Irish invasion of Queen’s Cup
Brian Harding, who had a second and a fourth in steeplechase races at the 2009 Queen’s Cup Steeplechase, is scheduled to ride the 15th-anniversary Queen’s Cup program on April 24 at Mineral Springs, N.C. Joining Harding will be Jimmy McCarthy, who won a training flat race at the 2009 Queen’s Cup meet.
The Charlotte Steeplechase Association, which stages the Queen’s Cup races, will pay the travel expenses of the two Irish-born jockeys, who currently ride in Great Britain.
A Cork native, Harding has been riding professionally since 1992 and came up under trainer Gordon Richards, for whom he rode One Man to victory in the 1998 Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
