Photo credit: Don Clippinger
As he awaited the result of the $100,000 Maryland Hunt Cup to be made official on April 28, jockey Eric Poretz amiably chatted with friends and well-wishers. He still wore his safety helmet, and atop it were two spotless pairs of riding goggles.
Those pristine goggles told the story of the 120th Maryland Hunt Cup. As the field broke on the sprawling Glyndon course, Poretz decided that Irvin “Skip” Crawford’s Senior Senator should be on the lead. Jumping well, Senior Senator sailed over the Hunt Cup’s towering fences and was never headed as he won America’s most storied timber race for the second time in three years.
Senior Senator, winner of the $50,000 Grand National a week earlier, atoned for an early fall in last year’s Hunt Cup and delivered a third straight Hunt Cup victory for trainer Joe Davies, who won last year with Derwins Prospector.
Crawford said the path to the Hunt Cup is two steps: A start at the Grand National in nearby Butler, MD and then a shot at Hunt Cup glory a week later.
With confidence flowing from the Grand National win, Poretz was relaxed in the hour preceding the afternoon’s only race, and he put Senior Senator on a confident, front-running path from the drop of the starter’s flag. “He does well on the front,” Poretz said, and he sensed that Senior Senator would be most comfortable there.
Moving down the back straight the first time, Senior Senator led by as many as six lengths, with Armata Stables’ Joshua G. and 2017 runner-up Drift Society in his wake in a field of nine.
Joshua G., ridden by Eddie Keating, came at Senior Senator with a late move in the stretch, but Senior Senator had an answer for it and won by five lengths. “When Joshua G. came to him, he was just waiting,” Poretz, 22, said. “I pushed him on, and he responded.”
Bruton Street-US’s Drift Society, the only other finisher, cantered easily to the finish line to claim third money. Derwins Prospector fell at the 18th fence on the second run down the Hunt Cup’s back straight.
Senior Senator ran the Hunt Cup’s four miles in 9:20 2/5 on turf made soft by a daylong rain on Friday.
Senior Senator was regarded as the favorite to win the Hunt Cup, and he climbed to the top of the National Steeplechase Association’s earnings list with his two victories, worth $90,000. Also at that level is Balance the Budget, winner of the $150,000 Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup (Gr. 1) at the Carolina Cup Races on March 31.
Bred in Pennsylvania by Charles C. D. McGill, Senior Senator is an eight-year-old by Domestic Dispute out of Queen Kennelot, by Awesome Again. Bred in Kentucky by Jeffry Morris and Dean Grimm, Queen Kennelot was unplaced in her sole career start. McGill bought her for $10,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s 2002 Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale.
Crawford noted that, by Hunt Cup standards, Senior Senator is a youngster. He was the youngest horse in the Hunt Cup field this year, and he was the first six-year-old to win the Hunt Cup since Hall of Fame member Jay Trump in 1963.