Irv Naylor’s Jamarjo bested Naylor’s Jack Frost by two lengths on Sunday to win his second Charleston Cup, the featured $25,000 optional allowance hurdle at the South Carolina race meet.
The Irish-bred won the Charleston Cup in 2013 before an extended stay of the sidelines and returned to the races with a victory in an Aiken Fall training flat race on Oct. 31.
Bruce Smart Jr.’s Orchestra Leader finished third in the Charleston Cup, and Over Creek Stables’ Arrakis was fourth in a field of six. Trained by Leslie Young, Jamarjo ran the Charleston Cup’s 2 1/4 miles in 4:54.60 on soft turf.
Young, a high-percentage trainer, also won Saturday’s Noel Laing Handicap at the Montpelier Hunt Races. For the year, she has 10 wins from 28 starts (35.7%), with earnings of $212,450. Riding both of her winners was her husband, Paddy Young, who locked up his fifth title as the sport’s champion jockey by victories. His has 23 wins, 10 more than Sean McDermott. The margin is greater than the number of races that will be run at the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup on Saturday, Nov. 21, the only remaining date on the 2015 National Steeplechase Association calenda
The jockey with the hottest hand over the weekend was Darren Nagle, who had three hurdle wins and a flat win at Montpelier, followed by a two-win afternoon at the Charleston Cup. The five wins doubled his total for 2015.