The NSA Network goes on the air at 1 p.m. with live-stream coverage of the Aiken Fall Races in South Carolina and the International Gold Cup at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains, Va. The NSA Network’s Megan Connolly will be on-site at the International Gold Cup with commentary and interviews, while Robbie Walsh

Frank A. Bonsal Jr.'s Stand Down galloped to the finish line in the 2018 Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. (Tod Marks photo)

Frank A. Bonsal Jr.’s Stand Down, decisive winner of last year’s Pennsylvania Hunt Cup, has been nominated to defend his victory in the year’s final timber classic on Sunday, Nov. 3.
The 85th renewal of the $40,000 Pennsylvania Hunt Cup attracted six nominees for its testing four miles over the Unionville countryside.
Stand Down, trained by Joseph G. Davies, would be seeking his first victory since last year’s Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. The Irish-bred began his sanctioned racing career last year at age six, and he capped that season with a 7¾-length score in the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.
He began this season with a second-place finish in the John D. Schapiro Memorial at My Lady’s Manor and then was a distant fifth in the Virginia Gold Cup on May 4. He opened the autumn timber-racing season with a fourth-place finish in the Genesee Valley Hunt Cup on Oct. 12.
Two other Pennsylvania Hunt Cup nominees, It’s Nothing and Mystic Strike, also competed in the Upstate New York timber race.

Steeplechase racing returns to South Carolina on Saturday for the 28th annual Aiken Fall Steeplechase, where the emphasis will be on horses beginning to make their mark on jump racing. First post time is 1 p.m. for an afternoon of exciting Thoroughbred racing at the Aiken Horse Park. The races attracted large fields, with also-eligible

Ballybristol Farm's Andi'amu jumped a fence in his Virginia Gold Cup victory in May. (Tod Marks photo)

The National Steeplechase Association’s timber championship will be on the line Saturday in the $75,000 International Gold Cup, the timber feature of the 36th annual International Gold Cup meet.
Ballybristol Farm’s Andi’amu, the Virginia Gold Cup winner and undefeated over the last two racing seasons, currently leads the timber standings, and he will be challenged by Dolly Fisher’s Schoodic, the recent Genesee Valley Hunt Cup winner, in a five-horse field for the 3½-mile International Gold Cup.
The $75,000 David L. “Zeke” Ferguson Memorial (Gr. 2) is the hurdle co-feature of the International Gold Cup, and 2018 Eclipse Award winner Zanjabeel returns to the races in a field of eight. Also on the seven-race program at the Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains, Va., is the $40,000 Steeplethon over a course of mixed obstacles.
A French-bred nine-year-old, Andi’amu is undefeated in three starts this year for trainer Leslie Young, and he tops the timber earnings list with $102,000. After winning the Middleburg Hunt Cup, he toured the Great Meadow course in the Virginia Gold Cup on May 4 and won by three lengths.

Zanjabeel rolled to the finish line and an Eclipse Award in Belmont Park's 2018 Lonesome Glory Handicap (Gr. 1). (Tod Marks photo)

Zanjabeel, the reigning Eclipse Award champion, returns to the races on Saturday in the $75,000 David L. “Zeke” Ferguson Memorial (Gr. 2), the featured hurdle race at the 36th annual International Gold Cup.
Also on the program are the $75,000 International Gold Cup over timber fences and the $40,000 Steeplethon Stakes over mixed obstacles.
Owned by Rosbrian Farm and Meadow Run Farm, Zanjabeel went to the sidelines 13 months ago after winning Belmont Park’s Lonesome Glory Handicap (Gr. 1) and locking up the 2018 title. He also won the Iroquois Steeplechase’s Calvin Houghland Iroquois (Gr. 1) in May 2018.
Trainer Ricky Hendriks named Jack Doyle to ride the six-year-old.
Jack Fisher, who established a new record for National Steeplechase Association trainer earnings in a single year last Saturday, will saddle Riverdee Stable’s Gibralfaro and Sonny Via’s Hinterland.

CATHERINE FRENCH

A message from Mimi Voss: Friends of Catherine French will celebrate her life on Friday, November 1 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the studio at Atlanta Hall in Monkton, Maryland.  Please join us. If you intend to attend, please RSVP to mimi@atlantahall.com or call (410) 804-0402 or (410) 382-5254.