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By Betsy Branscome
Times Community Newspapers Staff Writer
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That hackneyed phrase can be applied to steeplechasing as well as life, with a return to the very roots of the jump racing sport behind a renaissance of ‘chases that put the emphasis on the jumping part of the equation.
“These races have proved very popular,” said National Steeplechase Association communications director Joe Clancy of the new “division”. “A certain type of horse is required to run well in them —- brave to jump the unusual obstacles, with stamina to go the long distances, and, oh yeah — they need speed these days, too. Examples of horses that have run well in these include stakes winners over hurdles Hike Circuit Bar and Castleworth] but it gives an opportunity to a new category [like E.V. Big Shot and Warrent Place.]”
Clancy spoke of the NSA’s newest division of racing, a type of competition so new that no one in power can single out a term to describe them. Contested over a variety of obstacles like would have been found along the route of the earliest hunt field challenges that birthed the modem sport of steeplechasing, there are more of this type of race than most race fans might realize.
The Willowdale races in Pennsylvania calls their event over varied obstacles simply a “steeplechase." Though the Jay Trump at High Hope in Kentucky is designated an “open timber” race, the jumps on that course are quite varied.
The Alfred Hunt at Glenwood Park is called a “steeplechase”, while the NationsBank Cup
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