Sometimes winning the Maryland Hunt Cup is a matter of survival of the fittest, and sometimes it seems to be just plain luck. But this year, on April 28, winning was all in the family.

Representing the fourth generation of his family in the 111th running of the race in Monkton, Md., jockey Stewart Strawbridge took on the massive course with his little horse The Bruce and won it handily.

In what is billed as the oldest, tallest and most dangerous of the four-mile timber races in America, the $75,000 amateur-only Maryland Hunt Cup timber stakes scratched down from 11 to a willing eight with several veteran riders and seasoned horses in the mix of first-time starters.

This year, three-time Maryland Hunt Cup winning jockey William “Billy” Meister was riding the 2006 second-placed finisher Rosbrian Farm’s Rosbrian. The 2006 Maryland Hunt Cup winner—Northwoods Stable’s Bug River—had his usual jockey Blair Waterman Wyatt, as did Keystone Thoroughbred’s Ivor-gorian (Todd McKenna).

Trainer Tom Voss entered Armata Stable’s Coal Dust with veteran Maryland Hunt Cup finisher Garet Woods Winants. Also seeing the course for the first time were Frank Martin’s Lear Charm (Blake Curry) and Jack Griswold’s 17.1-hand, jet black gelding Blackchesters (Jason Griswold).

Adair Bonsal’s Zaratanie was on his second attempt at finishing the course—last year Zaratanie and Curry crawled over fence 8, unseating the young jockey. This year, A. Patrick Smithwick was called to ride Bonsal’s horse.

To The Front
With rain during the week and at post time, the course went from quite good in most places to soft between fence 3 and fence 6.

The field left the start with no real speed, so Strawbridge urged The Bruce to the lead.

As they galloped on to the second of 22 timber fences, Zaratanie shot toward the front, but failed to jump the fence, taking out the post and about eight rails on either side instead and unseating Smithwick in the process. Neither horse nor rider was injured.

Fence 3, one of the largest at 4’9″, was a little sticky for The Bruce, who now regained the lead and seemed to settle nicely on the front with Rosbrian, Black-chesters and Coal Dust not far off the pace. But fence 9 would be  Rosbrian’s undoing, as the horse chipped-in, causing Meister to lose his balance. He was unhurt in the spectacular fall.

As the horses made their way to yet another monster, the 4’9″ fence 13, Coal Dust took a hard look at the five rails and buried himself at its base, taking out the second to top as he popped over it. Unfortunately the ungainly jump caused Winants to tumble off on the other side. Both horse and rider were unhurt in the mishap.

At this point, Strawbridge’s brother-in-law McKenna and Ivorgorian had come alongside The Bruce, and the pair kept up the pace out in front with Bug River and Wyatt in striking distance just behind.

At fence 18, Strawbridge was passed by a driving Wyatt, and he chased her all the way to fence 20, where he gained a little bit of a lead heading into the water jump at the 21st. The Bruce out-jumped the 14-year-old son of Polish Numbers, drawing away toward the last, but Wyatt still had some horse left.

With an awkward last fence for The Bruce, it looked like Bug River might win his third Maryland Hunt Cup and retire the trophy, but The Bruce was just getting started in his stretch run, pinning his ears back and digging in. The Bruce gained momentum with every stride until he was well past Bug River to win the race by 8 lengths in the very slow running time of 9:36 4⁄5.

But second place was no done deal, and Bug River would have to share. Lear Charm, who was a good 10 lengths back at the last fence, found a whole new gear and ran down Bug River in the stretch to get second in a dead heat. Blackchesters took fourth and last. Ivorgorian appeared to refuse the water jump for the second year in a row and lost McKenna before the fence.

A Family Affair
Strawbridge’s sister, Sanna Neilson Hendriks, trains the 10-year-old New Zealand-bred The Bruce. She claimed him from Doug Fout in 2004 and after one hurdle race, switched him to timber. Just a little guy, the 15.3-hand son of Masterclass won two open timber point-to-point starts this year and was fourth the weekend before at the Grand National. Hendriks said she wasn’t really expecting him to win his first time out on the course.

“It’s really unbelievable,” Hendriks said in the winner’s circle. “I thought he was doing well in the race. You never know if they can jump that high or not. I was just hoping that they would get around safely. Once he got going, he jumped great. I was hoping the run around the Grand National would have him ready; we didn’t even school him this week. Really, they can either jump these fences or they can’t.”

She added, “Stewart kind of had in his mind that if nobody went, he would go out in front. I was happy when he got a little company with him. And when Stewart let Bug River get by him—which I thought was a very smart move—it gave him somebody to run at.”

Strawbridge just wanted the last fence to be behind him. “I knew we had it probably in the stretch,” Strawbridge said. “But I really just wanted to make it over the last and kick on. If I had it to do all over again, I could have really used a lead going into the third. Thank God for Todd—jumping with him part of the way made my horse a little more fluid and confident.”

Strawbridge admitted that The Bruce isn’t the stereotypical big-timber horse. “He’s very tiny. I am sure he was taken back a bit when he saw the size of these fences. Before we claimed him we found out he was a pretty good jumper, so this was the plan all along.”

Strawbridge has a very long history of Maryland Hunt Cup winners in his family. His great grandfather, Redmond C. Stewart, was one of the founding fathers of the race and won it in 1904 with Landslide. Earlier, his brother W. Plunket Stewart won it in 1898 with The Squire.

Redmond C. Stewart Jr., Strawbridge’s grandfather, is probably best known for owning two-time Maryland Hunt Cup winner Ben Nevis II in the late 1970s. Strawbridge’s mother, Nina Strawbridge, is also the sister
of Anne Stewart, who trained two-time Maryland Hunt Cup winner Swayo (2000 and 2003).

Hendriks herself is one of only a handful of women to win the race as a jockey—winning in 1991 with Tom Bob and in 1993 with Ivory Poacher. Strawbridge’s other sister, Kathy Neilson McKenna, trained Young Dubliner to a win in 2002 and set the course record at 8:253⁄5.
 
“It’s really a family affair. Stewart rides for Kathy in the mornings, then having Stewart riding for me at races and having the whole family be a part of this is just great,” Hendriks said.

For now, The Bruce is done for the spring, but Strawbridge said he may come back for a run at the fall timber meets. Bug River’s trainer, Regina Welsh, said she was proud of the way her horse ran under the circumstances.

“He basically couldn’t breathe,” Welsh said. “He gets like that—he worries so much and has trouble breathing. Usually it happens around the last couple of fences, but this time it was earlier. It’s like an anxiety attack. His worrying manifests itself into breathing issues.”

Trainer-jockey Chip Miller unfortunately was busy riding and winning the $25,000 feature in Charlotte, N.C., at The Queens Cup on John Grigg’s Hip Hop and did not get to see his first Maryland Hunt Cup entry Lear Charm run into second.

“The plan was just to go into it like a school, and so I gave Blake pretty specific instructions to stay in the back and just try to have fun,” Miller said.

Curry had a particularly nasty time at fence 20 and almost went down with his mount. “Blake was a little disappointed that he did not ask his horse sooner, but that is part of trying to get around the Hunt Cup. You don’t want to ask a question too soon,” Miller said. “I think that is probably why he made such a bad mistake at the 20th. They are so big, you can’t just all of a sudden give him a slap and then run down these fences. Our plan was to have a good experience his first time out and be ready for next year.”

Curry couldn’t stop grinning after the race. “It’s the best feeling you can imagine riding and finishing this race,” Curry said. “When you are going out to the start and it gets really, really quiet and you can’t hear the people anymore, you know you are about to embark on the most fantastic athletic event for horses in the country.”

Curry appreciated Lear Fan’s quick thinking on course. “There were a lot of times he really helped me out like at fence 20—I’m not sure how we stayed together there. He moved himself right back under me. I should have been done there,” he said.

Miller was impressed with Lear Charm’s first Hunt Cup outing. Lear Fan is probably going to be turned out until hunting season, but the four-mile Pennsylvania Hunt Cup in the fall is not totally out of the question.

Sarah L. Greenhalgh