News

Jockey Robbie Walsh stopped by the office this morning and summed up Far Hills the best: “When you go to Far Hills and the ground is like that, you can throw out all the form you have and go to Far Hills form. Who’s run well there before? Foreign-breds, you know who will run well if you think about it.”

Irish-bred Black Jack Blues thrived in the soft going and made his pace-setting tactics stand up for 2 5/8 miles to win the $250,000 Grand National at Far Hills Saturday.

You can almost hear Tax Ruling: “Hey, what about me? Remember me? Didn’t you see the Iroquois? I’m here, I’m here.”

The 10 best races I’ve seen at Far Hills? Like looking for the 10 funniest things your kids have said. Narrowing it down is the hard part. So here goes, in no apparent order.

There have been so many, all the way back when Dad was running Owhata Chief in the Samuel K. Martin at Essex, I decided to stick with ones I rode. Here’s my Top 10 rides from Far Hills, 1983-2000.

A quick look at steeplechasing’s biggest day, race-by-race. Great stuff. If you’ve got a DRF account, you can see what we mean in the Far Hills past performances.

The Far Hills race meet go back 91 years, tying its roots to the Essex Foxhounds, the area’s former strictly rural character and American steeplechase history.

Bought as a foxhunter for Beth Fenwick, Incomplete continued his improbable climb to timber stardom by adding the International Gold Cup in just his ninth NSA start.

On the surface – and that’s all most ever saw of Bobby Frankel – he would hate it.  Deep down, he would like it. Frankel’s namesake, a 3-year-old colt simply dubbed Frankel, won his ninth race in his ninth start with a facile triumph in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Europe’s Champions Day at Ascot.

Bon Caddo is a racehorse. He’s also a show horse. A foxhunter. And a bit of a pet.

“We don’t have any routine with him,” said Maryland-based Dawn Williams, who trains the 10-year-old son of Bon Point, favorite for Saturday’s International Gold Cup timber stakes at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains, Va.