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Three of steeplechase racing’s leading innovators have joined to create the first international level timber racing competition, with the first leg at the 1997 Virginia Gold Cup on May 3,
Arthur W. Arundel. Gold Cup chairman and founder of the Great Meadow racecourse, Conrad Goess-Saurau, founder of the Marlborough Cup in England, and sportsman-businessman Irvin Naylor announced that $100,000 will go to the first horse that win both races in 1997 and 1998 and claim the new World Timber Championship.
The Virginia Gold Cup, one of the most demanding timber races in the United States, celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year. The race is run over a four-mile course consisting of 23 fences ranging in height from 3 feet 7 inches to 4 feet I inch. The Marlborough Cup, founded in 1995 and the only timber race in England, is run over a three-mile course consisting of 18 fences ranging in height from 3 feet 9 inches to 4 feet I inch.
Further comparisons of the two championship races find basic similarities and vast ditterences. The Gold Cup was first run in 1922; the first Marlborough Cup was contested in 1995. Runners at Great Meadow carry 165 pounds; Marlborough Cup entrants carry 168 pounds, or 12 stones in the English equivalent. Both events allow five pounds off for mares.
The course record at Great Meadow over four miles, 8:27, was set by Saluter in 1995. Shaarid, who won the 1996 Marlborough Cup, set that course mark at 6:12. Record times for both meets reflect a winning pace of about a “two-minute lick” or two-minute mile.
The World Timber Championship challenge trophy and the $100,000 bonus will be awarded to the first horse to win both the Gold Cup with a purse of $40,000 and the Marlborough Cup race with a purse of $30,000. The first four finishers of each race automatically qualify to start in the other. The challenge trophy must be won three times by the same owner in order to be retired, not necessarily with the same horse or in consecutive years.
Arundel said of the new competition: “After a century of building American steeplechasing upon what we’ve learned from racing in England over its native hedge fences, it is very promising to see this new international competition growing out of America’s native timber sport.”
Goess-Saurau said, “In spite of initial skepticism within the United Kingdom racing fratetnfity, we managed l6 tonvince most doubters in the' Mirlborough
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