Amateur steeplechase jockey Bethany Baumgardner keeps finishing second in international Fegentri amateur rider races, and those six place finishes have moved her into a tie for third in the Longines Fegentri Ladies’ Rankings for 2017.
When the Amateur Riders Club of America hosted four races on the East Coast in June, Baumgarder had three second-place finishes. She traveled to Europe a few weeks later to get two more second-place finishes. In Budapest, Hungary, on June 30, she was second on Pastellia in a 1,200-meter turf race.
On July 4, she was at Bro Park in Sweden for a second on Gold Mint in a 1,600-meter handicap. She will try to break into the winner’s circle at historic Deauville in France when she will ride in two races there.
Other ARCA members also were active in June. The second leg of the Fegentri World Cup of Nations was held June 22 in Oslo, Norway, and the U.S. was represented by amateur steeplechase jockeys Erika Taylor and Amelia McGuirk. In a 900-meter spring, Taylor on Extreme Heat rallied to gain the USA’s first points of the year by finishing third, a short length off the winner. McGuirk finished eighth.
McGuirk had another World Cup ride at Maisons-Laffitte in France on July 3 and rallied aboard Pont Nieully to finish fifth, beaten three lengths.
Back in the United States, Taylor traveled to California to race at Pleasanton to race in the H.H. Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Stakes, a Grade 1 Arabian race for fillies and mares over six furlongs on July 8. Her mount, favored Ivory Shores, was left by 10 lengths after a quirky start but rallied to finish second.