Who in the world is Bernard Dalton? The jockey who won two races on the six-race card at the Aiken Fall meet, Aiken, S.C., Oct. 29, that’s who! Dalton, on Mrs. Lewis Murdock’s Niello, easily cruised to a 31â„4-length win in the feature race, the $25,000 Regions Bank Holiday Cup allowance hurdle, after also winning the maiden claimer for trainer Linda Klein. Those two wins don’t mark a cumulative breakthrough on the American steeplechase scene for the Irish jockey, but instead serve as a rather glorious attestation to his “second childhood.” Dalton, 37, rode “a few winners” over hurdles in Ireland and England, back when he was younger and not such an “old man” as he refers to himself now. He’s been galloping race horses and breaking babies in the United States for six years, but before last year, Dalton hadn’t jumped a hurdle in a race for nine or 10 years. He spends his winters in the horse-friendly climate of Camden, S.C., and once people found out he had been a steeplechase jockey, he was persuaded to school somehurdle horses for local trainers. Schooling led to invites to ride some races, and Dalton’s won a few for Klein and others. But he’s not a full-time steeplechase jockey, so winning two races on one day was a nice surprise. “I gallop horses all summer at Saratoga [N.Y.] and then winter down here [in Camden] to break babies. I love riding the hurdle races and am glad to do it for anyone stupid enough to put me up,” said Dalton with a grin. “For me it’s a second childhood; you don’t find too many people my age getting to ride over hurdles.” Trained by William “Winky” Cocks, Niello is lightly raced. He has only eight lifetime starts, and all those starts have been over hurdles. Dalton was on him in April of this year, in another allowance race at Camden during the Carolina Cup races. “We were going to win that one too,” said Dalton ruefully. “But we turned a somersault at the last.” Dalton said Cocks was planning on bringing Niello north to race at the International Gold Cup (Va.) in October, but when the ground came up soft, Cocks chose to wait for Aiken. Niello is a “good horse,” said Dalton, who prospers best on firm turf and a fast track. The win at Aiken came easily for the chestnut gelding. Dalton said he kept the son of Marquetry “fifth or sixth in the pack, then I just let his jumping take him to the lead along the backside and around the turn we assumed the lead and won going away.” While Dalton made his win sound deceptively easy, he did acknowledge that Cocks had done a superb training job to keep his charge primed and ready, especially since he’d specifically pointed him at the race in Virginia and then had to keep the horse ready for an extra two weeks. The last time the horse ran was in April, so to win the first time out after a six-month break was a feat unto itself. “To win for Mr. Cocks and Mrs. Murdock, who has been such a good supporter of steeplechasing for so many years, is reallyspecial,” said Dalton. Winning for Linda Klein was no less special. Klein trains few steeplechasers, yet always has a winner or two a year, and Dalton said she’s a friend who’s always been good to him. “Linda does really well with the horses she’s got. They aren’t always world-beaters yet she gets good things out of them,” he said. Dalton won the $10,000 maiden claimer on Fabi’s Legacy, a colt also owned by Klein. By Prime Legacy, “Fabi” has had only one other lifetime start, when he was a 3-year-old and ran in last year’s Aiken Fall meet to be beaten 73 lengths. “Linda just turned him out after that, and obviously it’s what he needed because he came back and won this race like he was supposed to,” said Dalton. Dalton rode Fabi just like he rode Niello, buried in the pack until the turn for home where he “shook” the reins and asked the bay horse to run on and win by 3 3â„4 lengths.