Mike Wharton and Alicia Murphy stopped, smiled and climbed into a John Deere Gator Saturday afternoon. There was work to be done. Tiffany Webb had walked back to the barn with Grinding Speed, Murphy and Wharton followed a few minutes behind the 9-year-old timber veteran. Celebrations and interviews will slow you down.
Wharton, carrying the trophy for the My Lady’s Manor timber stakes, smiled. Murphy, carrying nothing but relief, exhaled. Saturday wins can look easy. This was far from easy.
“A month ago, we thought, ‘That’s it, another season we’ll sit out,’ ” Murphy explained. “We thought he had another broken shoulder, his second one. Field games, playing in the field. We couldn’t X-ray it with a portable machine, we thought about sending him for a nuclear scan and then my vet said, ‘Let’s wait and see.’ Three days later, he started going sound, then within a week, we were rocking on again.”
By April, Grinding Speed was rocking his way to a $30,000 feature win in the Manor on the traditional course in Monkton, Md., winning for the first time at his local track. The Maryland-bred son of Grindstone fell while in contention two years ago and finished third behind front-running Nat Grew last year.
This year, it looked like a multiple-choice question with the first three answers crossed out. Mark Beecher placed Grinding Speed in the webbing of the glove, well off the dueling pacesetters Tax Ruling and Senior Senator, and well in front of the closers, Straight To It, Dakota Slew and Cornhusker. Turning for home with two fences to go, Beecher swung Grinding Speed wide, like he was passing a drifting camper on the highway, popped the last two fences and won easily by a length and a half over a game Senior Senator and Tax Ruling. It was nearly 8 lengths back to the expected closers, who failed to close.
Beecher, who has ridden Grinding Speed in 14 consecutive starts, felt content the whole way.
“I thought it was the perfect spot, you knew Tax was going to take you along at a good gallop. Senior Senator ran a good race at Cheshire, he’s a nice horse on the way up. I thought if I jumped off and sat right behind them, nobody would be around me and I figured the others would want to sit right behind me,” Beecher said. “He jumped super, it was redemption for two years ago. I wanted room at the last two, not to be cocky about it, but I felt like I had enough horse to beat the ones in front, I didn’t want to have an excuse if one of them messed up in front of me, I wanted plenty of light.”
Like opening up the blinds, Grinding Speed made his own light, winning for the sixth time over timber. He began his timber journey with a win at Winterthur in 2012, followed it up with a win at Fair Hill, added an International Gold Cup in 2012, a Virginia Gold Cup in 2013 and an International Gold Cup in 2104. He fell in the Manor two years ago, while cruising, and lost Beecher with a mistake last fall, while battling for the lead, at Genesee Valley. Grinding Speed sat from May 2013 to April 2014, with a broken right shoulder.
“He owes me nothing, he’s been a good servant to me, he’s only 9 which is young for a timber horse, every time I get on him, it’s a privilege,” Beecher said. “He’s not difficult, he’s got all the class in the world, he’s maturing, which is hard to say when he’s already won Gold Cups. He’s getting it, you have to know him, sometimes he’s so good he gets himself in trouble, he might take on a jump when he shouldn’t be taking one on, you just have to mind him, that’s all.”
Murphy has been minding him since she found him at Penn National in 2009. Bred by Alan, Mark, Mitchell and Madeline Kline, the winner of one race from seven starts on the flat has now earned more than $170,000 over jumps.
Of course, any time when a horse wins at the Manor, the question arises about the following two weekends in Maryland.
“He might be a Hunt Cup horse but I just don’t like it, when you can win a $90,000 race without jeopardizing them that much…” Murphy said, referring to the Virginia Gold Cup in May. “He’s got an amazing way of going, but probably the number one thing is Mark Beecher, he’s incredible. This horse has such a ground-covering, easy way of going, his jumping is so elastic, but again, I’ve seen what’s happened with other people on him.”
– Connor Hankin engineered his first double, taking both divisions of the John Rush Street Memorial maiden timber at the Manor. The 21-year-old University of Virginia junior guided Two’s Company to win the first division and Ballylifen to win the second division. Bruton Street-US, a syndicate led by Charlie Fenwick Jr., Charlie Noell and Hankin’s father, Mike, imported the winners last season. Jack Fisher trained both winners.
Two’s Company made four starts at point-to-points before being purchased by Bruton Street while Ballylifen had won two chases for Jonjo O’Neill. Connor Hankin schooled the duo before they were purchased.
“They’re two nice horses. I schooled Ballylifen at Jackdaws Castle, down over the fences, I knew he got it then, jumping came easy to him. I went in the ring with Two’s Company, he figured things out pretty quickly. We had City Press and Drift Society two years before, it was kind of the same thing,” Hankin said. “I was more confident with Ballylifen with his jumping and Two’s Company is a greener horse, I knew he could jump, but I just wanted to get a good round of jumping with him and I was more about winning with Bally. In both races I wanted to be handy but everybody wanted to duke it out on the front end. People seem to kick for home early at the Manor.”
Hankin produced Two’s Company late to nail frontrunner Le Chevalier in the first division and did the same thing in the second, when delivering Ballylifen late to collar Dax. The second division was nearly 10 seconds faster than the first and less than a second slower than the Manor.
– Veteran jockeys were forced to scramble in the finale. Not for room on the final turn but for handles on the water cooler. Bethany Baumgardner won her first career race aboard Snow Blizzard.
Minutes after the race, jockeys dumped a cooler of ice water on the Monkton native.
Her smile only got wider.
Second, beaten a nose, aboard the Elizabeth Voss-trained Imperial Way in the Maryland Hunt Cup last year, Baumgardner was ready.
“That was awesome, something I’ve been waiting for, it was incredible. After the Hunt Cup last year, it was like, ‘I just want to win one. I just want to win one.’ It was great that it finally happened,” Baumgardner said. “I live 3 miles up the street, born and raised. Family didn’t do it, grew up riding event horses, I graduated high school a year early to start galloping horses full time at Vosses, when I found I could get paid to ride; been there ever since.”
Baumgardner received the biggest ovation of any winner, led by her brother, her mother and a local rooting section that would have made the bleacher section of Wrigley Field proud.
“I never had any intentions of riding races. Riding event horses, you’re out on your own and don’t have to worry about 30 others. Then I got the opportunity to ride my first point-to-point on a horse I had
been riding for years and I had an absolute blast, I got the bug. Hey Mickey. He was awesome. I loved it.”
Imported from Ireland for Equinox Farm and Nancy Knox, Snow Blizzard won at the Manor in 2013. Baumgardner picked up the ride in 2014 and has now had a win and two seconds on the 8-year-old son of Sadler’s Wells.
“I came into Snow Blizzard last spring and I’ve loved him. He’s not the easiest horse, but he’s a super jumper, we’ve meshed a lot better since last year. Now, I know him well, I ride him every day, I’m really lucky to have him,” Baumgardner said. “I was really happy because he settled much better. He’s usually keen, I wanted to bide my time, he settled after two fences, then it was just cruising, jumping well, taking me along, when we ran down the hill I knew I had a lot of horse. When I soared the last, I looked back and said, ‘I’ve got this. I’ve got this.’ “
For more, see:
Tod Marks Manor photo gallery.
Watch HCP Sports video of the Manor races.
