Steeplechase Times: Colonial Cup 2010

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By Joe Clancy

CAMDEN, S.C. – Second at the Iroquois. Third at Saratoga. Second at Monmouth Park. Second again at Far Hills in the Grand National.

Paddy Young and Slip Away were good together – they just couldn’t win. The races went predictably, with the gray gelding galloping along nice and relaxed near the front, Young sitting still as a mannequin at a jockey store. They turned for home looking like winners, fought gallantly but lost. To Tax Ruling, Divine Fortune, Arcadius, Percussionist. The only bad race, and it wasn’t that bad, was a fifth behind Sermon Of Love in the New York Turf Writers Cup.

And then came the Colonial Cup.

Slip Away and Young dominated the year’s final Grade I, taking control six fences from home and winning by 25 3/4 lengths over Preemptive Strike and Tax Ruling at Springdale Race Course Nov. 13. Achieved in 5:14.80 for 2 3/4 miles, the victory clinched the NSA earnings title for Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s stable star, put a grip on a likely Eclipse Award and rewarded a true professional.

“Every time I get off him I know there’s nothing left,” said Young. “It’s all out there on the course. Every time I ride him he gives 120 percent. He walks away with his head down, he gives his all. And he keeps getting beat. How can it not break his heart to walk away like that time after time? Today was his day.”

As it has since 1970, the Cup provided the final stage for title hopefuls – drawing nine runners including championship players Slip Away, Percussionist and Tax Ruling. Last year’s winner Mixed Up, bold veteran Preemptive Strike, 2009 runner-up Red Letter Day and Grand National third Lead Us Not added talent and depth.

From the start, Preemptive Strike and Slip Away took the first two spots on the chart, followed by Tax Ruling and Swagger Stick. Repacked in the off-season, the Springdale fences offered 17 tests – stiffer and a little taller than usual. Lead Us Not fell at the fifth. Red Letter Day went at the sixth. Mixed Up, Percussionist and Orison labored with their leaps. Up front, Preemptive Strike jumped like a 2-mile chaser at Sandown – standing off a stride out, rising high and landing long. Slip Away figured out the fences early and tracked the leader with an effective – if a little less daring – style. Tax Ruling and Swagger Stick completed the contending quartet, leaving the others to try to keep pace.

Preemptive Strike led down the long, flat and fast Springdale backside – soaring over the ninth and 10th. At the 11th, Slip Away inched closer and to the leader’s outside. They landed over the 12th on even terms as the pace increased. Slip Away took a 1-length lead into the 13th, powered over the 14th, flew the 15th and steamed for the stretch. Swagger Stick moved to third and briefly got to Preemptive Strike’s flank before the second-last. Slip Away summoned another quality leap, as did Preemptive Strike, and the race was over.

“They’re two really good jumpers,” Voss of his horse and Preemptive Strike. “That was some performance, a good enough race on the front end, but it was frightening to watch until he got in front. Once he got in front, I thought it was all over. He was going so easily and jumping so well and he was running as fast from the last fence to the wire as he was at any part of the race.”

Making the final quarter-mile a coronation, Slip Away widened the margin in the stretch and pulled up with his ears pricked.

“As much as I’m delighted to win, I’m just so happy for that horse,” said Young. “If ever a horse deserves it, it’s him. His jumping was impeccable. He was fantastic, he was brilliant.”

After all the near-misses, Young wanted to try something different at Camden. Hence the early attack of Preemptive Strike.

“I’ve been saving him all the time, in every race, to make sure he gets home,” Young said. “Today, I was thinking flat track, last race, he should be able to get there. As tired as he’s been before, he’s going to be more tired today. It was going to take 125 percent. He won it easy in the end but he still had to give that maximum effort to put the pressure on the other ones.”

And that’s what won the race. Slip Away went after Preemptive Strike early, which made a quick race even faster at a key moment. Mixed Up and Percussionist, the fastest horses in the race, never made an impact. Iroquois winner Tax Ruling kept up for a while and stayed on late to take third. Swagger Stick, off two timber starts, handled the jumps and the distance but didn’t have enough speed late.

Young sweated the decision the night before, when he asked for help on the social networking website Facebook of all things, but decided he had no choice.

“If he gets beat, it’s a bad ride; if he wins, it’s an excellent ride,” he said. “But we just had to go for it. I had to take the chance.”

– From Demonstrative’s point of view, he’s still perfect. Jacqueline Ohrstrom’s 3-year-old hurdler won his debut at Virginia Fall in October and added the $25,000 Raymond Woolfe Memorial Stakes at Camden to clinch the NSA 3-year-old championship.

In between, he took a body check at the start of the Gladstone at Far Hills – not that it fazed him.

The son of Elusive Quality rated just off the early pace of St Of Circumstance and Hiwasee Gem and was well back as the big field of 14 started up the backside. Demonstrative (Matt McCarron) let others make plays for the lead, found space outside and roared alongside Peace Fire coming to the last fence. Demonstrative landed running and scored by 3 1/4 lengths over Pace Fire with Far Hills winner Class Skip third. The winner covered 2 miles in 4:08.60 and impressed his trainer.

“I thought he was dropping out of it on the backside, he kind of lost touch with them up front a little bit,” said trainer Richard Valentine. “Then he just came running. For a horse to go from being handy, to getting detached and then make a run into the pace like that – confidently – is nice to see.”

McCarron put it more simply.

“If I could ride that horse every day for the rest of my life, I’d give up riding races, he’s  that much fun,” he said. “I could have ridden him better, should have gotten him outside sooner, but he makes up for things like that.”

– When stablemates Sunshine Numbers (Bernie Dalton) and Riddle (Jody Petty) touched down over the last fence of the Hobkirk Hill, a starter allowance over the Cup fences, trainer Arch Kingsley knew he had a winner. But picked sides anyway.

“I said ‘Go get him Jody,’ ” Kingsley said. “I wanted Riddle to get it just because Sunshine got the last one and Riddle has been through a lot and deserved one.”

Sunshine Numbers hung on, defeating Riddle by a length in 4:29.40 for 2 1/4 miles. Saluda Sam rallied to claim third, but was no match for the Sue and George Sensor runners – also 1-2 at Aiken two weeks earlier.

The winner set the pace most of the way, responded to pressure from Riddle late and won the race for the second consecutive year after placing third (to Slip Away) in 2008.

“Sunshine is a big brute of a horse, he probably outweighs Riddle by 300 pounds, maybe 400,” said Kingsley. “They both like to run on the front end, and they’re both classy, old horses. They are a blast to train, fun to ride. Those kind make my job very, very easy.”

Sunshine Numbers, whose dam Saturday Sunshine won over jumps, improved to 6-for-16 over jumps and 3-for-5 in 2010.

– Owner/trainer Karen Gray wasn’t sure she wanted to run Eye Said Scat Cat in Camden’s open timber, until Carl Rafter turned on the sales pitch.

“I had to make a lot of phone calls to get her to run him,” said the jockey. “She was worrying about it. I was meant to ride Fieldview, but Darren (Nagle) got back on him. I didn’t have a ride and I twisted her ear a bit.”

Gray listened, relented and brought a ready horse from her Tennessee base. Eye Said Scat Cat galloped strongly, jumped boldly and responded when battling Gather No Moss over the final stages to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 7:44 for 3 1/2 miles. Brands Hatch finished third.

Rafter enjoyed the trip.

“Karen said he chips in, he’s settled so I jumped off handy and I was swinging for 3 miles,” said the jockey. “He didn’t chip into one, running away with me. If I’d have lost the race it would have been my fault. He was flying. He fleeewww the second last – the last three fences were faster than the first three in the 3-year-old race.”

Eye Said Scat Cat came to Camden off a third in the maiden timber at Callaway Gardens a week earlier, with apprentice Gus Dahl aboard.

“I feel bad because he rode a great race down there,” said Gray. “It’s so fast here, not the best place for a young rider. He did the dirty work so I’ve got to thank him. This horse is good at timber. Some of the pictures of him over brush are horrific – he was clearing fences by 3 feet and that made me think timber.”

– Young and Voss opened the day with a maiden hurdle score by Coppertree Farm’s Good Request, who came through after seconds in his first three tries.

The 6-year-old son of Dynaformer started his jump career with a second at Saratoga Open House, another second (by a head) at Monmouth and a third runner-up finish at Far Hills.

At Camden, Good Request rated off the pace of Lake Placid and Wild For Gold early, traveled into position on the backside and emerged at the top of the stretch. Good Request pulled away late to win by 4 1/4 lengths over Fog Island, getting the 2 1/8 miles in 4:27.80. Wild For Gold stayed for third.

“He was there at the last fence (at Far Hills) and just didn’t go through with it,” said Young. “Today he did. He was better and everyone was happier.”

As part of the Juddmonte Farm/Bobby Frankel empire, the winner made flat starts in New York, California and Kentucky.

He won twice at Saratoga in 2008 and finished fourth (a length behind the Voss-trained Always First) in the Grade III Sycamore at Keeneland that fall. After more than a year on the sidelines, Good Request ran twice on the flat for Voss this spring before switching to jumps.