Paddy Young was more than happy to ride for trainer Jack Fisher in the $25,000 timber stakes at Shawan Downs–after all he would be on one of his favorite timber horses.

But this race, Sept. 30 in Hunt Valley, Md., would be a test for Arcadia Stable’s Bubble Economy. This was the first time the 7-year-old bay had run since sustaining a suspensory injury while placing second in the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup last fall.

So Young and Fisher were not sure what to expect from their horse over the 31�8-mile course. They knew if he was on, it was his, but Fisher said he can be a bit of “a chicken” and needs a good, confident ride.

And he was up against the gray speedster, Augustin Stable’s Ghost Valley (Jody Petty), Vesta Balestiere’s Shady Valley (Tom Foley), Irv Naylor’s Salmo (Matt McCarron), two-time Pennsylvania Hunt Cup winner Mary Finlay’s Dr. Ramsey (James Slater), Maryland Hunt Cup starter Make Your Own (Cyril Murphy) and several other notables.

With that much good company, Young knew he would just have to see how the race played out, and it unfolded pretty much as expected from flag fall.

Ghost Valley and Salmo took the lead, putting as much as 15 lengths between them and the rest of the field. For the first circuit, the pair dueled gamely, then Salmo fell at the start of the second mile, giving Ghost Valley the lead, which he held for the better part of the second mile. But as he made the turn for home the excessive speed started to take its toll, and Bubble Economy took advantage, closing the gap.

By the last fence, Bubble Economy had passed Ghost Valley to win by 4 lengths and set a new course record at 6:462�5. Shady Valley placed third.

Young was grinning ear to ear. “Jack told me, ‘Don’t be in any hurry; he knows what he is doing,’ and that is exactly what I did,” Young said. “It’s such a long run around here. Jack said they will come back to you, just be patient.”

Fisher hasn’t decided where Bubble Economy will run next. He wants to see how he comes out of this race first.

Young added, “I think Bubble Economy is probably one of the best timber horses in the country if he will put it in. He needs encouragement. When he is on, he is unstoppable. He is probably one of my favorite horses in training.”

McCarron suffered a fractured collarbone in his spill off of Salmo but is expected to recover in time for the some of the big money races in late October. Salmo was unscathed in the mishap.


Repeat Performance
Earlier in the day, Xavier Aizpuru picked up two wins, first for Ricky Hendriks on Naylor’s Irish Laddie in the $15,000 maiden hurdle. Then he got the ride on last year’s $20,000 Legacy Cup winner, Vincent Bracciale’s Nick Mitchell, for Tom Voss.

Voss did not give the Irish jockey many instructions, and it turned out he did not need them to repeat his win in the allowance/claiming hurdle. The 7-year-old intact horse knows his way around the right-hand course, and although he did not set another course record, he did draw away to win by 21�4 lengths over Eve Fout’s Hidden Key (McCarron).

“Never sat on him,” Aizpuru said. “I rode in the race he won last year so I saw a whole lot of his backside. It was nice to be on top of him today. He is a lovely jumper. He made maybe one mistake, but out of about 18 jumps that is fine by me. Anything the Voss Team puts in a race has always got a chance so I was happy to ride for them.”

Voss was pleased to get his second Legacy Chase win for owner Bracciale, who used to ride his flat horses.

“I told Xavier he has one relentless gallop and to just sit there,” Voss said. “The horse has not come out at all this season. He ran at the Howard County Point-to-Point [Md.] in the spring and got hurt a little bit. This is his first showing.”

Voss said he is pretty good for a stallion, although he was better before he caught wind of the fillies in the race before.

“I would like to retire him now,” Voss said. “He has a huge fan club from the track. They always want to know where the horse is and how is he doing. The horse was kind of bought as a joke. It was for Vince, and he gave him to me to train. We never really thought we would get this far, but he has. Not sure if we will use him for stud, but it is kind of a little late to cut him now.”

Keeping The Lead
Danielle Hodsdon snatched another win to bring her races won this year to 15, to tie with McCarron for the lead. Her latest win came in the $15,000 maiden filly and mare hurdle race with Timber Bay Farm’s Slew’s Peak.

The granddaughter of Seattle Slew took no time picking up the lead and still had plenty left at the end to leave the rest of the ladies more than 5 lengths back.

Trained by Jonathan Sheppard for the family of the Entenmann’s cookie and pastries empire, the 4-year-old did not have a great start in her racing career. When the Pennsylvania trainer got the filly he could see she was a good jumper, but she made a terrible noise when she ran.

“We had her scoped and eventually did surgery which seems to have worked out well. It’s no good being a good jumper if you can’t breathe,” Sheppard said. “I told Danielle to keep her close because she stays well, and if you get in traffic you can’t take advantage of the big jump she has. She got a nice break and wasn’t really challenged. I guess we are going to stick with the filly/mare series for now.”

McCarron was scheduled to ride Naylor’s Earmark for trainer Billy Meister in the maiden timber, but after his fall, James Slater picked up the ride. The pair had a couple of awkward fences early on but then worked it out, winning the race by 7 lengths over Petty and Kingfisher Farm’s Sharp Face.

This is Earmark’s second sanctioned win. He won the steeplethon in 2004 but after a drug positive, he was taken down. Meister rode and won with Earmark at Green Spring Valley’s (Md.) hunt meet in the spring.


Sarah L. Greenhalgh