feed. She began to sweat, and Sheppard moved her onto the turf, where she won three Grade 1 races and an Eclipse Award in 2008.

The following year, Sheppard accounted for two champions, Augustin’s Informed Decision as the year’s leading female sprinter and Mixed Up as the steeplechase champion. He closed out the most recent decade with two more champions, Divine Fortune and Winston C, both over fences.

Divine Fortune, in particular, provided ample evidence that, if correctly handled, a horse’s career need not end at three or four. Bred by Pape and Sheppard, Divine Fortune won his Eclipse Award at age 10, capped by a dominant victory in the Grand National (NSA G1) in New Jersey.

On the flat, Strawbridge’s homebred With Anticipation had his best seasons at age six and seven, earning more than $2.3 million over those two years.

Between the jumps and the racetrack, Sheppard has accounted for almost 21,000 starts, and he has won 3,426 races. His career earnings total $88.7 million. It has been a marvelous career, the sum total of intelligence, experience, instinct, horse knowledge and horse sense.

Charles Fenwick Jr., a retired steeplechase jockey and trainer, summarized the marvel that is Jonathan Sheppard in a 1980 interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Douglas S. Looney.

“You can’t explain brilliance,” he said.

After 56 brilliant years, Jonathan Sheppard has closed the book on his history-making American training experience.

The post Jonathan Sheppard Retires from American Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Galligan said top runner Winston C will be among the Sheppard representation headed to Ireland and will be pointing for a race at Cheltenham.

According to the Post, only American-trained steeplechaser to win over the jumps in Britain so far is Lonesome Glory, who triumphed at Cheltenham in 1992 and again at Sandown in 1995.

Read more at the Racing Post

The post Sheppard To Send String Of Steeplechasers To Ireland appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Spectators at the Steeplechase of Charleston will be accommodated in single vehicle spots with small groups up to five permitted for tailgating. There will be double the normal number of restrooms with additional cleaning throughout. Guests must wear masks when moving away from their tailgate spots and can bring their own food and beverages. Half the usual capacity of spectators will be allowed.

More than two-thirds of the scheduled steeplechase meets have been cancelled in the U.S. this year. Sunday’s meet, consisting of five races on the card, will be just one of two to admit fans. First post is at 1 p.m. ET.

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All told, 94 horses were entered in the final overnights. The expansive nine-race card, with a first-race post time of 12:30 p.m., is anchored by the National Sporting Library and Museum Cup (the fourth race of the afternoon), which will be run as a timber stake as a result of a purse bump from $15,000 to $25,000.

The 3 ¼-mile test features a lineup of eight veterans including Irv  Naylor's Super Saturday, runner up to Andi'amu in last year's running,  and Armata Stable's Grand Manan, who finished second in the race in 2017. Two other contenders, S. Rebecca Shepherd's Curve of Stones, and Sheila J. Williams' and Northwood Stable's Storm Team had previously broken their timber maidens over the course. Charlie Fenwick's Royal Ruse comes into the stake off of a 15-length triumph in a non-sanctioned open timber event at Shawan Downs two weeks ago. Up-and-coming apprentice Skylar McKenna has the mount for her aunt, trainer Sanna Neilson. Also in the field is Upland Partners Mystic Strike, winner of the 2019 Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. Mystic Strike finished second to Royal Ruse at Shawan.

The card also includes three maiden hurdles, a handicap for horses rated at 115 or lower, a timber maiden, steeplethon over natural brush and timber fences, and a timber race and training-flat contest, both restricted to apprentice jockeys.

There's an interesting footnote to the fifth race, the $10,000 Daniel P. Sands Cup maiden hurdle for 3- and 4-year-olds. One of the entries making his debut over jumps is Irv Naylor's Junior Senator. If the name conjures memories of another horse with a similar name, it's not a coincidence. Junior Senator, a 4-year-old gelded son of Smarty Jones out of the mare Queen Kennelot, is a half brother to the legendary Senior Senator, the three-time winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup. Junior Senator ran eight  times at Laurel over the flat for trainer Billy Meister, winning once.

Looking at the leaderboard entering Saturday's races at Middleburg, trainer Jonathan Sheppard, who had a hot hand at Saratoga and saddled one winner at the Foxfield Fall Races in Charlottesville, Va., last Sunday, has an 11 to 10 edge in victories over conditioner Jack Fisher. Among jockeys, Gerard Galligan has eight victories, one more than Michael Mitchell, and two more than Tom Garner and Sean McDermott.

If you choose to watch the races via the live stream, you can print print out the program entries by going to the NSA web site, www.nationalsteeplechase.com, and clicking on the link for Entries. The livestream is sponsored by Brown Advisory, Charleston's The Post and Courier, Bruton Street-US, and the Virginia Equine Alliance.

The post National Steeplechase Association To Livestream Saturday’s Races From Middleburg appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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