April 2026 Issue

April 2026 | EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN 29 Hunt Cup, Past and Present, “Pennsylvania horses have won no less than 24 races.” Few families made a more determined contri- bution to that record than the Hannums, whose branch of the Hunt Cup tree is rooted as deeply in foxhunting as in racing. Nancy Penn-Smith Hannum, daughter of R. Penn-Smith Jr., who served from 1921 to 1927 as Joint Master of Virginia’s Orange CountyHounds, later became the legendaryMaster of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Pennsylvania. She mar- ried John B. Hannum III, son of John B. Hannum Jr., who hunted the Maryland–Pennsylvania border country around Rising Sun. John B. rode in four Hunt Cups, placing in 1950 and 1951. The family’s greatest success came through their son R.P.S. “Buzz” Hannum, who won the race—most memorably aboardMorning Mac—while siblings John B. “Jock” Hannum Jr. and Carol Hannum also rode the demanding timber course.The next generation followedwhen Jeb Hannum rode the family-bred Our Climber in the 1988 running. The Hannum story also branches into another corner of elite horsemanship. Carol Hannum married Olympian Bruce Davidson Sr., linking one of the Hunt Cup’s great timber families to one of America’s most accomplished eventing dynasties and producing Bruce “Buck” Davidson Jr. While best known for three-day eventing, the Davidson family has always remained rooted in hunting and timber racing; Bruce Davidson Sr. rode in theMarylandHunt Cup in 1975 and 1983. Their branch of the family tree also intersects with another Hunt Cup line through the Valentine family, whose horse Cancottage carried Joy Slater to the race’s first female victory in 1980—one more example of how the sport’s families seem always to meet again. Across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the same hunt-country soil that grows timber riders has long produced event riders as well. BoydMartin, Phillip Dutton, JimWofford, Den- ny Emerson, Michael Plumb, Karen O’Connor, and Jimmy Day all spent time steeplechasing— and foxhunting—across those same tri-state hills. Moran “Charlie [Fenwick] took a major chance that I would pull it together at this point in my life,” Anne Moran recalled. At the time she was a 36-year-old mother of three, largely stepped away from racing, when trainer Charlie Fenwick offered her the ride on Buck Jakes. “You wait your whole life to ride one like Buck Jakes so you don’t get to choose when the chance comes,” she later told the Chicago Tribune. During the race she felt something rare. “For me, that race was in slow motion, just as in tennis when the ball seems to get bigger.” Buck Jakes carriedher tovictory in1995and1997. Her mother, BettyMoran of Brushwood Stable, had flown from Ireland to watch her daughter win that first Hunt Cup—on the fifth anniversary of Anne losing her father, also an amateur jockey. And as one branch of the Hunt Cup tree fades, another often grows in its place. Neilson “The Maryland Hunt Cup is part of our lives. It’s what we grew up with,” said Sanna Neilson. Few families embody that sentiment more fully. The Neilson presence in timber racing reaches back to the 1950s and 1960s, when Paddy Neilson emerged as a rider on the Mid-Atlantic circuit. Over time he rode in 21 Hunt Cups, winning three—in 1968, 1974, and 1989—and later train- ing another winner. His wife, Toinette (née Jackson) Neilson, rode in the 1979 Hunt Cup as women first began ap- pearing regularly in the race. Their daughter Sanna Neilson became the first daughter of a Hunt Cup winner to win the race herself, capturing the 1991 edition on Tom Bob and again in 1993 on Ivory Poacher. As a trainer she continued the family tradition with runners including Floating Interest, The Bruce (2007), Guts for Garters (2014), and Royal Ruse (2023). Another Neilson branch includes trainer Kathy Neilson, whose horses YoungDubliner (2002) and Withoutmoreado (2023) both won the Hunt Cup. Slater “Long ago, I was a pioneer,” Joy Slater Carrier said. In 1980, she became the first woman to win the Hunt Cup, riding Cancottage in the Valentine stable’s unmistakable pink silks with red hearts. Sportswriters dubbed her “America’s National Velvet,” but Slater always sounded more practical than romantic. “I wasn’t worried no woman had ever won,” she said. “I didn’t feel all eyes were on me. I just wanted to do the job.” “A lot of people in that race had never jumped that high,” said the protégé of Frank Chapot. “My experience show jumping was a huge asset because I was accustomed to five-foot fences and had utter confidence in Cecil [Cancottage].” Walking the course, she said, the fences looked “a whole lot bigger” when it was finally her own year to ride. When Cancottage cleared the last timber and crossed the line, “It was like getting to heaven.” Her breakthrough belonged to a larger family branch. Cancottage, the Irish gelding owned by Mrs.MilesValentine and trained by Slater’smother, Jill Fanning, made the victory the work of three women—owner, trainer, rider—something almost unimaginable a decade earlier. In 1971, Kathy Kusner had become the first woman to ride in the Continued on page 34 Family Snapshot:Winner’s circle, 2013MarylandHunt Cup. JockeyMark Beecher celebrates after ridingMr. Maxwell to victory in the four-mile timber classic for trainer RichardValentine and ownerMrs. George L. OhrstromJr. Raising the silver Challenge Cup beside him is SannaNeilson, herself a two-timeHunt Cupwinner (1991, 1993) and daughter of three-time champion rider Paddy Neilson, who rode in 21 runnings before becoming a leading trainer. The moment captures several branches of the Hunt Cup’s extended family tree in one frame. The Neilson family has ridden, trained, and bred contenders across Maryland and Pennsylvania for decades, while the Valentine name reaches further back in the sport through Virginia horsewoman Mrs. Miles Valentine, owner of the legendary timber champion Cancottage. RichardValentine, active on themodernMid-Atlantic steeplechase circuit, represents a newer generation of professional horsemen, while Beecher—who emerged from the foxhunting and point-to-point world in the early 2000s—reflects the sport’s enduring amateur roots. Together the figures in this circle forma living snapshot of the intertwinedMaryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia hunt-country families whose overlapping branches continue to sustain theMarylandHunt Cup. With permission from the Alex Brown archives, all rights reserved.