May 2023 Issue

Page 34 May 2023 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Cross Polination: Many Top Riders Both Event and Race Over Fences “I bet Morning Mac would have made a good show hunter – he moved really well, but (Iroquois winner) Appollon is the one I bet would have been a good event horse if he’d gotten that chance. Stutter Start? He’d sometimes hang a leg. I don’t believe I’d want to ride him over a solid course (of cross-country event fences.)” National Steeplechase champion rider in 1989 and 1993, Chuck Lawrence has a direct tie to the event world. He rode French-bred Gorky Park to win a 1991 3-mile hurdle handicap at Great Meadow for Virginian Jim Wilson, then trained Gorky Park’s son, Dres- den Farm homebred Smart Gorky for owner Wilson to make eight starts on the flat at 3, in 2006. His first two starts were at hunt meets. “I do remember I liked him, but he just never turned out to be what we wanted,” Lawrence says of Smart Gorky. The angular bay was fourth at the maiden claiming level three times. “I’m sure we had him jump- ing over the (logs and) mulch in the woods” Lawrence says, near his Fair Hill, Maryland training base, though he doesn't recall eye- ing the horse as a future 'chaser. Wilson’s son, Tommy, was a three-day event rider, and with their connections plus the race ed- ucation and a little bit of jumping exposure, they were able to sell Smart Gorky as an event prospect to Middleburg, Virginia upper-lev- el eventer Lynn Symansky. Smart Gorky became “Don- ner,” and, with the name change came a change in his strike rate. Donner vaulted from the lower levels to the upper, representing the U.S. in two World Champion- ships (2014 and 2018) and com- pleting seven 5* events before retiring last year. “We were always excited to follow him in his event career,” Lawrence says. “That connec- tion is pretty natural from racing to eventing. Some of the event riders around Fair Hill gallop in the mornings. I think it helps them learn to ride a little shorter, helps their balance, makes them stronger. It can only help.” Jazz Napravnik Steeplechase trainer Jazz Napravnik is currently focusing solely on eventing and event training, but her first – and true – love, she says, is, specifically, the thoroughbred horse. “There’s nothing better,” or more athletic, Napravnik says. Second, or third, careers in eventing for retired racehorses, from the flat or from the steeple- chase circuit, are only natural. As a working horseman with experience in all three, Napranik says “seeing the potential for a horse as an athlete is … an easy transition. I’m dedicated to the thoroughbred.” Napravnik rode her first pony race at age 5 at the Far Hills, NJ meet. Later, she worked for jump trainers Bruce Miller, Lilith Boucher, Jack Fisher and others. She calls the late Tom Voss “an important mentor in my career.” She trained steeplechase horses for a while, winning two stakes with distaffer Farah T Salute, and trained on the flat – she started the career of eventual multiple-graded-stakes-winner Page McKenney. With racehorses and sport horses, it comes down to reading your horse. “As we transition these hors- es, I try to listen to what they say because the horse always knows best which direction he wants to go,” she said. Page McKenney, for example, is one of the nicest ladies’ hunters in her barn since he returned to her shedrow after retiring from racing. It came down to class, Napravnik says. “He was convinced that every- one (at his first Elkridge Harford opening meet) was there to see him. He was like a peacock. “You’d think with that kind of athleticism, he’d be a natural to have gone the eventing route, but Page thinks dressage should be a speed event. It would not be a good fit.” Still, like many race trainers, Napravnik says she incorporated a lot of dressage training with her racehorses. “Dressage is a great foundation for all horses,” she says. “It teaches a horse to use less ener- gy to go faster. It’s useful for all of them, just some of them don’t want that to be their chief focus. “But sometimes they surprise you. I have this spicy mare, Crazy Bernice” that Napranik claimed in 2018. She ran a few times over hurdles – third at Aiken in 2019, but injury ended her race career. “She was sharp, super sharp. Dres- sage was the last thing I thought she’d excel at. But she loves it. “Once she realized she could ‘show off’ in the ring, she was perfect. She’s doing a first-level musical freestyle now. We put her to a Glenn Miller big band medley. “With all these racehorses or ‘chasers, it’s a bit of trial and er- ror, a lot of intuition and, mostly, a lot of listening.” Danny Warrington Danny Warrington grew up with a foot in each world - the flat track and eventing, with 'chasing in the mix, near Fair Hill, MD, riding with the Unicorn Pony Club and Lana duPont Wright. He started foxhunting “on the line with my father” at age 5 with the Lewisville Hunt. Warrington says he “tolerat- ed dressage to be allowed to ride” the elementary level cross-coun- try courses of his youth. He traded it for the racetrack at 14, working on the Delaware Park backstretch for Gene Wey- mouth, later riding over jumps for Hall of Famers Jonathan Shep- pard, Janet Elliot and more. He retired from racing in 1997 following the death of his wife, Amanda Pirie Warrington, from a fall in the advanced division at the September 20 Fair Hill horse trials. “I pretty much checked out of everything,” Warrington says. “Didn’t touch a horse for five years.” Warrington focused his energies on obtaining his Coast Guard captain’s license, teaching scuba diving, skiing and fishing. One day, predictably, horses came back into his life. A friend invited him to take a ride. “One jump and it all came back.” Warrington mounted a brief steeplechase comeback, riding a few races in 2002 and 2003, but he’d gained newfound appre- ciation for the importance of dressage as fundamental to any horse’s education, and he pursued three-day eventing. Warrington has competed to the four-star lev- el and has trained several horses to the championship level. “I call myself the accidental eventer,” Warrington says. “I’ve gotten a lot of event horses that started out on the racetrack or came from the jump race world. Somebody would call me with a ‘chaser they wanted to sell, saying ‘it’s a little too careful’ to make it running over jumps. “But that’s just the type you want. Careful. “I still remember something (Hall of Fame trainer) Burley Cocks said when I asked him how he taught all those horses to brush through the hurdles. He told me, ‘You go ‘til you go fast enough that they make a mistake.’ “(Steeplechase national fence) hurdles are forgiving – the faster you jump the more you win. Event fences not so much. You want a horse that’s a little careful. Bold, but careful.” Same with riders, Warrington maintains. “What (riding steeple- chase races) gave me was the seat and the balance to let a horse find his way out of trouble.” He had to retrain his eye, though, and change his mindset. “I remember one day school- ing at Bruce Davidson’s. He’d set up an oxer, four strides to another oxer. I’d jump in, every time, and go down the line in three. “Every time. “Bruce pretty much had to grab me by my bootstrings (to make me) learn not to leave out that stride. “You change your eye. In jump racing, ‘when in doubt, leave it out.’ Steeplechase trainers teach you ‘chipping in is a sin.’ “But the upper-level event horses, you come around a blind corner to an offset angle down a steep hill, you’ve gotta be able to adjust your stride, like an accordion. “You want the horse to be thinking, to wait for the stride to come to you.” Warrington and wife Kelli created the LandSafe training method to teach riders – it’s aimed at event riders, but the system works for any discipline, including racing – to fall, a tuck and roll movement designed to push the rider away from a rota- tional fall. Tim and Nina Gardner For more than four decades, Tim and Nina Gardner have sup- ported every level of steeplechase and eventing as riders, owners, breeders, patrons and at the ex- ecutive level of the organizations that operate all three. Tim Gardner was born in Philadelphia, raised in the Wash- ington, DC, area, son of a high school teacher and athletic coach who later became director of ath- letics at Georgetown University. He attended Georgetown University for both college and medical school. He married his classmate, the former Nina Hooton. Nina went on to become a pediatrician. Tim became chief of cardiac surgery at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1993 then medical director at the Christiana Care Center in 2005. He was president of American Heart Association and the Association for Thoracic Surgery. They moved to Maryland’s Green Spring Valley when both were on the medical staff at Johns Hopkins, he a heart surgeon and eventual president of the Amer- ican Heart Association, she a developmental pediatrician. Nina had ridden as a child – “no showing, no formal training, no saddle even.” When their children began riding, the Gard- ners both embraced the horse sports that are synonymous with southeast Pennsylvania - hunting, eventing, and breeding, both for racing and for sport. Nina more recently compiled a book of essays, The Magic of Horses , documenting the close relationships of upper-level riders in many disciplines with the horse that most influenced their careers. Her own story opens the 2021 release – Nina writes of the quarter horse mare, Dark Sun- shine, that she got at age 13. Gardner homebreds Show of Heart and House Doctor both qualified for the 2000 three-day event squad with Australian-born but Gardner farm-based Phillip Dutton. Show of Heart, a multiple winner at the four-star level, was Dutton’s top choice, but he was injured in his last event before the summer games in Sydney. Younger, less experienced House Doctor had shipped from Dutton’s base at the Gardner’s Welcome Here Farm near West Grove, PA “for the experience,” Dutton said in an interview, a lucky thing because he had to step in at the last minute. Even though the horse was bred to it – a second-generation Gardner homebred, and aimed for it, at age 8 he was the youngest horse in the Sydney Olympics, and he was lacking in four-star cross-country experience. A 1992 son of Inca Chief out of Gardner homebred Night House Rock, House Doctor was an elegant bay 3-year-old when Dutton had gotten him in for training. He never raced. “He was the most classic, beautiful Thoroughbred type,” Dutton wrote of House Doctor. “About 16.1 hands and naturally balanced and well put together. In (early) 2000, he was second at the Foxhall Cup CCI3* and selected as my backup horse for Sydney.” “I’d never been so nervous on cross-country day as at the Sydney Olympics, but he stepped up to the plate,” double-clear cross-country, double-clear show jumping, securing team gold for Australia. Another of Dutton’s top horses has ties to jump racing: Steeplechase trainer Bruce Fen- wick helped hook Dutton up with a Virginia-bred son of Across The Field out of the Quadratic mare, Four Flora. Four Across was renamed The Foreman when purchased for Dutton by Annie Jones. The Foreman went on to win the Fair Hill 3*, and finish second in the 4* at both Rolex and Burghley. In jump racing, the Gardners have been equally successful. Top homebreds include Virginia and International Gold Cup winner Bubble Economy, bred in partner- ship with Rick Abbott; freshman hurdle champion (2001) Geaux Beau; timber stakes winner Serene Harbor; and winner on the flat, over hurdles and over timber, second-generation homebred Sec- ond Amendment. Second Amend- ment is sired by the Gardner’s own stallion National Anthem. National Anthem is also sire of Twilightslastgleam, poster-boy for the Gardner breeding program – he’s out of homebred Royal Child, by steeplechase sire spe- cialist, Northern Baby. With rider Jennie Brannigan, Twilightslast- gleam won the Bromont CCI4* long format in June 2022. A daughter of National Anthem, Amazing Anthem, Nina says, is currently “doing the usual thing for us." She won on the flat (Pimlico at 4), over hurdles (Radnor at 6) and is now compet- ing at the intermediate – two-star – level with Brannigan. U.S. Equestrian Federation eventing owners of the year in 2014, the Gardners were inducted into the U.S. Eventing Association Hall of Fame in 2018. Nina was the chair of the first U.S. Eventing Association Young Event Horse committee formed in 2004. Tim is co-chair of the USEA Development Com- mittee, a member of the USEA Foundation board and a member of the board of Fair Hill Interna- tional. (Continued from page 18) At the third fence at the 1973 Maryland Hunt Cup, Frank Chapot (left) had a slight lead on Evening Mail over Bruce Miller (center) who placed third on Eastmac and Jay Griswold on Handsome Dad- dy, who finished second. Photo credit: ©Douglas Lees