COCKEYSVILLE, Md.--Elkridge-Harford Hunt dominated the Foxhall Farm Cup Team Chase on Sunday, March 17, placing first, second and third in the Fastest Time category and second and fourth in the Average Time section.
Foxhall Farm Cup Team Chase winnersThe Team Chase was competed over about four miles on a flagged course.and the time was tight between the winning teams, with only 37 seconds separating the first three teams.
The winning team consisted of foxhunting youngsters, McKenna O'Neil, Eliza Henderson and Colin Smith, with two of them teenagers and the third just 20, and all three were riding retired race horses.
McKenna O’Neil, the youngest at age 17, has been fox hunting with Elkidge-Harford since she was 7.
She was riding Jarir (GB), a horse she got from Irv Naylor during COVID as a retired 8-year-old race horse.
After she got Jarir, O'Neil began to retrain him, and she competed Jarir in the Thoroughbred Retired Racehorse Makeover in 2021, where she was Junior Champion in the Show Jumper Division as well as the Fox Hunter Division.
O'Neil has been hunting Jarir with Elkridge-Harford for four years, but this was the first time she rode in the Team Chase..
Eliza Henderson, age 18, rode Quite a Journey, a horse that ran over hurdles for Jack Fisher as a 3-year-old.
HENDERSON is now leasing one-half of Quite a Journey from Cassie and Rachael Lively.
Cassie hunts with Green Spring Valley Hunt.
Quite a Journey is primarily a Show Jumper these days with Henderson and has done up to Grand Prix Show Jumping.
Colin Smith, age 20, got Market Bubble last October.
Market Bubble was a good race horse but was retired after a fall in the spring of 2023, and this was Market Bubble’s first season fox hunting with Elkridge-Harford.
Smith has ridden twice in the Maryland Hunt Cup on Armata Stables' Good Old Times.
The finished in seven minutes and 27 seconds to beat the team of Theresa Dimpfel on Blackhall (Ire), Ashton Williams on Some Response (Ire) and Teddy Davies on Our Friend (Ire) that finished in seen minutes and 33 seconds.
Blackhall has run twice in the Maryland Hunt Cup, finishing fifth in 2022 and falling last year over the big 16th fence, and he is nominated to run in the Hunt Cup again this year.
Our Friend is also nominated to run in this year's Maryland Hunt Cup, and both Blackhall and Our Friend are trained by Joe Davies, Master of Elkridge-Harford Hunt.
The third placed Elkridge-Harford team consisted of Thomas Garner on Worzel Gummidge (Ire), Gerard Galligan on Fashion Line and Alex Leventhal on L'aigle Royal (Ger), that finished in seven minutes, 54 seconds.
The Green Spring Valley team of Virginia Korrell on Sideling Hill, Dan Nevin on Druid's Alter (Ire0 and Justin Batoff on Class Indian was fourth.
In the Average Time section, Green Spring Valley was first and third.
The Green Spring Valley teamof Cappy Jackson on Leopard Cat, Rachel Blakey on Birdie and Katherine Chorosinski on Winston won over the Elkridge-Harford team of Carly Kern on Modern Cowpoke, Mimi Schmitz on My Special Victory and Claudia Romeo on Enchanted Circle (GB).
Third was the Green Spring Valley team of Danielle Brewster on Really Ready,, Adair B.Bonsal on Stand Down (Ire) and Charles C. Fenwick on Withoutdestination (GB), and fourth was the Elkridge-Harford team of Robert Keller Jr. on Cavelli, Anna Coyne on Ant and Bee and Rosie Watters on Dawalan (Fr),
