|
The National Steeplechase Association is the
official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing. The NSA
licenses participants, approves race courses, trains officials,
coordinates race entries, enforces rules, compiles an official database
and oversees the national marketing and public relations efforts of the
sport. Among the groups the NSA serves are owners, trainers, jockeys,
members, race meetings and race tracks. The NSA headquarters is located in
Fair Hill, Md., home to a world-class steeplechase course, a thoroughbred
training center, an international three-day event course, the Thoroughbred
Racing Associations and Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. Fair Hill,
which also includes a 5,600-acre state-owned natural resources area, is
about a one-hour drive from Baltimore in Northeastern Maryland.
Steeplechasing includes the thrills and speed of
Thoroughbred racing at flat tracks. It mixes in the precision of jumping
to create a hybrid like hurdle events in track and field where the premium
is on speed, but the concern is focused squarely on the jumps. The races
are two to four miles in length. The fences are man-made 52-inch hurdles
or timber jumps constructed of posts and rails at varying heights.
Thoroughbred horses, almost all of them converted flat racers, compete in
12 states at 32 National Steeplechase Association stops and at some of the
nationıs finest racetracks. More than 200 sanctioned steeplechase races
worth a combined $5 million occur in the U.S. every year.
Most steeplechase days include five to seven races.
Attendance varies from tailgaters to horsemen, college students to
children to senior citizens. Spectators arrive a few hours before the
first race (usually 1 p.m.) to start their outing with lunch or
conversations with friends. The racing brings excitement, in approximately
half-hour increments. As a whole, steeplechasing allows fans to get closer
to the sport than flat racing. You can stand right next to a fence, or
watch the start of a race, or catch the thrills at the finish line.
- The sport traces its roots to a two-horse ³race²
between Irish foxhunters Mr. Blake and Mr. OıCallaghan in 1752 from
Buttevant Church to St. Maryıs (hence the sportıs name) in Doneraile,
County Cork.
- The Washington Jockey Club hosted the first
steeplechase race in the United States in Washington, D.C. in 1834.
- NSA hurdle fences, completely portable, travel by
truck from one race track or meet to the other. The fences, uniform and
safe to jump, are made of steel, plastic and foam rubber covered in
canvas. Each eight-foot section (there are four or five sections in a
typical fence) weighs 400 pounds. Before 1974, when the National Fence
was established, hurdle and brush races were conducted over natural
hedges made of packed pine or cedar. The majority of U.S. races
including the Breedersı Cup Steeplechase are hurdle races.
- Timber fences are made of wood, and are constructed
of boards or posts and rails. The height and stiffness varies depending
on the course, with the famed Maryland Hunt Cup (which features some
fences nearly five feet tall) heading the list.
- Steeplechase jockeys are relatively normal-sized
people. The minimum weight in a steeplechase race is typically in the
140-pound range as compared to the roughly 110-pound level for flat
jockeys. Jockeys wear padded vests under their silks and also wear
approved safety helmets.
- All steeplechasers are Thoroughbreds whose lineage
must be proven with official Jockey Club registration papers. Horses can
begin steeplechase careers at age 3.
- Most steeplechasers competed or still compete on the
flat. The ideal steeplechaser has speed, stamina, smarts and enough
athletic ability to run and jump at the same time.
- Steeplechase trainers are based throughout the
Eastern half of the United States, with most concentrated in the
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia area.. Almost all trainers are based on
private farms, where horses enjoy the outdoors while also exercising and
working toward their next racing date. Steeplechase horses last. It is
not unusual to see steeplechase horses compete until age 10 and beyond.
Ninepins won the 1999 Grand National at age 12.
- Steeplechase horses typically run six to 10 times in
a year. The season features no racing in January and February, plus a
light summer schedule assuring horses of lengthy vacations. Most ³down
time² is spent outdoors in fields. A steeplechase horse in the
off-season is often dirty, hairy and happy.
- After their steeplechase careers end, horses often
become foxhunters, show horses or simply pleasure rides for their owners
or trainers. Five-time U.S.. champion and career earnings leader
Lonesome Glory retired at the end of the 1999 season at age 11, and
began a career as a full-time foxhunter.
American steeplechasing traces it's lineage to England
and Ireland, but owes its life to nine men from New York. August Belmont,
H. DeCourcy Forbes, Samuel S. Howland, James O. Green, Frederick Gebhard,
A.J. Cassatt, Foxhall P. Keene, John G. Follansbee and Frederick H. Prince
founded the National Steeplechase Association. The purpose of the
organization, according to the original charter dated February 15, 1895,
have changed little. Those men created an association to keep records;
govern promote and hold races; advance steeplechasing throughout the
United States; license individuals and race meetings.
Racing itself spawned from the foxhunting field that had
occurred earlier, but never under such sanction. Meets took place on Long
Island and in northern New Jersey before spreading to the south to the
Carolinas and Tennessee.
In Europe, racing started much earlier. The first
recorded steeplechase occurred in 1752 in Country Cork, Ireland. A
horseman named O'Callaghan and Edmund Blake engaged in a match race,
covering about 4½ miles from Buttevant Church to St. Mary's in Doneraile.
Church steeples were the most prominent, and tallest, landmarks on the
landscape. The sport took it's name from this simple "chase to the
steeple." History did not record the winners of the O'Callaghan-Blake
race.
Cross-country match races spread to England, where the
first reported race involving more than two horses occurred in 1792.
Steeplechasing then migrated to established race courses.
Though pointing out the first U.S. steeplechase is a
difficult assignment, several of the oldest and most prestigious races are
still run. The Maryland Hunt Cup, raced over tall post and rail fences,
celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1994. The American Grand National, run
at Far Hills, NJ., began in 1899. The National Hunt Cup in Radnor PA.
dates to 1909.
The above mentioned men could never have guessed at the
future or their sport. Steeplechasing occurs in 12 states, offers over
$4.5 million in total purses, is seen by millions of people, includes the
best horses and horsemen thoroughbred racing has to offer and each year
raises millions of dollars for charity.
The association today, located in Fair Hill, MD.,
includes 1,000 dues-paying members, a 15-member Board of Directors and a
six-person staff. Racing occurs March through November and attracted an
estimated one million fans last year.
|
