Humdinger Scores Three-Peat at Thornton Hill Races
Submitted by: Betsy Burke Parker
Phone: 540-364-2929
Email Address: betsyp(at)crosslink.net
Date Added: 9/17/2009
Thornton Hill Hounds Point-to-Point
By Betsy Burke Parker
SPERRYVILLE – Calling it courses for horses hardly covers it: the past three seasons racing over hurdles Kentucky-bred Humdinger has kicked off his fall campaign with victory over the tricky, tight mountainside Thornton Hill Hounds racecourse. Saturday was no different – odds-players would have bet the house on the Kinross colorbearer in the featured open hurdle.
“He likes this course,” said farm trainer Neil Morris in classic understatement about the Sept. 12 open hurdle score at the Thornton Hill Point-to-Point. “It's just the right way to start off the season,” he added, with a relatively easy win to tune up for the upcoming rich National Steeplechase Association races that start in two weeks.
Red-hot apprentice Liam McVicar, fresh off grade I victory in the $100,000 Turf Writers' at Saratoga, partnered the Middleburg-owned and -trained Humdinger. Well-placed by the Scotsman in the early going, Humdinger pinched the lead off Otappaz (Jeff Murphy up) approaching the last fence and won going away by five. A bay son of Broad Brush, the late champion sire who raced for Maryland's Bob Meyerhoff, Humdinger won the same race in 2007 and '08. He was voted Hurdle Horse of the Year for the Virginia Steeplechase Association last year. In 11 Virginia starts, Humdinger has been ridden by nine jockeys.
By contrast, maiden timber winner Mecklenburg has made nine Virginia starts, all but one for owner Anne Haynes' son Will. Making his first try over solid fences, the Virginia-bred 5-year-old “hadn't even schooled over timber, really,” Haynes said. “We'd popped some logs, but never really 'headed' him over timber. He jumped well,” regardless of the limited preparations. Haynes allowed that the Haynes homebred, a sanctioned winner over hurdles, might be a natural to aim for the Oct. 17 Steeplethon at Great Meadow, an unusual race that includes timber and hurdles as well as a variety of other obstacles. “I think he'd be pretty good there,” Haynes said.
Results
Junior field masters chase. Large ponies. 1. Circe, o/r Teresa Croce; 2. Leaping Leopold, o/r Carin Brown.
Horses. 1. Smokey, o/r Tate Shaw.
Nancy Tilton Orme memorial maiden hurdle, first division. 1 1/2 miles. Time: 3:47 1/5. 1. Fantastic Foe, o/William Pearson, r/Rod MacKenzie; 2. Mighty Valdiar, o/Bay Cockburn, r/Sam Cockburn; 3. Derek The Great, o/Mick Larkin, r/Nick Carter. 4 started.
Second division. Time: 3:57 4/5. 1. Regality, o/Nick Larkin, r/Nick Carter. 4 starters, 2 off course, 1 lost rider.
Open hurdle. 1 ½ miles. Time: 3:44 2/5. 1. Humdinger, o/Kinross Farm, r/Liam McVicar; 2. Otappaz, o/Charlie McCann, r/Jeff Murphy; 3. Scandalizer, o/Peter Hitchen, r/Jacob Roberts. 4 started.
Michael G. Marsh memorial maiden turf. 6 furlongs. Time: 1:33 4/5. 1. Class Band, o/Mede Cahaba Stable, r/Richard Boucher; 2. M and L Lollipop, o/Aylor Racing, r/Natasha Aylor; 3. Know Gdansk, o/Old Kennels, r/Nick Carter. 6 started.
Open turf. 6 furlongs. Time: 1:33 3/5. 1. Explosive Whirl, o/Katherine Johnson, r/Alan Rice; 2. Lightning Storm, o/james McIngvale, r/Adam Brown; 3. Lear Heights, o/Indian Run Farm, r/Jacob Roberts. 6 started.
Homer C. LeHew memorial. Open turf. 1 ¼ miles. Time: 2:48. 1. What a Warrior, o/Tom Hulfish, r/Jacob Roberts; 2. Class Miner, o/Why Not Racing, r/Jorge Torres; 3. Endless Mountain, o/Indian Run Farm, r/Billy Santoro. 7 started.
Ollie Dodson memorial foxhunters timber. Walkover. 1. Antonio Star, o/John Pettibone, r/Billy Santoro.
Maiden timber. 2 ½ miles. Time: 6:08 2/5. 1. Mecklenburg, o/Anne Haynes, r/Will Haynes; 2. Gather No Moss, o/Buck Kisor, r/Jeff Murphy; 3. East Coker, o/Gum Tree Stables, r/James Slater. 4 started, 1 pulled up.
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