Sonny Via, shown with trainer Jack Fisher at Good Night Shirt's Hall of Fame induction in 2017, has acquired prominent steeplechase competitor Footpad. (Tod Marks photo)
Footpad, a star of the 2017-2018 National Hunt season in England and Ireland, has been purchased by Harold A. “Sonny” Via and is in training with Jack Fisher.
Via and Fisher most notably combined forces with two-time Eclipse champion Good Night Shirt, who was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Imported horses carry their overseas ratings into American steeplechase racing, and French-bred Footpad will have a 163 rating, the highest of the new season. In the initial National Steeplechase Association ratings for the spring season, Bruton Street-US’s Scorpiancer, also trained by Fisher, had the top mark at 154.
Now eight, Footpad had a notable career for top Irish trainer Willie Mullins. Purchased from the Robert Collet yard after two hurdle starts as a three-year-old, Footpad won 11 races, including six at the Grade 1 level, for owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.
His biggest score was in the 2018 Cheltenham Festival’s Arkle Challenge Trophy Steeplechase by 14 lengths, and he followed that effort with a 12-length victory in Punchestown’s Ryanair Steeplechase in late April of that year.
His 2018-2019 campaign included a second-place finish in a Leopardstown steeplechase. Put away after an unplaced finish in the 2019 Cheltenham Festival’s Ryanair Festival Trophy Steeplechase, he returned in November with a victory at Thurles Racecourse in County Tipperary.
Mullins dispatched him to Kempton for the Ladbrokes King George VI Steeplechase on Boxing Day, and he finished a well-beaten third under Barry Geraghty. He finished second in his final Ireland start at Thurles on Jan. 19.
From 26 career starts, he has earned $925,389.