Bon Caddo and Delta Park, who won two stops on the spring timber-racing calendar, will confront each other in the 86th running of the $75,000 Virginia Gold Cup at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains on Saturday, May 7.
Steeplechase racing action continues on Sunday, May 8, when South Monarch bids for a repeat victory in the $20,000 Winterthur Bowl, the feature contest of the Winterthur Point-to-Point Races in Delaware.
Merrifield Farm’s Bon Caddo enters the four-mile Virginia Gold Cup from a front-running victory in the $35,000 My Lady’s Manor at Monkton, Md., on April 16. The veteran timber runner will seek to improve on second-place finishes in last year’s Virginia Gold Cup and International Gold Cup, also run on the Great Meadow course. Trainer Dawn Williams named Blair Wyatt to ride the ten-year-old Bon Point gelding.
Arcadia Stable’s Delta Park closed well to win the $20,000 Middleburg Hunt Cup by 2 1/4 lengths on April 23. The seven-year-old Johannesburg gelding had prepared for his Virginia victory with a fourth-place finish behind Bon Caddo in the My Lady’s Manor. Xavier Aizpuru returns in the saddle for trainer Jack Fisher.
The Middleburg Hunt Cup’s second-place finisher, He’s a Conniver, will be seeking his second straight win on the Great Meadow course. Owned by EMO Stables, He’s a Conniver won last fall’s International Gold Cup by 2 1/4 lengths over Bon Caddo. In the Middleburg race, He’s a Conniver set the pace but tired after the final fence. Jody Petty, the regular jockey of He’s a Conniver, has the mount.
Rosbrian Farm’s More Fascination will attempt to continue his comeback in the Virginia Gold Cup. The eight-year-old Dynaformer gelding finished a good second in the My Lady’s Manor, his first start in nearly two years. Trainer Tara Elmore named champion jockey Paddy Young to ride.
Completing the field are NoGo Stable’s Yin Yang, who will be ridden by Willie Dowling; Gum Tree Stables’ Uppercut, with Darren Nagle aboard; and Augustin Stables’ Radio Flyer, who will be ridden by Robbie Walsh.
Morning Star Stables’ South Monarch will meet a highly competitive field in the 3 1/4-mile Winterthur Bowl over timber fences on the grounds of the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate in Delaware.
Trained by Sanna N. Hendriks, South Monarch started his 2011 season with a third-place finish in the My Lady’s Manor, the Maryland timber race that he had won last year. Jody Petty has the mount on the nine-year-old Conquistador Cielo gelding.
Anna Stable’s Music To My Ears enters the Winterthur race from a narrow victory in the C. P. and Edith Wills DeBose Cup, a timber allowance race at the Carolina Cup Races in Camden, S.C., on April 2. Trainer Richard Valentine named Robbie Walsh to ride.
Trainer Alicia Murphy entered her Major Price, who set the early pace in the $20,000 Middleburg Hunt Cup over timber before tiring to finish third. Jacob Roberts has the mount.
Mark Beecher will ride Rosbrian Farm’s Like a Bee, winner of the Western Run Plate at the Grand National timber meet in Butler, Md., on April 23. Completing the field are trainer Bruce Miller’s Flying Contraption, who will be ridden by Ivan Dowling, and Robert A. Kinsley’s News Flash, who will have Paddy Young aboard.