Keri Brion has been flying the American flag successfully on these shores in recent months and attention now turns to jumps action Stateside with the new National Steeplechase Association season having got underway at the end of last month, with Irish successes last weekend as the season steps up a gear.
At Glyndon in Maryland Vintage Vinnie came out on top in the $60,000 Maryland Hunt Cup – one of the centerpiece races in the Timber racing season.
Formerly a five-year-old geldings’ maiden winner at Lingstown when under the care of Colin Bowe, the now 12-year-old found his way across the Atlantic following a stint in Wales with Rebecca Curtis and entered Saturday’s racing having made a winning return in a $30,000 timber contest at My Lady’s Manor.
Now under the care of Joseph Davies, the son of Vinnie Roe proved to be in a league of his own in the four-mile stamina test as he ran out a comprehensive winner as he set a new course record in the process with his runaway success.
The success was particularly notable as it provided Dan Nevin, who will be very familiar to Irish racegoers for his exploits in the pointing fields, with the biggest success of his career on his first competitive rider in America.
WOW. Just WOW. Vintage Vinnie won by a couple fences at @MDHuntCup. That's not an mis-type. Amazing win by Armata Stables' frontrunner, trained by Joe Davies and ridden by FIRST TIME in the US rider Dan Nevin. pic.twitter.com/Nu02jcZjVH
— NSA (@JumpingwithNSA) April 24, 2021
Elsewhere over the weekend, Do The Floss became the latest Baltimore Stables graduate to enjoy success stateside when he hinted at the exciting future career that could lie ahead for him by winning on his first start in America.
Having won his four-year-old maiden by a distance at Borris House under John O’Neill, the Shantou geldings following many of his former stable companions across the Atlantic where he re-appeared in the Future Champions Bumper at the Queens Cup Steeplechase at Mineral Springs in North Carolina for his new trainer Arch Kingsley Jr.
That appearance saw him account for the former Grade 1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial Hurdle winner Show Court by three and a quarter lengths and connections will undoubtedly have big hopes now for this six-year-old.
The American Steeplechase season now continues at pace right through to the Autumn with a further 25 fixtures on the calendar including big Grade 1 races.
Hurricana Farm's Irish-bred Do The Floss won the final @Queenscup with @sirgerry29 in the irons for @ArchKingsley. Do the Floss was an @irishp2p winner before coming to the US
— NSA (@JumpingwithNSA) April 24, 2021
2nd Hurtgen Forest (Elizabeth Scully)
3rd Show Court (Arch Kingsley, Jr) pic.twitter.com/blTpTKsmTa
