Joe Clancy

Get up and do it again. While not quite the schedule of flat racing, the jump season gets busy in October with important races every weekend. This Saturday, it’s Virginia’s turn again as the International Gold Cup races head to the post at Great Meadow in The Plains. Post time on the eight-race card is 12:30 p.m. and there’s a little bit for everyone.

The Mean Queen won the big one, but Saturday’s Far Hills Races included plenty of other thrills as the New Jersey meet went to the post for the 100th time – and first since 2019 after Covid shut down last year’s schedule.

Running to the last fence of Saturday’s American Grand National hurdle stakes at the Far Hills Races, The Mean Queen cocked her right ear and braced for a challenge. She got one as Snap Decision arrived to her outside, intent on avenging a defeat a month earlier and snatching the Eclipse Award in the final Grade 1 of the season.

Here we are. After not happening in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and keeping tens of thousands of tailgaters at home, the Far Hills Races return Saturday. It’s the 100th running, so Happy Birthday or something but welcome back to the biggest meet on the National Steeplechase Association circuit.

Look at The Mean Queen and Snap Decision, favorites for Saturday’s Grade 1 American Grand National hurdle stakes at the Far Hills Races, really look at them and just start scribbling observations.

A good, old-fashioned steeplechase double. Even if we wish they’d separate (somebody run on Sunday) it’s good to see a full weekend of American jump racing as the circuit heads to historic Glenwood Park for the Virginia Fall Races in Middleburg and goes north to western New York for the Genesee Valley Hunt Races.

Thoroughbreds can do anything. By now, the ex-racehorses of the world have proven that to be true many times over – in rings, arenas, fields, paddocks, quite literally anywhere people want to take them.

Step Two. The steeplechase season hits its second weekend of September with Sunday’s Foxfield Races in Charlottesville, Va. The fall meet takes its next step toward a complete rebuild with six races and total purses of $90,000.

Trivia question. Who sired a steeplechase winner first? Runhappy or Imagining? The first was a champion sprinter. The second was a Grade 1 winner going long on the turf.

Crank up the old steeplechase machine, we’re going racing again. The autumn (don’t say fall) season starts Saturday with Shawan Downs in suburban Baltimore. Expect tailgating, tents, lacrosse balls, dogs, oh and horse races. Post time is 12:30 p.m. for the first of eight races covering hurdle, timber and flat.