Mallory, owned and trained by Chris Kern and ridden by 12-year-old Carly Kern won the small pony title at the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. Photo by Marcella Peyre Ferry
With two previous winners in the running, an unexpected winner made the 87th running of the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup an exciting race.
Sunday, Nov. 7 in Unionville, PA, was a beautiful day for the four-mile race over timber with a purse of $35,000. Five starters went to the post including 2019 and 2020 Hunt Cup winner Mystic Strike and 2018 winner Stand Down.
Mystic Strike, owned by Upland Partners and trained by Todd McKenna, set the pace for the majority of the race with Kiplin Hall’s Renegade River staying in sight in second. The field was cut to four early on when Rakhaa lost rider Thomas Garner the first time around the course.
As they came to the final two fences at the top of the stretch all four remaining horses were within striking distance with a hard-fought win going to Goodoldtimes under jockey Colin Smith. The Irish-bred owned by Armata Stables and trained by Alicia Murphy finished on top by a two-length margin in a time of 8:09 1/5. Mystic Strike finished second followed by Renegade River and Frank Bonsal Jr.’s Stand Down.
“He’s so confident jumping and he’s so calm about it that I always felt that he had his wits about him and he had something saved for the end, so I was optimistic even when he dropped to fourth. I thought, good for Colin not to rush him. Anything can happen when you turn into the home stretch and anything did happen,” Murphy said. “I knew we were in tough but I knew we stood a chance and that’s all you can ask for. We had not tried him at four-miles, he does seem to like the distance.”
There were two other sanctioned timber races on the card, beginning with the Lewis C. Ledyard Memorial $15,000 a three-mile Maiden Timber. It was a race of attrition with the eight-horse field dropping to just one finisher. A lost rider, a horse off course and another pulled up cut the field to five until the next to last fence where Indian Hawk, who had led almost all of the race, fell at the jump in a major pile up. Shootist, who had been running second under Skyler McKenna, avoided the trouble to go on to the finish line alone for owner Upland Partners and trainer Todd McKenna in a time of 6:25 2/5.
The Arthur O. Choate, Jr. Memorial, $20,000 Allowance Timber Race drew five entries with Kinross Farm’s Pocket Talk leading the majority of the race, ridden by Teddy Davies. The stretch drive turned into a tight battle with Road To Oz and jocker Graham Watters coming from the pack to win by a neck for Holwood Stable and trainer Mark Beecher in a time of 6:31 1/5 on the three mile course.
“He can go, he can lead, but he’s just happier there if he can follow another horse. He just jumped super – he’s got height and speed - I just left it to Graham after that. He knows the horse. He’s won him a couple of times now,” Beecher said. “He’ll probably do a bit more hunting over the winter then we’ll go into a spring campaign over timber.”
The day wrapped up with an Athenian Idol Apprentice Rider Training Flat race going one mile and three furlongs on the turf. The winner was Upland Flats Racing LLC’s Freddy Flintshire with Parker Hendriks on board. Freddy Flintshire finished with a 2 ½ length win in a time of 2:41 4/5.
Junior Races
In addition to the NSA sanctioned races there was a full slate of Junior Pennsylvania Hunt Cup races, sanctioned by U. S. Pony Racing and run in the field master’s chase format. The field master for the day was Dr. Erica Gaertner riding All The Way Jose.
Just two entries started in the Junior Rider Horse division, where Grandiflora, ridden by 13-year-old Jaidyn Shore took the first win of the day followed by James Wyatt on Prime Prospector.
Grandiflora is owned by A. Merryman and R. Blue and trained by Suzanne Stettinius. “He’s really fun, he can be a little spicy sometimes but other than that he’s great,” Shore said.
Medium and large ponies ran together with separate awards for the winners of each division. Both winners were riding under the red, white and blue silks of EHM Stables and trainer Betty McCue.
Thirteen-year-old Bryn Scholenthal rode large pony Bailey to her division win, with medium pony Charleston close on her heels under 11-year-old rider Kaeley Fowler.
Divisions for small ponies and Shetland ponies also ran together for separate awards. First for the small ponies was Mallory, owned and trained by Chris Kern and ridden by 12-year-old Carly Kern.
“We stopped at the brush behind one of the Shetlands but she made up ground,” Carly Kern said.
The first of the Shetland Ponies was Dublin, owned and trained by Regina Welsh and ridden by 11-year-old Raines Gammon. “It’s hard to beat the smalls,” Gammon said. “He was really good. I knew he wasn’t going to like the brush but he did it.”