Like Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, sometimes just believing is enough. Jockey Chris Read believed in Chinese Whisper, even though the horse acted like he might not believe in himself at times, and that confidence carried them both across the finish line first to take the International Gold Cup timber stakes.

“Chris has a connection with the horse,” said trainer Neil Morris. “He kept believing in him all through the race. He never gave up on the horse.”

Chinese Whisper was never really a factor throughout the 31/2-mile race, Oct. 16, The Plains, Va. Virginia Gold Cup winner Joe At Six (Michele Hunter) led for most of the race. The rest of the seven-horse field followed as one, content to let the little gray set the pace. Read and Chinese Whisper were at the back of the pack.

Once the horses jumped the water jump and had just three fences to go, Brooks Durkee went to the lead on Salmo, followed closely by Kebo Valley (Paddy Young). Chinese Whisper was still not mentioned in the race call.

With a tremendous rally, Joe At Six caught Salmo in the stretch, and the crowd went crazy cheering on the gray. He looked like a winner just strides away from the wire, and then, out of nowhere, Chinese Whisper stormed by to win by a mere 1/4 length.

Read, who is Morris’ assistant trainer, said the bay acts more like a filly than a gelding. “You have to cater to him or he gets frantic. The pace was a little fast for him. He likes to pat the ground before the jumps and set himself up, and they were just winging over the fences. He got in too deep several times, which is why we had some really ugly fences.”

Those ugly fences also took Chinese Whisper out of the heat of the race. “He’s a funny horse. He’ll drop himself out of a race, and you’ll be going along with a big loop in the reins. If you didn’t know him, you’d probably pull him up thinking he was done,” said Read.

Even knowing the horse like he did, Read wasn’t sure he could catch the leaders after the water jump. “There was a ton of ground for me to make up, but I got lucky because Salmo and Joe At Six used each other up a little bit and it helped my horse out,” he said. “I’m not sure Michele even saw me because I think she was looking for Salmo. I came up right behind her in her blind spot.”

Owned by Kinross Farm, the 7-year-old bay gelding has had a precocious timber career–in seven starts he’s won four races, but those statistics don’t tell the whole story. Bought by Kinross as a yearling, the son of Manila has been a project horse from the time they broke him.

“He’s a very immature horse. He’s so backwards physically, I have to train him very lightly and it takes a lot of out-of-season work to build up the appropriate strength and musculature so that his mind believes his body can do what you ask of him,” said Morris. “He gets very washy, physically and mentally.”

And getting Chinese Whisper’s mind in the right place is a large part of the battle, which is why having Read on board was a crucial element to the win. “He doesn’t train like a big, tough race horse that doesn’t care; he’s sensitive,” said Morris. “He never went to the University of Life; he’s been pampered here on the farm. Any other jockey would have given up on the horse, because he tends to give up on himself.”

It took so long for Chinese Whisper to show any form at all that his owner, Zohar Ben-Dov, questioned Morris about the value of keeping the horse. “We sat down a couple of years ago and Zohar suggested we sell the horse, but I wasn’t finished with him. You can’t rush a horse like Chinese Whisper. Zohar is really good about making these decisions with me. He never second guesses me if he can tell I really believe in a horse, and the first thing he said to me after the horse won was ‘Can you believe I tried to give him away?’ “

Jack Fisher is not a big believer in cosmic forces and superstitions, but he might have to reconsider after Darn Tipalarm (Tom Foley) lost the steeplethon to Earmark (Jody Petty). Darn Tipalarm is a running, jumping machine, and he’s won the 31/4-mile course over varied obstacles three times in a row.

But here’s the catch. The horse has never won two races with the same jockey in his long career over jumps. So putting Foley on board for the steeplethon, after he guided the gray to a win in the SkiRoundTop timber stakes at Shawan (Md.) earlier this season, was just messing with karma. And Petty and Earmark were quite happy to mess with the cosmos.

“I just went into the race knowing that this was Darn Tipalarm’s race, and my only plan was to try to beat him at his own game. I knew I couldn’t let him get out in front and have it his own way,” said Petty.

After leading for most of the race, Foley and Darn Tipalarm horribly botched the first of the two huge Aintree hedges. Foley almost fell off, and Darn Tipalarm lost a lot of ground trying to recover and regroup. Petty seized the lead over the second hedge and said it was great for Earmark to be in the lead because “he got a huge breather.”

Darn Tipalarm recovered the lead over the next fence, but Petty now had him firmly in his sights and had just the jumper to catch him.

“He’d clear the timber fences and then brush right through the hurdles. At the second Aintree hedge, he just went straight through it, instead of jumping over it. He’s smart. His jumping won him that race,” said Petty. “We caught and passed Darn Tipalarm at the last two hurdles because Earmark really hurdled them like a hurdle horse. After jumping flawlessly around a timber course, that’s pretty impressive.”

Earmark took a two-length lead into the stretch, and Darn Tipalarm battled back in the final yards but just missed by a head.

“[Trainer] Billy Meister did an awesome job with this horse. He had him fit and ready to go,” said Petty. “This was my first win for Billy, and it was a good one.”