Danielle Hodsdon closed the gap on current leading jockey Paddy Young when she rode three Jonathan Sheppard-trained horses to victories at the Aiken Fall Races in Aiken, S.C., on Saturday, Oct. 30. Keying her advance was a victory aboard Sheppard’s Barnstorming in the $25,000 Budweiser Holiday Cup, the day’s feature race.
Hodsdon’s three scores in Aiken’s four hurdle races gave her 16 wins for the year, one behind reigning champion jockey Young, who maintains a sizable lead in the earnings column with $550,250 to Hodsdon’s $337,060. Sheppard ranks first by wins (26) and earnings ($776,130).
Hodsdon kicked off her Aiken adventure with a 1 3/4-length victory aboard Timber Bay Farm’s History Boy in a $15,000 maiden hurdle, with Young finishing second on Trillium Stable’s Mischief for trainer Tom Voss.
In the next race, a $10,000 maiden claiming hurdle, Dale Thiel’s Sir Dynamite finished first with Young in the saddle but was disqualified for interfering with Bill Pape’s Silence and Hodsdon at the last fence. Silence was elevated to the winner’s circle on the disqualification.
In the Budweiser Holiday Cup, Barnstorming stormed to a two-length victory over Irvin Naylor’s Twister Crossing, with Mimi Voss’ Farndale finishing third. Barnstorming, a four-year-old Thunder Gulch gelding, ran the Budweiser Holiday Cup’s 2 1/4 miles in 4:21 on firm turf.