No more Snap Decision days for racing fans. No pursuit of a fifth Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase win in April. No more trips to Nashville to run in the Iroquois in May. No more chasing the NSA career earnings record.
Snap Decision, who carried excellence through seven seasons on the National Steeplechase Association circuit, is retired.
In 32 starts over hurdles, the 11-year-old gelding won 17 races, finished second eight times and was third twice. He earned $1,258,150 over jumps, second only to Hall of Famer McDynamo’s $1,310,104 in North American history. A son of Hard Spun and the Unbridled mare Salute, Snap Decision won an Eclipse Award as champion steeplechaser of 2024 and was a finalist for the 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020 awards – receiving the second-most votes each time. He won five Grade 1 stakes, captured 15 stakes overall and led the National Steeplechase Association annual earnings table in 2024 and 2022.
The retirement announcement came this week from the Bruton Street-US ownership group of Mike Hankin, Charlie Fenwick and Charlie Noell and trainer Jack Fisher.
“We would have loved to have seen him catch McDynamo, but that’s OK,” said Hankin. “Will we ever own another horse like him? We’ll see. I don’t know. He really embodied what Bruton Street was about, which is three friends getting together to own and enjoy racehorses. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”
He retires sound and healthy and one year early as NSA rules permit horses to race over hurdles at 12, but not 13. In his four-start final season, he finished with a win, a second and $126,650 earned. He finished fourth in his final start, the Grade 1 American Grand National at Far Hills, N.J. Oct. 18.
“He didn’t quite tell us it was time, he didn’t blurt it out anyway, but he’s going to be 12 years old next year,” said Fisher. “There isn’t much more he can do and he’s done a lot. To walk away sound and still happy, that’s the best part, that’s the cool thing. Just having an 11-year-old running was cool. He’s done so much for the sport, for horse racing in general and for us.
“I never had a problem with him – no ankles, no knees, no tendons – he’s a horse of a lifetime.”
Fisher has trained the winners of five steeplechase Eclipse Awards, put two-time champion Good Night Shirt into Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame and trained and rode record-setting timber horse Saluter. A Hall of Famer himself, Fisher doesn’t play favorites.
“I won’t differentiate between any of them, but he’s right up there,” he said. “He was really good.”
Bred in Kentucky by Phipps Stable, Snap Decision was destined to be a good flat horse. His dam placed in two graded stakes and produced Grade 1 winner Mr Speaker and Grade 3 winner Vigilantes Way. Snap Decision’s granddam, Personal Ensign, won all 13 starts, received an Eclipse Award as champion older female of 1988, earned $1,679,880 and was inducted to racing’s Hall of Fame. As a broodmare, the daughter of Private Account produced Grade 1 flat winners My Flag, Miner’s Mark and Traditionally plus Our Emblem, sire of Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem. Personal Ensign’s dam Grecian Banner was a Broodmare of the Year. Her dam Dorine was a champion in Argentina.
Like much of his family, Snap Decision joined the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. After one start as a 2-year-old in October 2016, Snap Decision won two of nine starts in 2017 – twice knocking heads with future Horse of the Year Bricks And Mortar and placing in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park. As a 4-year-old, Snap Decision couldn’t get over the two-other-than allowance hump and lost all eight starts. He sold to Maryland-based Bruton Street, a top owner on the jump circuit, and Fisher late that year.
“My first impression was that he was good, but I didn’t think he was that good,” Fisher said. “We were lucky that the Phippses accepted the offer. He was a pretty good flat horse, he just wasn’t making a living at their level.”
In April 2019, Snap Decision made his hurdle debut and finished second at the Queen’s Cup meeting in Charlotte, N.C. He settled for second again at the Iroquois in May. On July 4 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Snap Decision led throughout and won by 4 1/2 lengths to start a record-tying, nine-race winning streak that lasted more than two years. In August, he won an allowance at Saratoga by 38 1/2 lengths and closed 2019 with restricted stakes triumphs at Belmont Park and Far Hills.
Rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic like most of the 2020 Thoroughbred calendar, the steeplechase schedule featured just 11 stops that year and limited stakes opportunities. Snap Decision made three starts, winning a stakes at Great Meadow in June and scoring twice at Saratoga (under 162 and 165 pounds) before missing the rest of the year when all autumn stakes races were canceled.
The 2021 season started late due to Covid, but Snap Decision won his eighth consecutive race in the Grade 2 Temple Gwathmey Handicap at Middleburg, Va. May 1. The Gwathmey was first run in 1924 and has long been a major goal of championship-level horses. Snap Decision would make five starts in the race, and used the 2021 version as a prep for another favorite stop, the Grade 1 Iroquois Steeplechase in Nashville, Tenn. In his first of five starts in that race, this one in late June instead of mid-May, he took over on the final turn and won easily to tie Thrice Worthy’s North American steeplechase record of nine consecutive wins.
Fisher bypassed summer starts at Saratoga Race Course, where the 7-year-old would shoulder heavy imposts in handicaps. Snap Decision returned, under 164 pounds, in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory at Belmont Park in September. Looking for his 10th win in a row, he couldn’t match The Mean Queen (157 pounds) in the stretch and finished second by 2 lengths. They met again a month later in the Grade 1 American Grand National. In receipt of an eight-pound mare allowance, The Mean Queen prevailed by a half-length to clinch the Eclipse Award.
Snap Decision opened 2022 with a second in the Gwathmey in April, his third consecutive defeat, but rebounded to win the Iroquois in May. After a short freshening, Fisher targeted Saratoga’s Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard in August. First, Snap Decision returned to the flat and was third behind Grade 1 turf winner Red Knight in the 1 1/2-mile Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs in July. The Sheppard almost didn’t happen as rival trainers threatened to boycott the entry box depending on the weight assignments. Under 164 pounds, Snap Decision dominated. He won by 13 1/4 lengths, conceding 24 pounds to the runner-up, and gearing down at the finish.
“That day was the day that did it for me,” said Hankin. “Trainers complained about running against him, he carried all that weight and still won like that. The message that sent to the whole industry was special. That’s where his flat breeding and training came in.”
The reward was a 168-pound weight assignment in the Lonesome Glory at Aqueduct in September. He finished second to 140-pound lightweight Noah And The Ark. In yielding turf at Far Hills, Snap Decision finished a well-beaten sixth behind Irish raider Hewick in the season-ending Grand National. Despite two Grade 1 wins and a circuit-best $220,500 in earnings, Snap Decision lost the Eclipse vote to the one-start Hewick.
Snap Decision bookended 2023 with Grade 2 wins in the Gwathmey and Zeke Ferguson, but lost three Grade 1 races in between – including a second to Irish shipper Scaramanga in the Iroquois. The Eclipse went to Merry Maker, whose five-start campaign started in first-level allowance company. In his only stakes win, he received 20 pounds from Snap Decision.
Back in action as a 10-year-old in 2024, Snap Decision broke through with an Eclipse Award thanks to victories in the Gwathmey, the Iroquois and the Grand National. The latter may have been the best effort of his career as he fought back against – and between – Irish shipper Galvin and former top-class international flat horse High Definition in deep stretch to win by a neck.
After four years as a finalist, Snap Decision won the Eclipse Award with 182 of the 193 first-place votes cast.
“It was just guts, pure guts that he won that race,” said Fenwick of the Grand National. “He tried so hard and just won that race when he had to.”
Jockey Graham Watters felt the impact afterward, for himself – and his horse.
“I thought I won, but in those head bobs, you never know,” he said. “So I was like, ‘I’m not going to get emotional,’ then I heard his number being called. I got so emotional after that. It was a massive performance, and it’s a fantastic race to win because we’ve been denied it a couple of times. But finally.”
This year, Snap Decision won the Gwathmey for a record fourth time – conceding 18 pounds to runner-up Abaan – in April. Bidding to make more history as the first four-time winner of the Iroquois, Snap Decision finished second – at level weights – to Abaan. Rested over the summer, Snap Decision returned for a fall campaign and was fifth at Foxfield Oct. 5 in a prep for the Grand National two weeks later. On tiring ground that favored foreign-bred horses, he wound up fourth (beaten a nose for third) after getting caught in traffic while inside on the final turn as Irish shippers Zanahiyr and Ballysax Hank finished first and second in a photo.
Hankin gave credit to Fisher for navigating the lengthy career and giving Snap Decision an opportunity at greatness.
“Snap Decision’s talent came with him,” said Hankin. “That’s his DNA, but to manage his career for this long, allowing him to run this many times over this many years without ever having a soundness issue is incredible. No one should underestimate Jack’s influence on a horse, taking his time, picking out races and giving the horse the best chance at being successful. Jack didn’t put pressure on the horse and allowed him to develop into the horse he is.”
Beyond the trainer, Hankin mentioned Fisher staffers Ashley Randall, Jenna Elliott and Sandra Webb for their roles in the horse’s success and Snap Decision’s jockeys Graham Watters, Sean McDermott and Willie McCarthy.
“A lot of people helped make him who he is, and we’re grateful to them,” said Hankin. “The Phippses always followed him even though they didn’t own him anymore. Darren Fox at Darley (home to sire Hard Spun) is very proud of him. He’s got a lot of fans out there.”
There’s one more Grade 1 on the 2025 steeplechase calendar, Sunday’s Colonial Cup, but Snap Decision will leave that to others. Counting flat races, he made 51 starts and won 19 times to go with 10 seconds and nine thirds for $1,464,584 in lifetime earnings.
Ability took him to those heights, but Fisher credited intangibles too.
“He would laugh at other horses in some of those races,” he said. “You have a good horse, you lead a horse like that into the paddock and you can almost hear him say, ‘I’m going to destroy you.’ They just know they are that good and I think other horses sense that.”
Hankin called campaigning Snap Decision a “humbling” experience.
“When you’re around people at the top of their sport, you know it,” he said. “With people, you know how much time they’ve put in to be at the top of their sport. With horses, they speak to you in different ways. We saw how he enjoyed training. We saw how he enjoyed racing. We saw how he enjoyed every bit of it. Some horses go out and they’re stressed. He’s not stressed. He’s never stressed. Every time he came to the paddock, when I started paying attention to it, he had a swagger. Did we interpret this to have meaning? Maybe, we’re humans. Or does he really have a swagger? I think he really has a swagger.”
Watters rode Snap Decision in 22 races, winning 10, and got to know him on countless morning rides. Their partnership will always matter.
“He’s a name that’s always going to be associated with my career,” the jockey in October. “I came across him at the right time in my life to really appreciate him and all that we’ve done together. Wins and defeats taught me a lot about racing and about life. He’s an amazing horse, his will and his dedication. I know I’m talking about a horse, but he’s a highly intelligent horse – his presence and everything. He’s been great to me.”
A winner in his first career as a flat horse, a champion in his second as a steeplechaser, Snap Decision will get a chance at a third as a foxhunter when he moves over to Fenwick’s farm not all that far from Fisher’s Thursday morning.
“The hope is he will just become part of the community of horses we have on the farm,” said Fenwick, a former trainer and amateur steeplechase jockey. “He will get ridden regularly and will see the hounds before the end of this hunting season. That’s the goal, let him see the hounds, let him see what he thinks and how he wants to behave and hopefully that’s a new life for him. If that’s not something he wants to do, he’ll hack around the farm.”
Photos from Tod Marks:
