THE PLAINS, Va.--Jack Fisher saddled three Stakes winners on Saturday, May 3 at the Virginia Gold Cup, a meet marred by a number of horses falling on the flat with others slipping badly but not falling.

Cool Jet leads over the last in the Commonwealth Cup (Photo by Tod Marks)It was a dominating performance by Fisher, who won half of the races competed on the day and moved into a big lead in both Trainer, Money Won and also in Races Won.

Harry Beswick, who rode the winner of the first race, Thewizardswell (Ire), who lead by 20 or so lengths over most of the pack throughout the race, summed the race up perfectly.

"For me, it was pretty straight forward," said Beswick."I missed all the chaos behind me."

And chaos it was, with one horse falling over the first fence and then three horses slipping and falling on the turns with others in the race also slipping badly, with one going to his knees but recovering with his rider hanging on.

Following that race, there was a wait of more than an hour before the second race while race officials tried to remedy the problem by putting sand down on the tightest turns.

Also, one of the loose horses had left the grounds and had to be caught.

 

THE NEXT three races went off without any falls, although there were a couple of horses that slipped quite badly,  but a horse slipped and fell  in the fifth race and then, running loose, caught the leader and carried him wide and off the course.

According to Fisher, it had rained the night before and that made the grass slippery, but the tight turns at Great Meadow have always been a problem.

Then to add insult to injury, a severe lightning storm hit just before the seventh and final race, and the race was cancelled.

Fisher saddled Riverdee Stable's Cool Jet (Ire), ridden by Bernie Dalton, to win the featured G1, $150,000, 2 1/8 mile Commonwealth Cup Hurdle Stakes by 7 1/4 lengths in 4:03 1/5 over Noble Anthem (Ire), trained by Tom Garner, and Too Friendly (GB), trained by Leslie Young.

"Jack told me, `Just go,' so I just jumped out in front and let the horse tell me what to do," said Dalton.

"We'll put him away for the summer," said Sean Clancy, manager of Riverdee Stable. "He's 9, so we have to manage him. We all love the horse. He's one of the family."

Clancy had earlier scratched Awakened from the Stakes.

"I didn't like the way the turns were riding," said Clancy. "Why rush him."

Fisher then saddled his mother, Mrs.John R.S. Fisher's, Key's Discount, ridden by Graham Watters, to win the $100,000, 4 mile Virginia Gold Cup Timber Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths in 8:56 4/5 over Family Tree (GB), trained by Neil Morris, and Bogey's Image, trained by Joe Davies.

"Graham said he had a lot of horse left at the end," said Fisher. "Thanks go to Sam Cockburn, who I bought  him from. He did all the work on him. He jumped great. I think he could be anything."

Fisher finished his skein of impressive wins by saddling Northwoods Stable's Mission North, ridden by Watters, to win the $50,000, 2 1/2 mile Speedy Smithwick Memorial 4-Year-Old Hurdle Stakes by 27 lengths in 5:03 3/5 over Holiday Charm, trained by Julie Gomena, and Super Chunk, trained by Sean McDermott.

"He's a pretty nice horse," said Fisher of Mission North, who had earlier won his first race over fences in a maiden race at Old Dominion.

"To fix the worst turn, they'd have to cut off some feet eight or 10 feet from the rail and bank the turn," said Fisher. "That would hamper the view."

With his three wins, Fisher now has more than twice the purse money than any other trainer.

He leads in Trainer, Money Won with $454.250, with Young second with $212,150, and Mark Beecher third with $167.600.

Fisher leads Trainer, Races Won with 11 wins over Neilson, with eight wins, and Young and Beecher, with seven wins each.

Watters and Dan Nevis lead in Rider, Races Won with seven wins each, and Watersleads in Rider, Money Wonwith $268,450

Runnymoore Racing's Thewizardswell (Ire), trained by Todd McKenna and ridden by Beswick, won the first race, the $40,000, 2 1/8 mile Maiden Hurdle, by 20 1/2 lengths in 4:54 3/5 over Derby Street, trained by Fisher, and Blueflagflyinghigh (Ire), trained by Richard Valentine.

Thewizardswell and Risk Taking opened up a big lead right from the start, and when Risk Taking slipped and fell on a turn Thewizardswell was left to win easily.

"He jumped flawlessly, said Beswick."He''s a really nice horse. When Gerard (Galligan, on Risk Taking) fell and stopped pushing me, he relaxed, and I had a lot of gas in the tank."

Kathy Neilson saddled Armata Stables' Fashion Line, ridden by Galligan, to win the $20,000, 3 mile Steeplethon by 1 length over Animal Kingston, trained by Morris, and Mortlach (GB), trained by Garner.

"He's a specialist," said Galligan. "He's not the best jumper, but with each fence different, it gets his attention."

"I'm so grateful to Gerard," said Neilson. He gave him a great ride. I'm also grateful to Ben Griswald (owner of Armata Stables). He's wonderful to work for."

Garner saddled Mrs. S.K.Johnston Jr.'s Active Duty (Fr), ridden by Dalton, to win the $45.000, 2 1/8 mile Allowance Hurdle by 3 lengths in 5:03 1/5 over Sultan Pierji (Fr), also trained by Garner, and Palio (Ire), trained by Fisher.

"He's such a nice horse," said Garner. "He'd been off for a year and a half. I thought he'd just gallop around. I wanted to get him back on the race course. He's a real honest individual."