Silverton Hill’s Torlundy, ridden by 2009 champion jockey Paddy Young, seized command in the latter stages of the $45,000 Budweiser Imperial Cup and took home the first stakes victory of the year at the Aiken Spring race meet on March 20 in Aiken, S.C.
Young, who had two wins on the six-race program that opened the 2010 National Steeplechase Association season, rode Torlundy for his wife, trainer Leslie F. Young. Mrs. S. K. Johnston Jr.’s Swagger Stick finished second under jockey Willie Dowling, three-quarters of a length behind the winner. Sermon of Love finished third in a field of five for the two-mile race over ten National Fences.
Torlundy, a five-year-old Monarchos gelding, ran the distance in 3:40 4/5.
For the Silverton Hill operation of Springfield, Ky., residents Tommy and Bonnie Hamilton, Torlundy has progressed steadily to his first career stakes victory. He won a $15,000 maiden claiming race at Colonial Downs by 27 1/2 lengths last September 13 and then finished second in the Appleton Hurdle at Far Hills, N.J., on October 17. He concluded the 2009 season with a third-place finish in the Palm Beach Supreme Hurdle in Palm Beach, Fla., on November 28.
In addition to Torlundy, Young rode Fleeting Thunder to victory in the $10,000 G. H. Bostwick maiden claiming hurdle for trainer Ricky Hendriks.