A New Era for Steeplechase Racing

Like their counterparts in the flat racing world, the leaders of the steeplechasing game are always looking at ways to grow their sport and attract new owners. They already have big purses, a presence at Saratoga and hunt meetings that attract huge crowds. What they didn't have was a sale, a void they decided to fill.

On Sunday at Great Meadows Racecourse in The Plains, Virginia, 12 horses are slated to be sold. All are either established jumpers or former flat horses considered to be good prospects for a conversion to steeplechasing.

The sale was actually held last year but was more or less a dry run, something where only one horses was sold. With the 2016 sale, organizers believe they have laid the groundwork for something that can only grow and help their industry.

“Last year we created a 'Promotion and Growth' committee,'” explained Joe Clancy, a member of that committee and one of the organizers of the sale. “One of the topics that came up was whether or not we could have a sale, combine it with an owners' seminar and make an event out of it. The idea is to bring some horses out, build some bridges to the flat world and maybe somebody will bring with them new owners.”

For a listing of the horses in the sale click here. The sale starts at 2:30 p.m. and there is an owners' seminar and luncheon beforehand, starting at noon.

The sale topper will no doubt be Selection Sunday (Harlan's Holiday), already a top jumper. He won the Queen's Cup S. last year at Charlotte and is 3 for 9 over jumps. The 7-year-old gelding is being sold to disperse the estate of Andre Brewster.

Most others in the sale are horses who are being prepared for a second career after racing on the flat. One of those is Wild Dynaformer (Dynaformer). The 4-year-old cost $375,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September and is a half-brother to GI winner Pyro (Pulpit). He failed to win in 11 starts on the flat.

“If Wild Dynaformer had a little better flat form, if he had won a race or two, he'd be worth more money as a steeplechase prospect. But that's the kind of horse people are looking for,” Clancy said. “Pedigree, performance on the flat, guess work, that's the mix when it comes to what people are looking for in a sale like this. You can do a little bit of pedigree research. If you look at the catalogue page, you'd be looking for a horse that wants to run long on the grass, a horse that has no problem with distance. The horses that most people are interested in have not had a lengthy flat career. If so, they probably would not be a top-level steeplechase prospect because there's just a lot of mileage on them and they still have to learn a new game.”

Prominent flat owner Robert La Penta is among those who is selling a horse, Extensible (Malibu Moon), and Clancy hopes the sale could plant a seed in his mind that steeplechase racing is something he might want to try.

“One goal is to get some of the bigger flat stables to think about steeplechase racing,” Clancy said. “There's a lot of thought going into second careers for horses. While this is more like career '1a' as opposed to career two, we think it is a viable option. The horses end up in good spots and if they don't pan out, they end up as fox hunters or doing whatever for people. Bob LaPenta's horse wasn't a very good flat horse, so they're going to try this. They certainly could have run him for $10,000 and lost him and then off he goes. We're not silly enough to think that people like Bob LaPenta or Ken Ramsey are going to have 50 or 60 steeplechasers any time soon, but maybe they will start to think about this if their horse sells fairly well and goes on to do well. Maybe they'll decide to keep the next one and try steeplechase racing for themselves.”

Most of the horses in the sale have already been schooled over jumps. Prospective buyers can view their training on the National Steeplechase Association website. They can also be inspected prior to the sale, starting at 11 a.m.