Jockey Stewart Strawbridge, a former foxhunters chase champion, graduated to the big timber on April 16 at My Lady’s Manor. After tasting one of Maryland’s toughest courses, in Monkton, he wants more.
Strawbridge kept Pleasant Parcel, a 9-year-old gelding owned by his mother Nina Strawbridge, in the middle of the six-horse field, allowing Narrow River (Alexandra Robert-son) and Sham Aciss (Paddy Young) to show the way around the difficult, three-mile course.
Strawbridge was worried about Sham Aciss, who had won the John Rush Streett Memorial maiden timber at the Manor the previous year, and veteran Sam Sullivan (Blair Waterman), who had won the $25,000 feature in 2003. When Sham Aciss broke away from the others after fence 13, Pleasant Parcel struggled to keep up, but Sham Aciss caught a hind leg at the second-to-last fence and came down hard.
Strawbridge inherited the lead and drove Pleasant Parcel to the last. In the stretch, he kept his eye on a gaining Make Me A Champ (Joe G. Davies) as he crossed the wire 31³2 lengths in front. Narrow River came in third, and Sam Sullivan took fourth.
Trained by Strawbridge’s sister, Sanna Neilson Hendriks, Pleasant Parcel has been the perfect schoolmaster for the young timber rider. Hendriks, who has ridden her fair share of Manor courses, instructed her brother about the deceiving course.
“We were really focused on the jumping,” she said. “I told him about a few of the tricky fences like fence 13. Take a hold of him and don’t look long; that is where a lot of horses fall because they go long.”
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Having a close family member in the irons only increases the tension. “If anything goes wrong I am going to feel a lot of the responsibility,” Hendriks said.
Fence 13 was always in the back of Strawbridge’s mind. “I just sat quiet and gathered him together,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t going to ask him before that fence because [Sanna] told me they stretch out so much and get on the forehand that they make mistakes.”
Other riders did not have as much luck. Joe At Six was scratched outside the paddock after some bad behavior, and Kebo Valley lost Remy Winants at fence 10. Sham Aciss needed several stitches in his leg.
Maryland trainer Tom Voss entered the 17-hand Equistar (Waterman) in the $10,000 John Rush Streett Memorial maiden timber for a win.
Following about seven lengths behind Classic Cal (Billy Meister), Waterman bided her time; after all, she was sitting on a Saratoga (N.Y.) track record holder. Included in the field were Goldridge (Winants), Plenty Of Sweets (Ellen Horner) and Make Your Own (Danielle Brewster Oster).
As the horses approached fence 9, Equistar took off early, dragging Goldridge, who attempted to avoid hitting the 3’8″ fence and came down with Winants, knocking her out.
Meister and Waterman avoided any problems at fence 10, but Horner’s horse chipped in and flipped with her, knocking her out and breaking her T5 and T6 vertebrae.
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Waterman continued to follow Meister until the last fence, when she caught him. She had a sticky fence but managed to gather her horse together and thunder down the long stretch until she beat him by a neck at the wire.
Waterman would rather not think about the last minute of her ride. “He completely missed the last, just like I do every year here, and he just fought back. He has a great turn of foot, luckily for me, and we caught Billy’s horse,” Waterman said. “This was only his second start over timber. He is a really talented horse.”
It was a heartbreaker for Meister. “All I know was there was one horse in that race I was really concerned about, and that’s the horse that beat me,” Meister said.
Voss is pleased with his newest sanctioned timber horse. “He’s always been a very good horse,” Voss said. “Not sure what happened at the last. No one seems to get a good fence there. It’s awful. I think the horses just see this tunnel.”
Voss isn’t sure where Equistar will run next, although he was considering Iroquois (Tenn.) in May. “I am about two weeks behind with my horses. I have so many flat horses now they have taken over my operation,” he said.
Both Winants and Horner were airlifted to the University of Maryland’s shock-trauma unit in Baltimore. Winants, 16, was back in school on Tuesday, after a severe concussion and a broken upper right rib. Stepfather Richard Boucher said there will be no schooling or racing for several weeks.
Horner was released on Monday with a back brace. “This is the least amount of pain I have ever had with any break,” Horner said. “This season is finished. I have no idea what my plans are. The problem is racing is in my blood, and I can’t help it. There is always next year.”
Strawbridge completed his day by riding one of his father, George Strawbridge’s, horses, Invest West, for Hendriks. This time he was surrounded by good friends–his brother-in-law Todd McKenna on the 16-year-old Young Dubliner and Jason Griswold on Blackchesters.
