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By CLIVE CARNIE
Arundel Newspapers Staff Writer
Foxcroft student Dawn Dugan won the Rappahannock Hunt’s Old-Fashioned Point-to-Point on Sunday by doing her homework.
The week before the race, Miss Dugan, a junior at the all-girl Foxcroft School at Middle burg, spent several hours walking and riding around the course at Natalie Emery’s Emery Hall near Sperryville and looking for the shortest, easiest route.
The hours of research paid off as the young rider found a short cut down Mason Mountain that got her back to the finish line some 30 seconds ahead of the second-placed horse.
“Yesterday I got permission to walk the course on my mother’s hunter,” explained Miss Dugan after the race. “I spent three hours walking around the course.
“At the crest of the mountain there’s a point where you could go left or right, either way was pretty long. But I saw some pink survey tape going straight ahead down the mountain and I followed it and it came out to a nice timber fence. I thought the others would follow me down there, but they didn’t.”
One other rider did choose the same route as Miss Dugan, Old Dominion Hunt member Lannie Simmons of Amissville riding George. But Ms. Simmons wasn’t able to cover the ground quite as fast and had to settle for second place.
“Dawn found my shortcut,” said Ms. Simmons after the race. “I was so mad! She must have flown, though, to beat me by so much.”
Miss Dugan, who hunts with the Middleburg Hunt, rode her mother’s thoroughbred-cross hunter Mid City to first place. The 16-year-old rider also won the junior award for first-placed junior — in fact she was the only junior in the race.
For the first time in the four-year history of Rappahannock’s Old-Fashioned Point-to-Point, the race was not plagued with rain or deep going. In fact, the weather was beautiful, with temperatures in the 50s and the sun beaming down on the course and the spectators who turned out to watch. After more than a week without rain, the going was also perfect for the horses.
“That’s what oldfashioned
racing is,
knowing the shortcuts.”
— Mike Brown
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