CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--The National Steeplechase Association returns to Charlottesville on Sunday, Oct. 5 for the Foxfield Races, a seven-race card worth $240,000 -- $100,000 more than last year's event.
Snap Decison winning the Iroquois Steeplechase (Photo by Tod Marks)
Anchoring the card is the G3 Mariann De Tejada Memorial, a handicap hurdle, which like all jump races at Foxfield is at 2 1/8 miles.
And the star of the show is Bruton Street-US' Snap Decision, a 12-time stakes winner and a leading contender for the Eclipse Award.
The Jack Fisher-trainee returns to the races for the first time since capturing his third G1 Iroquois at Percy Warner Park in Nashville in May.
Snap Decision is one of six different runners to win an NSA G1 in 2024, and the only one of the six to have been victorious in another graded stakes as well, the G2 Temple Gwathmey at Middleburg Spring.
WITH $959,400 in NSA career earnings, the 10-year-old Hard Spun gelding is fourth on the all-time list, just $6,000 behind the immortal Lonesome Glory.
Facing Snap Decision, who totes 164 pounds -- 12 to 20 pounds more than his opponents -- are six challengers, three of whom are also trained by Fisher: Riverdee Stable's Cool Jet, a two-time novice stakes winner who was a DNF in his only 2024 outing in the Gwathmey; Sonny Via's Welshman, a G2 winner who finished 2 1/2 lengths behind Rampoldi Plan in the G1 Commonwealth Cup at the Virginia Gold Cup Races in May; and C and C Boultbee Brooks' Sebastopol, an eight-time winner of nearly a quarter-million dollars in Europe who has two fourth-place NSA finishes, in the Iroquois and Gwathmey.
Leading trainer Leslie Young, whose once prodigious advantage in the standings over Fisher has shrunk to two, saddles Noble Stables' Total Joy, who captured the Daniel Van Clief Memorial stakes over the Foxfield course in April.
Rounding out the field is South Branch Equine's Who's Counting, who has a pair of wins at Foxfield, most recently taking the Good Night Shirt stakes, a 130 handicap, in April.
He enters the Tejada following an allowance win on the turf at Laurel for trainer (and rider) Sean McDermott.
The rest of the card consists of a $15,000 maiden claiming hurdle; $35,000 filly and mare maiden; $40,000 open maiden; $30,000 handicap for horses rated at 110 or less; $40,000 handicap for horses rated at 120 or less; and a training-flat contest.
First-race post time is noon, and if you can't make it to Foxfield, you can watch the races via live stream at www.nationalsteeplechase.com
