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Gliding scores second leg
of ’chasing’s Triple Crown
By Betsy Parker
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
MIDDLEBURG - Even as flat racing’s Triple Crown series is yet a week away, steeplechasing’s answer to the sophomore championship is already two legs down. And though jump racing won’t crown an undefeated series champ in ’07, the nation’s best hurdlers are proving to be a competitive group.
At Saturday’s Middleburg Spring Races, Brigadoon Stable’s Gliding handled the 2 1/4 miles over a testing Glenwood Park course, emerging from the flank of rival Rare Bush after the last to win the Temple Gwathmey Stakes, the second leg of‘chasing’s Triple Crown. New Zealandbred Gliding gutted out a half-length score after battling up the tight inside of Glenwood’s infamous “elbow” turn into the deep homestretch.
With victory in the $75,000 grade II stake, Gliding sets himself up atop the nation’s burgeoning crop of talented second-season jumpers. Trainer Doug Fout, who also won the Triple Crown’s first leg with EMO Stables’ Orison, was delighted with the 7-year-old gelding’s sparkling effort.
Fout said he missed a few works with Gliding due to a regional quarantine last month from a surprise outbreak of a deadly horse disease. “He wasn’t ‘tight’ for his Camden run (when he was close-up third to stablemate Orison, with Rare Bush second, in the series’ first leg at the March 30 Carolina Cup races),” said Fout. “I knew he’d come off that run better.”
Jockey Jeff Murphy, nursing a hurt hand from a fall in the Middleburg Hunt Cup one race prior, set Gliding up midfield at the break, allowing Langburg (Cyril Murphy up) to make the early fractions. Murphy saved ground throughout, placing Gliding along the inside, fourth or fifth in the
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