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Joe Clancy 
Gray three-button suit, white shirt, brown dress shoes, two-tone green tie, hands clasped loosely behind his back, Cyril Murphy could have been a businessman waiting on a train.
And as it turned out, that’s exactly what he was.
The 3-year-old horses who run over hurdles in the United States are like, well, 3-year-olds. Unpredictable and full of potential. Someday, they’ll be great like champions Zaccio, Lonesome Glory, Warm Spell and Demonstrative. Or someday, they’ll be lost to history like T.V. Gold, Solitary Strike, Wetlands and Jogja.
Nine newcomers tackle Saturday’s $50,000 Gladstone, the sixth race at Far Hills, at 2 1/8 miles. They hail from pretty much everywhere – Trappe Hill Road has never run anywhere, Officer’s Oath won at Shawan Downs, Invocation has already run five times over hurdles, Don’t Make Me Cry makes his 11th start this year.
Rawnaq, here’s your chance. The 9-year-old Irish import, already the leader of his division this year, gets a chance to drive home the point in Saturday’s American Grand National, feature race on the Far Hills Races card. He faces seven rivals in the $350,000 classic at 2 5/8 miles.
Four words that make fans of American jump racing pay attention – the Far Hills maiden. It’s not quite the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but is one of the year’s most anticipated races with big purse ($50,000 this year), big stage and big opportunity. Win this, and people pay attention. Past winners include Hall of Famer McDynamo, which ought to be enough to make you pay attention.
This year, a full field of 10 will head to the post (with seven on the also-eligible list) as the second race on the day (1:40 p.m. approximately) at 2 1/8 miles.
The fog and mist and chill and silence made Pennsylvania feel like England or Ireland, which was appropriate given the reason for standing on a country hillside early on a Thursday morning.
Like many English National Hunt trainers, Charlie Longsdon went to Doncaster’s Goffs U.K. horses in training sale in May to scout for prospects. A 9-year-old handicapper was not on the short list, or even the long list.
It’s that time of year in American jump racing – the odd pause between nominations to the Far Hills Races and actual entries for the Far Hills races. Both will soon be followed by the $700,000 world-class day of jump racing, set for Oct. 15 in the countryside of northern New Jersey.
Cyril Murphy rode jump races. He knows the pain of missing a ride because of an injury and feels for jockey Jack Doyle, who will miss the rest of 2016 with injuries suffered in a fall at Belmont Park Sept. 22.
But the timing is awful.
Dual Grade 1 winner A. P. Indian, arguably the best sprinter in the country, is out there somewhere across the track, in the dark, in the rain – galloping, passing horses, and tugging on the wet reins held by exercise rider Moises Nava.
It’s 6:20 Thursday morning at Maryland’s Fair Hill Training Center. It could pass for midnight on a ship in an empty sea.
A racing fan watched the post-race interviews conclude after the Cotillion at Parx Racing Saturday and called to me from the far side of the winner’s circle. “Joe, hey Joe, Joey, hey Joey, come here. What did Jerry say? What does Rick want to do? Which Breeders’ Cup race are they going to run in? They have to run in the Classic, don’t they? They have to test her. If she’s a great one, she’s got to be tested. It’s the Classic, right?”
Wrong. It was never the Classic. It was always the Distaff.
