Doc Cebu, ridden by Chris Gracie, won the featured Willowdale Steeplechase. Credit Marcella Peyre-Ferry
The Mother’s Day tradition in Pennsylvania steeplechase racing is the Willowdale Steeplechases. The 26th running at Willowdale, just outside Kennett Square, PA, was held Sun., May 13 under cloudy skies and intermittent rain that led to a soft course.
Crowds were treated to Jack Russell Terrier races, pony races, and the Miss Nancy Nicholas Memorial Side Saddle Field Master’s (won for the second year by McCrady's and Julie Nafe) all before the start of the National Steeplechase Association-sanctioned card of seven races.
The featured race on the card is the $35,000 Willowdale Steeplechase Stakes, run over a 3.5-mile course of fences including two challenging water jumps.
The race began with 2016 winner Grand Manan setting the early pace with a long lead for the first half of the race. Jockey Chris Gracie came off at a fence on the back side of the course, leaving the way open for last year’s winning horse, Doc Cebu, to go to the top and stay there for the win.
Doc Cebu, owned by Charles C. Fenwick, Jr., Michael Hankin, and Charles Noell, is trained by Jack Fisher and was ridden to the stakes win by Hadden Frost.
“He was on fire,” Frost said after the race. “He scared me at a few because he doesn’t like to go in short, but he can do it when he has to. He did put in a couple of short strides which is reassuring to know he can do it when he has to.”
The pace set in the early going by Grand Manan had challenged the rest of the field. When he went out of the running, the pack eased off somewhat. “We were trying to fill our lungs up again because we went hard at it. He’s not a bad horse, Grand Manan, so perhaps we were lucky today,” Frost said.
The Folly
Racing over fences began with The Folly, a maiden claiming hurdle race, which was won by Jack Doyle on Ebullience, for owner Riverdee Stable and trainer Jonathan Sheppard. Ebullience traveled with the pack for most of the two-and-one-quarter mile course, waiting to make his move in the long straight run.
“It’s hard judging this kind of ground. You don’t know if the horses are going to handle it or not. I was happy enough the whole way through the race,” Doyle said. “They got racing at the top of the hill and down the hill. I was happy enough the same way. He picked up once we got over the last.”
Rose Tree Cup
The other hurdle race on the card was the $20,000 Rose Tree Cup, won by Stormy Alex, owned by Irvin S. Naylor, trained by Cyril Murphy and ridden by Graham Watters.
Again, the winner followed well behind the pace setters until late in the race. “I started in with a good even gallop. The ground’s very soft. Maybe a lot of horses, American horses, didn’t really get home on the ground,” Watters said. “I took it up jumping three out. I didn’t want to take it up so soon, I just jumped there and when I got there he pricked his ears in front, so I had no other choice but to sit down on him and drive him on down the hill. He was looking back at me saying ‘are we done yet’ and doing the bare minimum.”
Stormy Alex does not necessarily like this type of footing. “He’s a bit of a monkey. He doesn’t genuinely like the soft ground, but I think the fact that they race a stride steadier gives him a chance when he’s jumping and when he’s breathing, and he travels truer, which he enjoys more rather than me having to force him,” Watters said.
Timber Races
This year, the schedule at Willowdale put all timber races at the end of the day to cut down on course changes. The Landhope Cup maiden timber with a $15,000 purse was so popular it was split into two divisions with nine horses entered in each.
Division 1 was won by Thistledown Farm’s entry Spirit of Sharnly, trained and ridden by Mark Beecher.
“He was good. He’s actually quite a good horse,” Beecher said after the race. “He’s come from England, so the ground conditions suited him to be a little bit softer. He won like a good horse there. He didn’t ever really come off the bridle. He was a little green early but got it together and jumped well.”
Division 2 went to Spoiler Alert, owned by Merriebelle Stable LLC, trained by William Meister and ridden by Gerard Galligan.
Instead of running with the pack, Spoiler Alert set the pace and was able to fend off challenges in the stretch to stay on top at the wire.
“I think the key is, ‘cause the ground’s so soft, not to go fast early on. I tried to go slow as possible early on ‘cause the ground is so testing. I think that was the key to him lasting the whole way,” Galligan said. “He jumped very good, he was very honest in front. He didn’t need another horse to lead him over those big fences. He ran here last year, so he had an idea about the hedges. He jumped great, and he quickened well. Jumping’s the name of the game here at Willowdale, and he did it very well.”
The racing day ended with the Marshall W. Jenney Memorial Foxhunter’s Chase, won by Stand Down, owned by Frank A. Bonsal Jr., trained by Joseph Davies, and ridden by Eric Poretz.
Also on the sanctioned racing card was the Liam Magee Amateur Training Flat Race over two miles. The winner was I Am Not Here, owned by Kristian Strangeway, trained by Todd Wyatt and ridden by Brett Owings.
Pony flat race winners were Anna Farber on Small Pony Chewy; Teddy Davies on Medium Pony Count Chocula, and Joey Dipierro on Large Pony Hot Chocolate.