Most horses are either asleep or out grazing at 8:30 p.m., but six steeplechasers were jumping for the crowds at the Meadowlands racecourse in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sept. 29.
This race could easily have been a preview for the Breeders’ Cup (N.J.) and Colonial Cup (S.C.) major stakes races later this fall. The $75,000 (grade II) hurdle stakes had season star William Pape’s Mixed Up and two-time Eclipse winner and 2005 National Steeplechase horse of the year, Michael Moran’s McDynamo.
Bettors could barely decide between the two, but by post time it was Mixed Up (Danielle Hodson) going off as the favorite and McDynamo (Jody Petty) just a smidgen behind him. But because this race is not weight for age, McDynamo was again packing on the high weight at 162 pounds to Mixed Up’s 152.
With the heavy hitters set to duel, the next horse that could possibly spoil their win pictures was Lone Arrow (Matt McCarron). At flag fall, the Colonial Downs (Va.) winner took off after the early speed of Otto Stolz’s Swoop And Soar (Xavier Aizpuru). And behind him, Lee McKinney’s mare Feeling So Pretty (Cyril Murphy) and Armata Stable’s Toughkenamon (Robert Walsh) trailed.
As the horses finished up the first 2 miles and entered the last half mile, McDynamo started to make up ground on Swoop And Soar. Close behind him was Lone Arrow and Mixed Up.
But it was all McDynamo sailing over the last and roaring into the stretch. Lone Arrow tried to run for second, but Mixed Up was already there. McDynamo held off Mixed Up by more than 6 lengths, and Lone Arrow was a good 3 lengths behind for third.
Toughkenamon put in a big fence at the last and fell. Both the horse and jockey were unhurt. After a steward’s inquiry into the fall, McDynamo was placed first, paying $5.40 and Mixed Up second at $2.40 for astute bettors.
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It has been a tough year for McDynamo’s trainer Sanna Hendriks. The 9-year-old son of Dynaformer did not handle the weight of 166 pounds well at the $150,000 hurdle stakes at Keeneland (Ky.) in April and pulled up, then he had a raging fever in May for the $150,000 Iroquois (Tenn.) and was scratched. Just as Hendriks thought he was back for Saratoga (N.Y.), he got a pesky hoof abscess.
“It was a very long summer,” Hendriks said. “I am happy to have it behind me. I was really excited with his race at the Meadowlands. I thought he would run well there, but you never really know until the race.”
For Hendriks, this race answered quite a few questions, and she doesn’t plan to run McDynamo again until the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 28 at Far Hills.
“He will do a little foxhunting with Cheshire Hounds,” said the Pennsylvania trainer. “He is really good out in the field and then I get to ride him.”
His jockey was feeling the old McDynamo long before the start. “I knew walking out in the parade he had it, maybe not he was going to win, but I knew he was back,” Petty said. “He was just marching.”
Petty thought it was pretty strange running that late at night. “I am usually asleep at that hour,” he said. “On Friday I rode six or seven horses, took a nap, then got in the car and drove to the race. I was not quite right. Usually on race day you have that excitement from the minute you wake up. But I didn’t have it until I was almost at the track.”
Sarah L. Greenhalgh
