Schoodic knows his way around Great Meadow: he’s logged more miles around the racecourse in The Plains in the past five years than most steeplechasers run in a lifetime.
Dolly Fisher’s veteran goes for his third-straight Gold Cup win at this Saturday’s International Gold Cup. Schoodic won the 2019 International Gold Cup and the 2021 Virginia Gold Cup – 7 ½ miles in front over the championship course, plus he ran in the Semmes and Ferguson handicap hurdle stakes five times between 2016 and 2018 for a total of 18 1/8 miles around the left-handed oval.
It might give Schoodic the advantage.
And he might need it.
In Saturday’s headline feature, Schoodic tangles with four of the division’s best, including one that’s been nipping at his heels all year. Leipers Fork Steeplechase’s Tomgarrow (Tom Garner listed to ride) was second to Schoodic in the Virginia Gold Cup in May and again second a month ago at Shawan Downs. Trainer Leslie Young, who saddled Andi A’mu to be second to Schoodic in the 2019 International Gold Cup, says she’s got Tomgarrow ready to meet the formidable Schoodic in the $75,000 classic.
Others to watch include Storm Team, who won his Gold Cup prep two weeks ago at Glenwood Park (Tomgarrow was second there, too) and won the super-competitive Houghland memorial at Nashville in June (Tomgarrow, second.)
Kiplin Hall’s Renegade River (Parker Hendriks) finished a neck in front of Schoodic at Willowdale May 8, but many believe the 5 pounds Renegade River got from Schoodic in the weights made the winning difference in the 3 ½-mile Pennsylvania race.
In the International Gold Cup – also 3 ½ miles, all five runners carry level weights – 165. Amateur rider Connor Hankin has the mount on Schoodic, certain to be morning-line favorite at the pari-mutuel meet.
Post time is 12 p.m. for the first of eight races on the $300,000-plus program. Event co-chair Al Griffin says betting is available through live tellers or at self-serve wagering kiosks around the racecourse. “This year, we’re keeping the pandemic safety spacing, with separation between railside parking spots,” Griffin said. “We’re really looking forward to Saturday. The forecast is great, the entries are strong and the course is in perfect condition.”
Storm Team, no. 1, and Tomgarrow tangled in the National Sporting Library Cup Oct. 9 at Glenwood Park. They meet again in Saturday’s Gold Cup.
Virginia Steeplechase Association president Don Yovanovich inspected the course on behalf of the NSA on Sunday, reporting that the track has a lush turf cover from careful tending after the spring meet and good rain this summer.
Other races on the card include the $75,000 grade II Ferguson hurdle handicap, the $30,000 cross-country steeplethon and five other hurdle races.
Tickets are still available – log onto vagoldcup.com for purchase information. Complete entries are at nationalsteeplechase.com. Find past performance records for early-week handicapping at centralentryoffice.com.
Rich in prizes, rich in history: International Gold Cup past
The waist-high International Gold Cup trophy took a winding route to its present home in The Plains.
The first time the ornate King of Spain cup was offered as a prize was at a 1930 race at the old Grasslands Downs in Brentwood, Tennessee. The ’chase was run over a 4¼ mile course of natural brush hedges similar to England’s Grand National at Aintree.
Spain’s King Alfonso XIII, then one of the world’s most gallant riders and sportsmen, placed the spectacularly beautiful pedestal bowl in competition for the 1930 event.
After the Tennessee meet folded in 1932, the trophy moved to the Rolling Rock course in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The 1931 winner of the cup at Grasslands, General Richard King Mellon, had developed the Rolling Rock course, and so he just kept the trophy and designed a championship race for it when he heard of Grasslands’ closure.
Mellon was a cousin of the late Upperville philanthropist Paul Mellon.
The trophy shifted again when Rolling Rock shuttered in 1983, moving to Great Meadow to anchor the very first meet held at the then-new course on Oct. 20, 1984.
In keeping with the Great Meadow focus on championship timber racing, the International Gold Cup became a timber race. Great Meadow had been built in 1983 as the new home to the Virginia Gold Cup timber classic.
Playing by the rules
If nothing goes wrong, you barely even know that this troika of race officials exists
Stewards: Critical to the safety and success for participants, horse and human
Saturday’s International Gold Cup races will have three of steeplechasing’s most trusted stewards in the stand. Learn the role these eyes and ears of the sport play.
They don’t wear zebra-striped uniforms or wear whistles, but they’re referees just the same.
Racing referees.
Stewards enforce the rules of racing. That’s their job, pure and simple, though a steward’s job is anything but easy.
An accredited steward since 1995 and Piedmont Foxhounds joint-master since 2001, Tad Zimmerman has worked as a state steward the past three years at Colonial Downs near Richmond.
At Saturday’s International Gold Cup races, the Upperville-based horseman will serve as presiding steward, joined on the distinctive Great Meadow stewards’ stand by Gus Brown and Jack Houghton. Stirling Young will act as safety steward.
There are certain qualities that lead to becoming a good steward, Zimmerman says – a sense of fairness, a willingness to listen, sharp observational skills and a thorough understanding of the actual rules of racing. But, more than anything, “it takes a thick skin. Whatever a ruling is, whenever a question is asked, you’re going to be on somebody’s wrong side,” he said. “You’ve got a two-horse situation; you may be wrong as far as somebody’s concerned.
“These horsemen have got skin in the game. The riders have their health at stake. The trainers have their horses, and their careers, at stake. The owners have a lot of money and time invested.”
“We depend on a core group of individuals” to work as accredited stewards, explained National Steeplechase Association director of racing Bill Gallo. “They’re very good at what they do.”
International Gold Cup chairs Dr. Will Allison, left, and Dr. Al Griffin, say they’re thrilled to have the big community event returning this Saturday.
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