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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Rosbrian Farm is Steeplechasing's Leading Owner, and Jack Fisher is Leading Trainer

BALTIMORE, Md.--Rosbrian Farm dominated Steeplechasing's Leading Owner category and also had the champion 3-year-old.

Rosbrian Leading OwnerRosbrian Farm wins Leading Owner titleThe National Steeplechase Association’s 2018 champions were crowned Jan. 17 at a gala awards dinner and dance held at the Maryland Club in Baltimore.

The dinner and dance were jointly sponsored by the National Steeplechase Association and the Steeplechase Owners and Breeders Association.

The year’s Lonesome Glory Award went to Jury Duty, who earned $270,000 with his 3 1/4-length victory in Far Hills’ G1 $450,000 Grand National, the year’s richest race.

Owned by the Sideways Syndicate, Jury Duty was trained to his New Jersey victory by leading Irish horseman Gordon Elliott.

Topping the owner list by a wide margin was Rosbrian Farm, which earned $712,050 from 54 starts.

 

OWNED BY Mandy and George Mahoney, the stable had 14 victories, including two G1 wins—the $200,000 Calvin Houghland Iroquois and Belmont Park’s $175,000 Lonesome Glory Handicap—by Zanjabeel, who is owned by Rosbrian in partnership with Wendy and Ben Griswold’s Meadow Run Farm.

Trained by Ricky Hendriks, Zanjabeel will be a leading candidate for the Eclipse Award with earnings of $265,500.

He also had two second-place finishes, in the G1 $150,000 Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup and the G2 $75,000 Temple Gwathmey Handicap.

Hendriks also trained Rosbrian’s Optimus Prime, winner of Saratoga Race Course’s G1 New York Turf Writers Cup and the International Gold Cup’s G2 David L. “Zeke” Ferguson Memorial.

Optimus Prime, Zanjabeel, and Jury Duty are the finalists for the 2018 Eclipse Award, which will be announced on Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park.

Rosbrian was represented by one champion, Caldbeck, who won the 3-year-old title with Far Hills’ $50,000 Gladstone Stakes and then locked up the title with a victory at the Steeplechase at Charleston on Nov. 11.

Also trained by Hendriks, Caldbeck had earnings of $45,000 from his two U.S. starts over fences.

Iranistan champ noviceIranistan Hudson River Farms’ Iranistan ruled as the year’s champion novice with purse earnings of $145,000.

Trained by Racing Hall of Fame member Jonathan Sheppard, the newcomer to jump racing easily won the Iroquois Steeplechase’s $125,000 Marcellus Frost Champion Hurdle for novices, finished second in Saratoga’s G1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial, and was third in the New York Turf Writers.

Check Mark Stables’ Willow U, winner of a $45,000 Virginia Gold Cup allowance hurdle against male competitors, was the Life’s Illusion Filly and Mare champion.

Trained by Richard Valentine, she also finished second in the $50,000 Iris Coggins Memorial at the Fair Hill Races.

 

DOC CEBU, now owned by Charles Fenwick Jr., Michael Hankin, and Charles Noell, claimed his second straight timber championship with a repeat win in the International Gold Cup on Oct. 27.

Trained by Jack Fisher, the Doc also won the Willowdale Steeplechase and the Genesee Valley Hunt Cup for the second year in a row and added a win in Shawan Downs’ Legacy Chase.

Two major titles, champion trainer by wins and champion jockey by wins, were decided by remarkable come-from-behind surges.

Jack Fisher picked up his seventh straight title when he moved to the top of the list over Hendriks on the next to last weekend of the season.

He won 22 races, one more than Hendriks.

Fisher had purse earnings of $983,850 and was the top trainer by purses for the fifth straight year, while Hendriks also finished second in that category, $50,100 behind Fisher.

Reigning champion jockey Darren Nagle made his usual autumn surge and took down the wins title with a victory at Charleston.

He had 17 wins, one more than Jack Doyle, who had led the standings from the first day of the season.

Ross Geraghty, the champion jockey in 2012 by wins and purses, claimed his second earnings title with $716,100, his best season by earnings.

He rode Zanjabeel to victory in the Calvin Houghland Iroquois and was the regular rider for Optimus Prime, Caldbeck, and Wendy Hendriks’ multiple stakes winner Surprising Soul, among others.

Eric Poretz, who rode Irv Crawford’s Senior Senator to their second victory in the Maryland Hunt Cup, was the leading apprentice jockey as well as the year’s champion amateur jockey.

The Maryland resident had eight wins for the season, placing him sixth on the leader board by victories.

For a record 10th time, Irv Naylor was the champion timber owner with $136,100 in purses.

Fisher was the leading timber trainer, and Nagle was the leading timber jockey.

Recipients of the Woodville Award, presented annually by Hall of Fame trainer Janet Elliot, were Ashton Williams from the Joe Davies stable and Reggie Williams from Jimmy Day’s stable.

The Woodville Award honors the unsung workers whose dedication and diligence are essential to steeplechase racing.

The Horse of Delaware Valley

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