Magalen O. Bryant’s Flagrant Honor, a half sister to two steeplechase stakes winners, will be looking for top honors when she meets a field of young fillies and mares in the featured $15,000 maiden hurdle on Sunday, Sept. 29, at the 36th annual Foxfield Fall Races. First post time is 1:30 p.m. for the five-race program in Charlottesville, Va.
Flagrant Honor is a half sister to Ptarmigan, the 2010 Life’s Illusion Filly and Mare champion. At the 2012 Iroquois Steeplechase in Nashville, half sister Quiet Flaine finished a length ahead of Ptarmigan in the $50,000 Margaret Currey Henley Stakes.
All three half sisters were bred by owner Bryant out of Flaine, by Chenin Blanc, and they were trained in Middleburg, Va., by Doug Fout. Willie McCarthy will ride Flagrant Honor in the 2 1/8-mile race over National Fences.
Flagrant Honor has been knocking at the door of her initial victory this season. She finished second in a Queen’s Cup maiden claimer on April 27 and then was second in a similar open maiden claimer at the Radnor Hunt Races on May 18.
Celtic Venture Stable’s Acela comes into the Foxfield race from a second-place finish in a Willowdale Steeplechase maiden claimer. Trained by Charles McCann, Acela will be ridden by Richard Boucher.
First-year trainer Richard Dowling will send out Holbrook Hollow Farm’s Rey de Light, who finished third in a Foxfield Spring maiden claimer. Martin Rohan will ride.
Two mares, Noble Stables’ Rhetoricalquestion and owner-trainer Michael Leaf’s Missteria, will be making their first starts over fences. Rhetoricalquestion, trained by Neil Morris, won a $20,000 claimer at Laurel Park last fall but was unplaced in her two starts this year. Bernie Dalton will ride.
Missteria was a $5,000 claiming winner at Charles Town Races in May but was unplaced in her last three starts. Carol-Ann Sloan has the mount.