ome horses might run better in the mud or on firm footing, but McDynamo can safely be called an all-terrain vehicle, especially after winning his third $150,000 Colonial Cup, Nov. 19.

An elite field of five lined up at the Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C., which consists of a very firm, sandy base with dormant Bermuda turf.

Just like the $150,000 Breeders’ Cup (N.J.), which McDynamo (Jody Petty) won a month earlier, the field scratched down to Eldon Farm’s Hirapour (Matt McCarron), William Pape’s Mixed Up (Danielle Hodsdon), Calvin Houghland’s Chivite (Paddy Young) and Mon Villez (Chip Miller).

Mon Villez turned out to be the wild card. Also owned by Houghland, Mon Villez easily won the $30,000 Noel Lang Stakes at Montpelier (Va.) by more than 8 lengths.

Miller wasted no time at the start and let Mon Villez have his head as they set off at a good clip. The lanky chestnut jumped well on the lead with McDynamo in his shadow for most of the 17 large, stuffed brush fences.

As they approached the last fence, Petty urged McDynamo to pressure Mon Villez, and the five barreled down to the last fence. But McDynamo jumped a couple lengths to the front of the field.

Not done, Mon Villez tried to close the gap as they approached the wire but had to settle for second, a length behind McDynamo.

“He’s an amazing horse. He doesn’t have to be on the front end or on the back end; he just does the job from wherever you want him to,” Petty said. “You can just place him. He is the perfect horse.”

Owned by Michael Moran, husband of champion timber jockey Anne Moran, McDynamo’s win made him the National Steeplechase Association’s Horse of the Year and a shoe-in for the Steeplechase Eclipse Award with his $285,000 in purses.

The 9-year-old son of Dynaformer also gave Sanna Hendriks the NSA trainer, money-won award after she topped off at $655,532 for the year. McDynamo currently has $1,163,104 in lifetime purses with 14 wins out of 22 starts.

On a sad note, Hirapour pulled up lame after the stretch. The 2004 Eclipse winner had injured himself in the summer and undergone special treatments for a bone chip in his left ankle.

“He has definitely done something now to his right ankle; it has a huge lump on it. I am waiting on the X-rays,” trainer Doug Fout said a few days after the race. “He’s sound on it today but still uncomfortable.”

Hirapour’s left ankle required surgery in 2005 and then the horse was re-injured in the Turf Writers (N.Y.) on Aug. 31. It appears to have held up, but now the right ankle is in question. Fout said the horse is definitely retired from racing but might become a foxhunter. Hirapour made more than $583,000 for owner Ken Luke of Eldon Farm, and the 10-year-old, Irish import remains among the top 10 American steeplechasers of all time.

Despite the $90,000 McDynamo won in the Colonial Cup, it was not enough to take down NSA leading owner Kinross Farm who finished off the year with $376,975.

Mixed Up takes second place in the NSA money-won category at $205,080. Trained by Jonathan Sheppard, Mixed Up had three wins out of seven starts. Sheppard, who started the season in the NSA leading trainer category in March, only relinquished it for a short time this summer and then finished up the season strong with 26 wins, 16 second places, 14 thirds out of 110 starts and took home $646,032 in purses.

Sheppard is the reining king of NSA trainers with 21 leading titles, his last being in 1999. He is the all-time leading trainer with over $16 million in lifetime earnings since 1966.


Back For A Win
McCarron’s last win of the season came on Kinross Farm’s Gold Mitten in the hotly contested filly and mare series. The $25,000 race had 10 starters, including Lee McKinney’s Feeling So Pretty (Michael Traurig), Linda Klein’s Orchid Princess (Bernard Dalton) and Jodi Rowland’s Suntara (Young).

By the last fence, those three were, as expected, near the front, but McCarron knew his horse well and powered up the outside to win the race over Feeling So Pretty by more than 2 lengths.

The 6-year-old daughter of Waquoit won the filly/mare Breeders’ Cup in 2004 with McCarron but has been off with an injury for two years. This is her first hurdle win of the season. Kinross trainer Neil Morris normally has his stable jockey Chris Read ride the horse, but after McCarron’s filly was scratched, Read suggested they might ask her former jockey McCarron for one more ride.

“Matt knows this horse so well,” Morris said. “She has been running some on the flat; she won an allowance race at Laurel [Md.] for $28,000. She did the same thing there as she did here; she was last, came off the turn and went wide and won it.”

But Orchid Princess is now the queen of all the fillies and mares for 2006. The 8-year-old daughter of Demaloot Demashoot won the series with wins at the $30,000 Iroquois Filly Stakes (Tenn.) and the $50,000 Crown Royal Stakes for fillies and mares at Callaway Gardens (Ga.).

“This was the plan all along, to win at Callaway, run at Colonial Cup and hopefully win the series, then retire her,” Klein said. Part of Orchid Princess’ winnings include a free breeding to a stallion from the North East Stallion Station in Maryland. “I don’t know anything about the breeding part,” Klein said. “I am going to let them choose the best match for her.”


Fast Timber
Another first for the year came in the form of a timber win for Emery Taylor’s Hall Of Angels (Paddy Young) and trainer Paul Rowland.

A devil to work with, Hall Of Angels has a peculiar temperament, and any amount of added stress can make him difficult if not impossible to handle. Rowland entered the horse at Shawan Downs (Md.) in September, but he got tired and was pulled up. At the International Gold Cup (Va.), his nemesis, Augustin Stables’ Ghost Valley, took the lead and dragged him around and he placed fourth. Then at the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup he had a different jockey who did not really know his quirks, and Hall Of Angels refused to start.

But at the Colonial Cup it was Ghost Valley’s race to lose, and a win would have made him the timber champion of the year. As expected, Ghost Valley (Petty) took the lead and kept it all the way to the end, but Petty lost his whip in the stretch, and Young was there with plenty of horse as he battled with Petty all the way to the wire to win by a head.

Hall Of Angels’ win gives Askim, owned by Irv Naylor, the 2006 timber title. “He’s so difficult,” Rowland said. “We brought him down to Camden on Wednesday in plenty of time. He loves the firm ground and is a hard horse to get fit, because you can only get so much training in until he loses it entirely. I swim him a lot. Some days you can gallop him and some days you can’t. He’s a horse you have to be one on one with. Paddy has perfect hands. He’s so quiet and so patient with him.”

Young went on to win the $15,000 starter allowance hurdle with Bruce Miller’s Thegooddieyoung.


More Firsts
Irishman William Dowling got his last win of the season for trainer Jack Fisher on Edie Dixon’s Sermon Of Love in the $25,000 hurdle stakes for 3-year-olds.

But it seemed like ages before Dowling’s race ever started. The delay came when Scavenger (James Slater) and the favorite Jimmie’s Echo (Robert Massey) would not behave safely for the starter. After some time officials scratched the two horses and let the other 10 run.

Dowling had been told by Fisher that his horse had a nice kick and to come up the outside after the last. That is exactly what he did, catching Slip Away (Cyril Murphy) and Haggard (Chris Read) napping and winning the race by a length.

“I fancied Jimmie’s Echo to win today; it was unfortunate that that happened,” Dowling said. “I don’t think the others even knew I was coming.”

No magic was needed for Chip Miller and Dapple Stable’s Gryffindor to win the $25,000 maiden hurdle. The pair took the lead and never looked back even when the dark bay hooked up with Mr. J.L.T (Slater) over the last. Gryffindor has been a flat horse of interest for trainer Tom Voss, but he never really fired over hurdles this year.

Cyril Murphy, a consummate professional, normally rides the horse for Voss, but when he realized he was not clicking with the horse he suggested another jockey. Miller, who has a way with difficult horses, took his time with the 6-year-old, talking to him as they trotted to the start.

“I didn’t actually give him a gallop warming up; I did not want to start having communication problems before the race got started,” Miller said. “We were going entirely too fast in the beginning. That is not when you want to try and tell him what to do and how to do it because they are a little bit fresh and you will end up having an argument instead of a conversation.”

Miller just tried to be subtle and hoped he would settle on his own. “Actually James coming to me was a blessing; he had started to wander around a bit,” he said. “When James came to him, he put his ears back and said, ‘OK, come on, let’s go.’ “

Miller finished off his year in a three-way tie for fifth place with 10 wins along with Young and Slater.


Top Honors
Danielle Hodsdon, who rode Mixed Up for Jonathan Sheppard, will take the National Steeplechase Association’s leading jockey award with her 21 wins for the year. Matt McCarron had to settle for second place with 18 wins, and Jody Petty was third with 17. Petty clinched the money-won category with $588,840 over Hodsdon, who had $543,087.

The 30-year-old Hodsdon becomes only the second female rider to take the coveted leading rider award since Blythe Miller won the prize in 1994-95, and the Pennsylvania native has only been jump racing since 2000.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Hodsdon said. “I kept thinking all fall, maybe, maybe, maybe, but then I thought Matt or Jody would have some spectacular day, and I would get beat.”

Hodsdon said she owes her winning season to her riding “getting steadily better” and to all the Sheppard horses.

“I think Jonathan is having more fun this year,” Hodsdon said. “With being the NSA president he is participating in more of the hunt meets and has a lot more homebreds running. These are horses he has known since they were babies so that makes the wins even more special. I have been lucky enough to sit on a few of them.”

Sarah L. Greenhalgh