HUNT VALLEY, Md.--Leslie Young won three races, including the co-featured $35,000 Allowance Hurdle, to extend her lead in the Trainer, Races Won to 25 to Jack Fisher's 13 and Arch Kingsley's eight.

Leslie YoungMark Beecher saddled Cracker Factory (GB) to win the co-featured $35,000, 3 1/8 mile Timber Stakes.

Young saddled both the first and second placed horses in the 2 mile Allowance Hurdle, winning with Noble Stables' Total Joy (Ire) and placing second with Leipers Fork Steeplechasers' For the Parish (Ire).

Total Joy, ridden by Freddie Procter, won by 10 lengths in the fastest hurdle time of 3:36 2/5 in only his second race in this country and his second win after running three times in England without hitting the board..

"We knew Total Joy would like the ground, because the ground at Radnor, where he won the maiden, was also a bit soft," said Young. "He's really easy at home to train."

"When I bought him last year as a 3-year-old, he was a big baby," said Young. I'm glad we waited until this spring to run him. We gave him a point-to-point run before Radnor, but he's two for two in sanctioned races now. He'll probably go to Far Hills next."

"I bought For the Parish privately last November," she said. "This was only his second race. I was very happy with him. He still a never won two, so maybe he'll go to Far Hills in the novice or else the never won two at the Gold Cup."

Young saddled Sharon Sheppard's Chosen Judge (Ire), ridden by Mikey Hamill, to win the $30,000 Maiden Hurdle by 1 length.

"I got Chosen Judge at the Tattersall sale," said Young."He's related to Chosen Mate, trained by Ricky Hendrks."

 

YOUNG'S third win was with Salamanca School (Fr), owed by Joy Slater's Fat Chance Farm and ridden by Procter, who won by 9 lengths in the $15,000 Maiden Timber.

Cracker Factory rallies past the last fence to win the Timber Stakes (Photo by Tod Marks)"I was so pleased for Joy," said Young. "I bought him last summer, and he was placed over hurdles lat year. But then he pulled a shoe and it got caught up in a hind foot and we had to give him time off."

Young also saddled Elusive Exclusive to place second in the Timber Stakes, where he beat Andi'Amu, now trained by Neil Morris but previously trained by Young who saddled him for multiple graded stakes wins and 10 stakes wins in all.

Andi'amu is owned by Tom and Roxy Collins's Ballybristol Farm, and the Collins took all of their horses from Young over a disputed bill after Young had had an 80 percent in the money average for them with over $600,000 in purses.

"I had suggested they retire Andi'amu, who is 13 now, when he got all lathered up for a race," said Young. "He'd never done that before, and I think he was telling up something. I felt Andi'amu should have gone out on top. But they wanted to keep him racing. Then they bitched when I brought Jack Doyle over to school hm and charged them $200. They questioned me about prices when I had won them over $600,000. Then they let me know they'd taken the horses away in a certified letter."

"It was really hard to lose Andi'amu," said Young. "He was a special big horse."

BEECHER saddled The Hundred Acre Field's Cracker Factor, ridden by Jamie Bargery, to win the $35,000 Timber Stakes by a head over Elusive Exclusive and Andi'amu, who was again very lathered up and never showed the speed and determination that he had in his many wins.

"Cracker Factory has been with me for three years," said Beecher. "I claimed hm from Jack Fisher at Foxfield in 1920.

"Cracker Factory did all the work," said Beecher. "He was still about fifth at the second to last fence, then he just kept picking up horses one by one in the stretch. He won a stakes race at Middleburg last fall, so he's won two stakes now."

"He's a lovely horse," he said. "He hunts very well. He's a pleasing horse to have. He's a good looking horse. He could probably win in the show ring."

"I'll probably nominate him to the stake at Middleburg, or he might go to the Gold Cup," said Beecher. "It''s a tight schedule with just two weeks to Middleburg and than two weeks to the Gold Cup. He'll tell me what he wants to do when we get him home."

Keri Brion saddled KMSN Stable's Lightning Ridge, ridden by Parker Hendriks, to win the $20,000 Maiden 3-Year-Old Hurdle by 1 length over Anzio, trained by Jack Fisher.

Fisher's runners placed first, second and third in the $25,000 Ratings handicap Hurdle, with Riverdee Stable's Rocket One, ridden by Graham Watters, winning by a head over South Mountain (Ire), with Piing Pong Champ third.

Ricky Hendriks saddled Armata Stable's Chosen Mate (Ire), ridden by Virginia Korell, to win the $7,000 Amateur or Apprentice Rider Timber Allowance by 2 lengths over Schoodic, trained by Fisher.

Proter rodetwo winners on the day while Bargary had a first and two seconds and Korell had a first and a second.