Tag: The Mean Queen

‘I See Both Sides’: Trainer Keri Brion Talks Realities Of Steeplechase Racing

Trainer Keri Brion was a guest on Steve Byk's “At The Races” radio show last week, following her rollercoaster of an opening day at Belmont Park on Sept. 16.

In the first race, the William Entenmann Memorial Hurdle Stakes, the Brion-trained Grade 1 winner Baltimore Bucko fell at fence three and suffered a fatal injury. In the second race, she saddled The Mean Queen to win her second Grade 1 of the year in the Lonesome Glory.

Baltimore Bucko's fatality sparked significant social media discussion about jumps racing, and Brion took the opportunity on Byk's show to speak out.

“Whenever a horse falls in jump racing, our sport gets absolutely crucified,” Brion said. “I understand it looks horrible, and it was, it was heartbreaking for all of us to watch. Not just us close to the horse, but obviously everyone else. The one thing I just want to say about that is, you know, our sport is dangerous, but so is flat racing. You see these horses that suffer catastrophic injuries on the flat, and it happens more on the flat than it even does over jumps, to be honest with you. It's very, very rare that we have a fall like that where they don't actually get back up.

“I don't want to cast this off as 'just one of those things,' because we do need to do better, and the NSA is currently and always trying to find better options. I think we're gonna switch to a different type of a fence. I think by the time we are up there again next year, there's gonna be a safer model of hurdle up there that we'll be running over, which is something to look forward to.”

Brion carries a strong social media presence, and extended an offer to talk about the realities of her sport with anyone willing to listen.

“I see both sides and I understand how uneducated people right away are like, 'I hate watching these races and I hate seeing them,' but do you really think we're going to force a 1200-lb animal to go jump over fences if they don't want to?” she asked. “I mean, honest to God, do you think we're capable of doing that? No, we're not. I'd love to take a group of people that wanna say they're being forced and they don't like it, I'd love to take them to watch these horses school in the mornings. When they realize they're going to the schooling field, their whole demeanor changes. They get so excited that they get to go jumping.”

Baltimore Bucko is Brion's first Grade 1 winner, capturing the G1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial on July 22, 2021. She talked about what the horse meant to her personally.

“He was very, very special to me,” the trainer said. “Obviously I talked to you at some stage, maybe after his Smithwick win, and he was just kind of the gift that just kept on giving for his owners and for me. What he might have lacked a little bit in ability, he made up in heart. I can assure everyone he was 100 percent going out there, and it was unfortunately just, it was one of those things. We'll never have him back, and it's hard to see his stall here in the barn in the morning – we haven't filled it yet. It was tough, but he did go out doing what he loved to do. There was nothing more in the world that that horse loved to do than to run and jump.”

Listen to the entire interview with Byk here.

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The Mean Queen Overtakes Snap Decision In Lonesome Glory

Buttonwood Farm's The Mean Queen bested the boys for a second consecutive Grade 1 start, ending Snap Decision's nine-race winning streak in a gritty stretch duel in Thursday's $150,000 Lonesome Glory, a 2 1/2-mile steeplechase event for older horses on Opening Day of the Belmont Park fall meet.

Trained by Keri Brion, the 5-year-old Doyen mare entered from a 4 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1, $150,000 Jonathan Sheppard on August 18 at Saratoga Race Course.

With Richard Condon up, The Mean Queen, the 7-5 second choice, tracked in third position as Bodes Well led the seven-horse field through the first circuit of the Belmont turf course with Amschel in second and 4-5 favorite Snap Decision, under Graham Watters, settled near the back of the pack in fifth.

Bodes Well attempted to sprint away from the field in the final run down the backstretch as Snap Decision advanced into third position beside The Mean Queen. The two rivals found their best run midway around the final turn easily overtaking Bodes Well to set up a memorable stretch duel.

Snap Decision, carrying a field-high 164 pounds, loomed large with his outside position turning for home but The Mean Queen, assigned 157 pounds, continued to find more, powering through the wire a two-length winner in a final time of 4:37.83.

“I thought the race would pretty much go exactly like that, but I didn't know if that would be the outcome,” Brion said. “She's so tough and I said to Richie, 'If you can just get her a neck in front of him, that's our best chance because she'll never let him pass.' That's how she works in the morning. Everything she works with, even if they're going slow, she's just like, 'No. You're not getting past me.'

“Snap came up to her and she kept that neck around the bend,” added Brion. “I knew at the eighth-pole she wasn't going to let him get past. She's just something else.”

The Mean Queen has provided Brion with a number of memorable moments this year, including a victory in April at Ireland's Wexford Racecourse that made her the first U.S.-based trainer to win an Irish hurdle race.

Condon was full of praise for The Mean Queen and her formidable foe.

“They are the two best [steeplechase] horses in America at the moment. The public were really watching this race and the hype between the two horses was really immense,” Condon said. “To get the ride in such a big race against a horse like Snap Decision was just great, and full credit goes to Keri and the mare herself. That was a serious performance.”

Condon said he was a little bit concerned about racing room approaching the stretch run.

“I knew he [Snap Decision] was there, and he made an attempt to keep me in behind Bodes Well,” Condon said. “I made a move sooner than I had planned, but I was delighted to have the rail to guide me to the wire with a top notch animal underneath me.

“That was a proper Grade 1 by American standards,” Condon added. “Snap Decision lost nothing in defeat. I think the two of them are proper Grade 1 horses and they would be able to compete in Grade 1 races in Ireland and England. That's the caliber of horse they are. America is lucky to have them.”

Bruton Street's Snap Decision posted a nine-race win streak dating to 2019 and entered from a Grade 1 win in the Calvin Houghland Iroquois in June at Percy Warner for Hall of Fame trainer Jack Fisher.

Snap Decision's pilot said he is hopeful of turning the tables in the Grand National at Far Hills, should the two foes meet again.

“He was carrying seven pounds more than her. Lucky enough at Far Hills, in four weeks' time, we'll all go off at level weights,” Watters said. “You'd like to think judging off the weights, he'd be able to beat her by open lengths. I thought I was a winner turning in, but the closer we got to the line I could feel that weight getting to me more and more.”

Redicean completed the trifecta with Amschel, Bodes Well, Brianbakescookies and Galway Kid rounding out the order of finish.

Bred in Ireland by Kevin Purfield, The Mean Queen banked $90,000 in victory while improving her career ledger to 8-6-1-0. She returned $4.90 for a $2 win bet.

Live racing returns Friday at Belmont with a nine-race card highlighted by the $100,000 Allied Forces in Race 7 and the $100,000 Christiecat in Race 8. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern.

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Grade 1 Steeplechase Action Highlights Belmont’s Opening Day Card

Steeplechase action will take center stage on Opening Day of the Belmont Park fall meet Thursday when Buttonwood Farm's The Mean Queen will look to best males for a second consecutive Grade 1 contest in the $150,000 Lonesome Glory for 4-year-olds and up competing at 2 1/2 miles.

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.

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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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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Steeplechasers Have Started Brion’s Career With A Bang, But She Has Eyes On The Flat Too

A week after her resounding success in the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Handicap at Saratoga, trainer Keri Brion said the result still hadn't fully sunk in. Brion saddled four runners in the race, and trained all of the trifecta, led by The Mean Queen (IRE) and rounded out by Baltimore Bucko (GB) and French Light (FR).

“I didn't really allow myself to even start thinking about it,” said Brion. “A lot of people were saying it to me, but to be honest I just hoped one of them could get it done. I knew the pressure was on – on paper, mine were the ones to beat. It wasn't until the eighth pole I started yelling for French Light, 'Get up there!' to be third.”

The accomplishment was fitting, since Brion served as assistant trainer to Sheppard for 11 years and was part of his team for several of his 15 victories in the race, formerly known as the New York Turf Writers Cup.

For Brion, the past eight months since going out on her own have been a whirlwind. Brion had taken a string of Sheppard's horses over to Ireland in November 2020 and was still there when she got word in January that Sheppard was retiring. Brion had long hoped to open her own racing stable and had developed good relationships with many of Sheppard's owners, so she had expected at some point she may take the mantle from him but said it happened rather suddenly.

“I always planned to go out on my own, but maybe not in this way,” she said. “But everything happens for a reason, and everything's going pretty good now.”

Now, she is the leading trainer in the National Steeplechase Association standings by earnings and is tied with recent Hall of Fame inductee Jack Fisher for NSA wins. She got her first Grade 1 win in late July when Baltimore Bucko took the G1 A.P. Smithwick Memorial. Her jaunt to Ireland also helped her make history, as she became the first American trainer to win a hurdle race in the country (courtesy of The Mean Queen) and the first to win a National Hunt race in Ireland with Scorpion's Revenge. Brion said the level of competition in Ireland and England for steeplechase horses is considerably higher than in the United States, where there are comparatively few steeplechase horses.

The months spent in Ireland exposed Brion to new training styles to build better fitness and stamina, but also gave her the chance to develop an angle she hopes will bring new owners into the steeplechase scene in the States. Prize money has become a major problem in English and Irish racing, and Brion has found that a mid-level runner there can be tremendously successful in America, where steeplechase purses are much better.

“Obviously, over there jump racing is more prestigious, so they've got that going for them but the guys who are putting a lot of money into the sport don't even break even,” she said. “You can at least break even, maybe make some money here when you do it the right way. I have quite a few people intrigued by it.”

American jump racing is a great outlet for a runner who prefers firm ground, which they don't reliably get in Ireland.

Brion leads The Mean Queen back to the barn after a workout with Tom Garner up

Although steeplechase is most popular in East Coast areas known for all types of equestrian sport, like fox hunting and eventing, Brion said she wish more people understood that it really has more in common with flat racing than cross country.

“I wish the sport did a better job of advocating and teaching people about it because there are quite a few misconceptions about the sport, but it's only because you would have no way to know,” she said. “I think people look at us as a different entity. Flat racing, you look at them as athletes doing a sport. Steeplechase racing, I think people look at it like we're almost show horses which we're not. We're just as competitive as the flat, and there's money to be made in it. It could be supported just as well.”

Brion first came to horses not as a reformed show rider, but as a Thoroughbred fan from the age of 10. She started off working at Sylmar Farm in Christiana, Penn., and learned to gallop at the age of 13. Although she's known for her steeplechase success, Brion said she hopes to build a name for herself in the realm of flat racing also, the way Sheppard did with top runners Informed Decision and Forever Together.

Perhaps contrary to popular belief among flat racing fans, Brion said the training process for a steeplechaser really isn't much different from a flat horse. Hurdlers also don't actually travel much slower than flat horses and need just as strong a closing kick, they just settle over a greater distance first.

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Brion also sees potential in a certain type of flat horse to make a transition over hurdles, and is hopeful she can help more owners see the potential in that type of second career.

“You look for horses – whether they're turf or dirt – that are running long, they're coming late, and just missing,” she said. “Horses that look like they want more ground. I don't mind dirt or turf, either way. You want to see horses that are finishing third or fourth and are galloping out strongly. Every horse jumps, it's just a matter of how good. You can teach them to jump. Even a $10,000 claimer who just runs out of room or is just very one-paced and has a high cruising speed, those are the horses that do well [steeplechasing]. And it's always good to remind owners, horses get their maiden conditions back over jumps.”

Brion aboard Grade 1 winner All The Way Jose

The summer season has been a busy one for Brion, who bases out of Fair Hill. The Fair Hill base is perfect for her program, which allows horses regular turnout and the chance to gallop over rolling hills, but it still means a lot of time on the road. Brion is sending horses to Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania at regular intervals, so her days are long ones. Brion spent some time as a jockey (she was champion apprentice jump jockey in 2017), and still gallops as many of her own string of 30 as she can. This fall will bring more commuting, as there are steeplechase meets every weekend through mid-November. Race days like the G1 Jonathan Sheppard make the long days worth it.

“I have quite a few nice 2-year-olds in my barn, so I'm hoping they will fire and I can get my name out there,” she said. “I've got a bunch of new owners from overseas and I'm looking forward to getting new horses in. My success in Saratoga has really helped me, and I have some exciting new clients.”

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