Leading owner Irv Naylor’s Jamarjo drew clear to a 5 1/4-length victory in the $25,000 Charleston Cup, the featured optional allowance hurdle at the 20th Charleston Cup Races in South Carolina on Sunday, Nov. 10.
Paddy Young rode the winner and moved into a tie with Darren Nagle for the top spot on the jockeys’ leader board by wins.
Congashene, owned by Virginia’s Friendship Farm and trained by Neil Morris, took second money, and Nagle finished third aboard Bill Pape’s Dugan. Gregory Hawkins’ Canaveral finished fourth.
Trained by Leslie Young, Jamarjo ran the Charleston Cup’s 2 1/4 miles in 4:19 on turf rated as firm. In his previous start, the Irish-bred had finished second in the $25,000 Budweiser Holiday Cup, an optional allowance hurdle at the Aiken Fall Races on Oct. 26.
Jamarjo was Naylor’s only starter on the Charleston Cup program, and the six-year-old import helped the reigning champion owner to close the gap on Pape, the current leader by owner earnings as the National Steeplechase Association moves toward its final meet of the year, the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup at Camden, S.C., on Saturday, Oct. 23.
Pape had one winner on the afternoon, El Season in a conditioned claiming hurdle, and heads to the Colonial Cup with 2013 earnings of $542,650 to Naylor’s $504,850.
Nagle rode El Season to his 15th win of the season, but three-time champion Young scored a double, winning on Merriefield Farm’s Royal Bench in a $15,000 maiden hurdle before Jamarjo won the Charleston Cup.
Young added to his leading total by jockey earnings. Jamarjo and Royal Bench contributed $24,000 to his purse account, which totals $541,400 to Nagle’s $493,150.
Both are expected to have mounts in the $100,000 Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup (Gr. 1), the year’s concluding stakes race.
Nagle rides Pape’s Divine Fortune, winner of the $250,000 Grand National (Gr. 1) on Oct. 19 at Far Hills, N.J., and the current leader by 2013 earnings.
The only horse with a chance of overtaking Divine Fortune is Magalen O. Bryant’s Gustavian, who also is trained by Leslie Young and ridden by her husband. Gustavian won Belmont Park’s $150,000 Lonesome Glory Stakes (Gr. 1) in September and finished second in the Grand National.
Divine Fortune’s earnings total $202,000, and Gustavian has $149,000 in his 2013 account.
El Season provided Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard with his 20th win of the year, two ahead of Jack Fisher, the reigning champion trainer who won a $10,000 maiden claiming hurdle at the Charleston Cup with Wait Outside, who is owned by his Kingfisher Farm.
Sheppard maintained a substantial advantage over Fisher in the earnings column, $791,900 to $672,850.