Joe Clancy 
As the Wright Brothers put it, crank up the flying machine. It’s steeplechase time. The 2023 National Steeplechase Association season begins in Aiken, S.C. Saturday with a boutique, six-race card. Thirty-three horses make up the whole lineup, so the entry box doesn’t exactly overflow but that’s business as usual. By May, races will overfill, and … Read more
Liza Stude liked horsepower, and horse power. And somehow made the two passions her life. Part of a collection of people who worked for my father when he trained a racing stable of flat and steeplechasers in the Mid-Atlantic, Liza died Monday, March 20. She was 66. Born in Wilmington, Del., Liza blended horse jobs … Read more
In racing’s current climate of win percentages, instant criticism, training for peak efforts and the generally-agreed-upon-if-difficult-to-prove thought that Thoroughbreds aren’t as hardy as they once were, trainer Dan Moore’s decision to run American horse Inkslinger twice in three days at the 1973 Cheltenham Festival seems implausible. “Nowadays, with all the technology and feeding them and … Read more
Dozens of horses will compete in 28 races over four days at this week’s Cheltenham Festival, but they face the impossible task of matching the 50-year-old achievement of an American steeplechase hero. At the 1973 Festival, Inkslinger won the 2-mile Champion Chase – now known as the Queen Mother – and returned two days later … Read more
So you want to be a horse trainer? Andy Simoff spent three months aiming Howgreatisnate for Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack. The off-season plan made perfect sense after an undefeated, four-start campaign as a 2-year-old at Delaware Park and Parx Racing in 2022. Give his horse a break with some paddock time. … Read more
Few things could rival Andy Simoff’s last visit to the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, but the trainer will try to find one Saturday as Howgreatisnate runs in the $300,000 Grade 3 stakes for 3-year-olds. It’ll be Simoff’s first Gotham since watching Secretariat capture the 1973 version on the way to a Triple Crown. “That’s … Read more
When it comes to American steeplechase success in England, a handful of names and achievements quickly find the way forward: Jay Trump’s 1965 Grand National win at Aintree. Ben Nevis’ 1980 National triumph. Flatterer’s second to See You Then in the 1987 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Lonesome Glory’s novice hurdle score at Cheltenham’s December meeting … Read more
Fifteen years ago, American jump racing seemed smaller and bigger at the same time. The Season Preview edition of 2008 sure went for drama – two race meets running without National Steeplechase Association sanction, the hiring of Lou Raffetto as the new CEO of the NSA and a suspended trainer dominated the early conversation. The … Read more
You did a steeplechase newspaper? Yup. Some of the newbies – looking at you Twitter accounts, new owners, Gen Z trainers and teenage jockeys – might not realize it, but for 18 years we published a newspaper about American jump racing. Steeplechase Times started in 1994 as a weird, “Would this work?” idea. Basement office, bad … Read more
You can’t get mad at people for not voting in an election, and also get mad at people for their voting choices. Or can you? No, you can’t. So I’m not mad at the way the steeplechase Eclipse Award voting turned out. In his only American start of 2022, Irish raider Hewick dominated the $250,000 … Read more
