Mark Beecher, last year’s co-champion apprentice jockey, has been on a hot streak this fall, will be shooting for a third timber stakes victory when he rides Rosbrian Farm’s Mecklenburg in the $35,000 Pennsylvania Hunt Cup on Sunday, Nov. 4.
The historic Pennsylvania Hunt Cup is the featured contest of the 78th annual meet in Unionville. First post time for the three-race program is 1:30 p.m.
Mecklenburg kicked off the Irish native’s winning streak in the $25,000 Genesee Valley Hunt Cup on Oct. 13. A week later, he rode Grinding Speed to victory in the $50,000 International Gold Cup at The Plains, Va.
Trained by Tara Elmore, Mecklenburg also finished a good second, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in Mason Houghland Memorial Timber Stakes at Nashville’s Iroquois Steeplechase on May 12.
No stranger to the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup course, Bulle Rock Stables’ Moonsox enters the four-mile timber race from a second-place finish in the New Jersey Hunt Cup on soft ground on Oct. 20. Trainer Kevin Boniface will ride Moonsox, who won last year’s Lewis C. Ledyard maiden timber race by more than 90 lengths.
Also entered for the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup were Mary Motion’s Woodmont, third in the Genesee Hunt Cup, and Wally Pinkard’s Won Wild Bird, who was fifth in the New York race before finishing sixth in the International Gold Cup. The owner will ride Woodmont, and trainer Regina Welsh named Roddy Mackenzie to ride Won Wild Bird.
Neil Morris, who trains Woodmont, also entered Kinross Farm’s Sand Box Rules, who was elevated to third in the International Gold Cup’s $25,000 Steepleton after three of his opponents went off course.
Gerry L. Brewster’s Brands Hatch enters the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup from a fifth-place finish in the International Gold Cup. Jackson Roberts rides for trainer Blythe Miller Davies.
Completing the field is NoGo Stable’s Bug Eyed Willy, who picked up his first career placing when he finished a close second in a Genesee Valley maiden race.
