Friday, April 27, 2012

Steeplechasing Heats Up



April finds the Spring Steepelchasing season bustling with events. Tomorrow features the Maryland Hunt Cup and over in Virginia the Foxfield races. here in Pennsylvannia, May will offer the Willowdale Steeplechase and The Radnor Hunt Races.
Monte Burke over at Forbes Magazine did a piece 2 years back that included a quotable passage:

"I tried to get to the heart of why these Mid-Atlantic aristocrats–who are otherwise sane, gainfully employed family men living full lives–would risk life and limb to run these races, which provide winners with only a few thousand dollars in prize money? (And they literally do risk it all. Some years ago, a jockey was pitched from his mount headfirst and was left a quadriplegic.)
The answer: the race provides these men with what T.S. Eliot described as “the still point in a turning world.” Charles Fenwick, Sr., a 63 year-old former racer who won the event five times, told me: “I concentrated harder during that eight and a half minutes than on anything else in my life.”

This year's Maryland Hunt cup will likely be a 2 horse duel between Bon Caddo and Private Attack, For betting purposes...this is where the short odds will be.
As a bettor, I may tip onto Professor Maxwell....I have seen him race and like his speed and stamina...or perhaps Prospector Strike....with the young Batoff aboard he has an experienced jock who knows this course.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the Eliot quote.

Pigtown*Design said...

here's my take on the races:

http://pigtown-design.blogspot.com/2012/04/day-at-races.html