There’s nothing quite like the Maryland Hunt Cup. The race gets run for the 118th time Saturday. The fences are like no others, the course crosses a public road (which is closed, then reopened) for the race. People have specific reasons for watching in specific spots – no reason or spot is the same. And on and on.
The 2014 race, post time 4 p.m., drew 15 entries. There are contenders, pretenders, newcomers, old pro-ers. If you’re going, enjoy. If you’re not, why not?
Pedigree Power
The 2014 lineup includes horses by Point Given, Zaffaran, Lion Hearted, Yarrow Brae (two), Eastern Echo, Flatter, Ops Smile, A. P Jet, Outofthebox, Double Honor, Bon Point, A.P. Indy, Johannesburg, Presenting. It’s a rugged group, as young as 9 and as old as 14. There are New York-breds, Irish-breds, Maryland-breds, West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Canada.
Speed? They’ve got speed
Brands Hatch once ran a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, and earned about $60,000 on the flat back when he belonged to Darley and Eoin Harty. He finished fifth behind Rock Hard Ten in the 2004 Swaps Stakes.
Jockey Power
Three of Saturday’s pilots have won the Hunt Cup before: Billy Meister, James Stierhoff and Mark Beecher. The lineup also includes top English champion Sam Waley-Cohen, former U.S. professional champion Jody Petty, international amateur Alice Mills, even Olympian Suzanne Stettinius.
Challenge Cup up on the line
Hunt Cup history Margaret Worrall catches up with the historic Hunt Cup Challenge Cup, a perpetual trophy that becomes the permanent property of the owner who can win it three times. There have been seven such cups, and three owners have a chance of retiring it this year.
For 31 years, not since Mrs. Miles Valentine with Cancottage in 1983, has anyone has been able to take home the coveted Maryland Hunt Cup Challenge Cup. Saturday, at the 118th running of the most difficult timber race in the world, three owners have a chance to jump into that void – Lucy Goelet, Northwoods Stable and Arcadia Stable.
The Challenge Cup, first presented in 1913, “will become the permanent possession of the owner winning the Maryland Hunt Cup three times, not necessarily with the same horse nor by successive wins.” It took from 1913 to 1940 before that first Challenge Cup was attained by Mrs. E. Read Beard, owner of Blockade. Only five winning owners have had that honor since: Stuart S. Janney Jr. (Winton 1947), Mrs. W. J. Clothier (Pine Pep 1952), Mrs. M.C. Stephenson (Jay Trump 1966), Redmond C. Stewart (Haffaday, Ben Nevis 1978), and Mrs. Miles Valentine (Cancottage 1983).
Among a field of 15, Twill Do, Battle Op and Delta Park have a chance to retire the cup.
Goelet’s Twill Do won the race in 2010 and 2012, and returns for another try. Battle Op seeks his first win for Northwoods, which won the race with Bug River in 2004 and 2006. Hunt Cup rookie Delta Park tries to win for Arcadia Stable, which turned a Hunt Cup double with Buck Jakes in 1995 and 1997.
Earlier reports singled out Northwoods (Michael Hankin) and Goelet as potential challenge cup earners, but upon further review Arcadia fits the description too. The Maryland-based partnership included Andre Brewster, Skip Cochran and Francis “Ike” Iglehart. Only the former is still alive, but Hunt Cup rules allow him to retire the challenge up with a third victory.
The current, and seventh, Challenge Cup is no measly piece of tin. Silversmith Paul Storr was venerated in a letter to Hunt Cup secretary Charles Fenwick from Donald Fennimore, associate curator of the Winterthur Museum: “I congratulate you on your recent acquisition and assure you that the ownership of a piece of Paul Storr silver is the epitome aspired to by all silver collectors.”
