'Economy' pointing up at Middleburg Spring, Former timber champ back in form for Gold Cup prep
Submitted by: Betsy Parker
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Email Address: betsy(at)virginiaequestrian.com
Date Added: 4/23/2009
By Betsy Burke Parker
The Hoof Beat
MIDDLEBURG, VIRGINIA. April 18, 2009 -- As a parade of Virginia Gold Cup probables swarmed the finish of the 3 1/4-mile Middleburg Hunt Cup, former champion Bubble Economy stamped his ticket to the big dance in two weeks. Arcadia Stable's Bubble Economy edged the competition in the open timber stakes at Saturday's Middleburg Spring Races.
Last year's Gold Cup winner had champion connections backing up his return to the races at Glenwood Park: the bay gelding was ridden by '07 and '08 champion rider Xavier Aizpuru, and is trained in Maryland's Hunt Valley by reigning champion trainer Jack Fisher. Fisher, something of a Gold Cup specialist with nine victories (riding and/or training) produced Bubble Economy ready to win in his sole prep for the $75,000 Gold Cup classic upcoming May 2. Bubble Economy closed in late stretch to win the $20,000 Middleburg cup by a head from 2007 International Gold Cup winner Seeyouattheevent, also from the Fisher stable.
The usually laconic Fisher was thrilled at the result. "You'll see them both again" this spring, he said slyly, refering to a return engagement for both.
A neck back was third-placed Erin Go Bragh, also pointed to the Gold Cup, with former champion Irish Prince another neck off the winner back in fourth.
In the hurdle feature -- the 2 1/2-mile Temple Gwathmey hurdle handicap, another narrow decision separated the winner from als0-ran. Just a head plus two half-lengths was between winner Isti Bee (Paddy Young up), second-placed stablemate Dark Equation, third-placed Planets Aligned and fourth-place handicap highweight Preemptive Strike. A clutch of the nation's top hurdlers jostled for position at the top of the competitive division in the $60,000 grade 3 stake, all attracted by the defection at entry stage of highweight and two-time champ, Good Night Shirt. Considered the dark horse of trainer Fout's Gwathmey triple threat, New Zealand-bred Isti Bee held on bravely to beat Dark Equation at the line. Dark Equation, a grade 1 winner last summer, closed sharply but could not get past chestnut Isti Bee.
Fout's other entry, Gliding -- winner of the 2007 Gwathmey as a novice -- finished eighth.
The headliner attracted a dozen at nomination stage, including defending U.S. hurdle champ Good Night Shirt. But the champion's connections declined the invitation when high-weighted at 164. This left the door open for Good Night Shirt's main adversaries, setting up the Gwathmey easily as the best race of the season so far. And it did not disappoint.
De facto high-weight Preemptive Strike, 152, struggled from the start, missing a chance at the lead when circled by Isti Bee (142 pounds) from the outside post at the start, then wavering when asked to quicken up the hill with 3/4ths of a mile to run. Fout instructed Young to control the pace. “I told the jock, if you can get loose on the front end here, no one will catch you,” Fout recounted. "This course favors a front-runner, especially in a (fancy) group like this." Away strongly from the flag, Isti Bee went to the lead at once, sticking snugly on the inside, repelling consecutive challenges from Preemptive Strike final time along the backstretch and, at the last, from Private Attack. Though Dark Equation was “coming like a freight train” near the wire, Fout said, Isti Bee repelled the challenge. Planets Aligned was just back in third, with Preemptive Strike fourth.
Peggy Steinman’s Dark Equation won the Grade I New York Turf Writers last August. The 8-year-old son of Polish Numbers struggled in a pair of Grade I stakes after his New York score, fifth to Good Night Shirt in the Lonesome Glory, fourth to him in the Colonial Cup. Accordingly, Dark Equation drew 150 pounds on the handicap scale. Dark Equation and Gliding readied for Saturday’s Gwathmey on the turf at Old Dominion, Dark Equation rolling in eight lengths to the better of his stablemate. Isti Bee prepped by winning over hurdles – his first U.S. jump win – at Warrenton.
Twice a winner over hurdles in Australia, Isti Bee has always given his trainer high hopes. When the gelding arrived last summer to Fout's stable in The Plains with a 105 fever, he needed a full week at a Leesburg horse hospital to recover. It put his 2008 campaign off track, Fout said.
In his first U.S. jumps start, Isti Bee fell early in the Breeders Cup 'chase in October, but he returned two weeks later to finish close-up, closing fifth in the Noel Laing at Montpelier. In his '09 sanctioned debut in the March 28 Carolina Cup, Isti Bee finished a dull third – behind Good Night Shirt. Fout soon found out why, indicating that the horse suffered exercise induced pulmonary hemorrage, though he had been treated with the diruetic Lasix.
Some time following that race in a special hyperbaric oxygen chamber designed to lessen the chance of broken capillaries in the lungs seems to have worked, Fout said. Formerly part of the dispersed Brigadoon Stable, Isti Bee now races for Middleburg owner Maggie Bryant. Fout's Gliding, faded to eighth, but the trainer saw only the positive in the effort. Almost a year to the day Gliding took the world stage in Japan's Nakayama Grand Jump, the world’s richest steeplechase. Gliding ran a troubled ninth in Japan, coming out of it with a chip in his ankle. He underwent surgery and missed the remainder of 2008.
"I told the jock (Virginia-based Irish pro Jeff Murphy) to take it easy on him today," Fout said of the horse, a graded stakes winner in 2007. “He’s sound and carrying a lot of weight and that’s a great thing.” Fout said the weight-for-age Iroquois May 9 – in which all horses carry 158 pounds – was a target for his trio. Two-time Iroquois winner Good Night Shirt is naturally also pointed to the rich Nashville stake. Good Night Shirt's trainer Jack Fisher will favor the weight-for-age contest over handicaps -- where the horse will be rated higher than his rivals, Fout said.
Historically figuring in Horse of the Year honors, through the years the Gwathmey has helped establish several hurdle legends. Prior winners read like 'chasing's Who's Who: Bon Nouvel, Top Bid, Shadow Brook, Soothsayer, Athenian Idol, Arctic Joe, Happy Intellectual, Fire Control, Bel Iman, Leaping Frog, Zaccio, Flatterer, Census, Warm Spell, Lonesome Glory and Rowdy Irishman. In the day's other races: * Perry Bolton's Scuba Steve controlled the pace and controlled the race to win the unique Alfred Hunt open steeplechase. Run over a variety of fences including timber, hurdles, brush, natural hedges, an open ditch, water jump and a 180-degree hairpin turn, the Hunt is popular as a true jumping test. Talented Scuba Steve won the Steeplethon, held at Great Meadow, last fall.
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LEESBURG, VIRGINIA. APRIL 19, 2009 -- Owner-trainer-breeder Bay Cockburn has had a hand in the making of Bowman Bowl winner I'm Telling, right from the start. At Sunday's Fairfax Hunt Point-to-Point at Morven Park, the bay gelding stamped himself as a likely favorite when headed to National Steeplechase Association sanctioned competition later this year.
Cockburn, who was Loudoun Hunt huntsman until a 1998 training fall left him in a wheelchair, said he used to hunt the Leesburg pack off Don't Tell Ma, “that nutty mare” who only he was capable of riding, he said. Don't Tell Ma eventually became I'm Telling's dam.
A son of former Virginia-based stallion Linkage, I'm Telling was foaled at Cockburn's farm in Maryland in 2001. I'm Telling won wire-to-wire under rider Jacob Roberts. Roberts, a native of Puerto Rico, lives in Kentucky but he started his steeplechase career with Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard in Pennsylvania.
* In the day's other races:
* Kentucky-bred by Ned Evans (whose Virginia-foaled homebred Quality Road is headed to the May 2 Kentucky Derby),
* Church Ghost won the open hurdle under rider Jeff Murphy.
Results
Middleburg Spring Races
Paul Fout memorial maiden hurdle. Purse: $25,000. 2 1/8 miles. Time: 4:12 4/5. 1. It's My Choice, o/Gill Johnston, r/Jody Petty; 2. Class Crash, o/Star Ten Stable, r/Richard Boucher; 3. Amador, o/Sharon Sheppard, r/Jacob Roberts. Middleburg Hunt Cup open timber. Purse: $20,000. 3 1/4 miles. Time: 7:17 4/5. 1. Bubble Economy, o/Arcadia Stable, r/Xavier Aizpuru; 2. Seeyouattheevent, o/Nick Arundel, r/Willi Dowling; 3. Erin Go Bragh, o/Maggie Bryant, r/Paddy Young. Temple Gwathmey Grade III hurdle stake. Purse: $60,000. 2 ½ miles. Time: 4:35 1/5. 1. Isti Bee, o/Maggie Bryant, r/Paddy Young; 2. Dark Equation, o/Peggy Steinman, r/Carl Rafter; 3. Planets Aligned, o/Fox Ridge Farm, r/Padge Whelan. Allowance hurdle. Purse: $20,000. 2 1/8 miles. Time: 4:08. 1. Dynantonia, o/r Gregg Ryan; 2. Fogcutter, o/Fox Ridge Farm, r/Padge Whelan; 3. Right Hand Red, o/Ivy Hill Stable, r/Jacob Roberts. Maiden claiming hurdle. Purse: $10,000. 2 1/8 miles. Time: 4:09. 1. Bethpage Black, o/Margaret Littleton, r/Carl Rafter; 2. Bullet Dancer, o/Bruce Smart, r/Liam McVicar; 3. Meshwaar, o/Aylor Racing, r/Gregg Ryan. Alfred Hunt open steeplechase. Purse: $15,000. 2 5/8 miles. Time: 5:23 4/5. 1. Scuba Steve, o/Perry Bolton, r/Carl Rafter; 2. He's A Conniver, o/Calvin Houghland, r/Robbie Walsh; 3. Major Malibu, o/Ann Stern, r/Liam McVicar. Training turf. 1 1/2 miles. Time: 2:44 2/5. 1. Flight Briefing, o/Augustin Stables, r/Jody Petty; 2. Imperial Way, o/Rathbun estate, r/Padge Whelan; 3. Class Classic, o/Mede Cahaba, r/Richard Boucher.
Fairfax Hunt Point-to-Point
Open turf. 1 ¼ miles. Time: 2:14. 1. Sonic Charm, r/Rusty Cline, r/Paddy Young; 2. Atrium, o/Whitewood Stable, r/Robbie Walsh; 3. Slaney Rock, o/Hickory Tree Stable, r/Jeff Murphy. Maiden turf. 1 ¼ miles. Time: 2:16 1/5. 1. Great Gusto, o/Clorevia Farm, r/Paddy Young; 2. Sky Count, o/Kinross Farm, r/Robbie Walsh; 3. Troubled Angel, o/Marethon Farm, r/Loring Heard. Jack Crippen memorial maiden hurdle. Purse: $3,000. 2 1/8 miles. Time: 4:15 2/5. 1. I Hear Banjos, o/Kinross Farm, r/Willi Dowling; 2. What A Warrior, o/Tom Hulfish, r/Carl Rafter; 3. Ouagadougou, o/Northfield, r/Jeff Murphy. Open hurdle. Purse: $5,000. 2 1/8 miles. Time: 4:15 2/5. 1. Church Ghost, o/Jake Dunning, r/Jeff Murphy; 2. Zulla Road, o/Celtic Venture, r/Carl Rafter; 3. Class Bopper, o/Mede Cahaba, r/Richard Boucher. Open timber. Purse: $5,000. 3 1/4 miles., Time: 6:52 1/5. 1. I'm Telling, o/Cockburn and Naney, r/Jacob Roberts; 2. Orison, o/EMO Stables, r/Carl Rafter; 3. More Fascination, o/Silverton Hill, r/Paddy Young. Maiden turf. Purse: $2,000. 1 ¼ miles. Time: . 1. Thynnus, o/Sara Collette, r/Robbie Walsh; 2. Edmonton Affair, o/Laurel Inc., r/Pat Cooney; 3. Gingerstimetodance, o/Marethon Farm, r/Loring Heard.
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