This weekend promises to be a bonanza for jump racing fans with a pair of showcase National Steeplechase Association meets. In Glyndon, nine horses are expected to face the starter in the 127th Maryland Hunt Cup, America’s oldest, longest, and most challenging timber race. Meanwhile hurdlers will take center stage at Foxfield in Charlottesville, Va., where $260,000 in purses are on the line in a seven-race card highlighted by two stakes worth a combined $125,000.
At Foxfield
Home to presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, as well as the University of Virginia, the city of Charlottesville will host the new-and-improved Spring meet on Saturday.
The Foxfield card consists of seven races worth a record $260,000 – $80,000 more than last year’s event. The meet is anchored by the $75,000 Daniel Van Clief Memorial Sport of Kings novice stakes at 2 ⅛ miles, the distance of all hurdle races over the course. The race has gotten a $15,000 purse bump over 2023. Foxfield will also host a new stakes race, the $50,000 Good Night Shirt Sport of Kings Handicap Hurdle for horses rated at 130 or less. The race is named, of course, for Virginia horseman Sonny Via’s Hall of Fame star, who won six straight Grade 1 stakes among his 13 NSA triumphs and ranks second in all-time earnings.
The rest of the card features four hurdles races – a $15,000 maiden claimer; $30,000 maiden special weights contest; two handicaps, a $35,000 race for horses rated at 115 or less and a $30,000 event for those rated at 110 or less; and a $20,000 maiden race over timber at 3 miles.
Post time is 12:30 p.m. For full entries, click here.
If you can’t make it to the races, you can watch the live stream via the NSA web site at www.nationalsteeplechase.com.
Photos courtesy of Nick Hahn.
