LATEST NEWS
Le Chevalier Capture of Maryland Grand National
(From the National Steeplechase Association April newsletter)
Michael A. Smith’s Le Chevalier, ridden by McLane Hendriks, won the 118th running of the Grand National timber stakes for trainer Julie Gomena.
Talk about a throwback feeling. On Saturday at the Grand National Races in the heart of Maryland timber racing country, it seemed as if it was 2016, 2018, or even 2019. After last year’s event was cancelled due to Covid, fans were allowed to attend the races in Butler at 50 percent capacity, and the crowd was in a festive mood, while the star of the show was a 12-year-old whose glory days came years ago.
Michael A. Smith’s Le Chevalier has had a long, productive career, his crowning moments coming in the prestigious New Jersey Hunt Cup at the 2016 Far Hills Races and the National Sporting Library and Museum Cup Stakes at Virginia Fall two years later. On Saturday, the son of Broken Vow captured the featured $30,000 Grand National, the middle leg of the Maryland timber triple, taking command after 2 3/4 miles and drawing clear of Charlie Fenwick's up-and-coming Royal Ruse by six lengths. McLane Hendriks rode the winner for trainer Julie Gomena. The victory raised Le Chevalier’s career earnings to $176,000, reaffirming his status as a solid and steady runner who has hit the board in 17 of his 33 lifetime starts.
For more information visit https://www.nationalsteeplechase.com
Bon Nouvel Chaser
(Glenwood Hurdle, Middleburg Spring Races)
A great coup for the Middleburg Spring Races was securing the Temple Gwathmey, a race originally run in Rolling Rock, Pa. and then in Belmont, NY. This $75,000 graded stakes hurdle has been held at Glenwood Park since 1990, and it lures the best hurdle horses in the country.
Our famous Alfred Hunt Steeplechase course is inspired by fences found at New Zealand and French race meets and boasts every type fence: ditches, banks, brush, timber, and coops, for a fanciful course designed by Mr. Paul Fout and Mr. Tommy Beach. Mr. Alfred Hunt was a stellar Master of the Rolling Rock Hunt, and this one-of-a-kind American racecourse is dedicated in his memory.
About The Trainer
Born in Idaho, Julie Gomena began riding horses in her home state of Oregon before moving to the East Coast to train with Olympic three-day event rider Bruce Davidson. Gomena settled in Middleburg, Va. in 1985 to further her career in three-day eventing. In that sport, she excelled as a trainer and rider, winning America’s biggest event, The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park in 1994 with Treaty. Like all her event horses, Treaty came from the flat track, taking the Jay Trump route from Charles Town to champion. She retired from eventing and move into steeplechasing, competing as an amateur rider before concentrating on training. She won her first race with Mr. Fater in 2004. In 2010, Gomena won five races with her first six starters, including three stakes, to finish tied for ninth in the standings. Gomena winters in Aiken, South Carolina and spends the rest of her time at Over Creek Farm, 285 acres in the heart of Piedmont Hunt County.
Julie constantly looks for flat horses to develop into steeplechase horses. She found two of her best recruits, Country Cousin and Virginia Minstrel, from the flat track before transitioning them into stakes performers over jumps. Read the Steeplechase Foundation article about Julie.
About The Farm
Located on 285 acres in beautiful Middleburg, Virginia, Over Creek Farm specializes in training steeplechase horses, as well, as tutoring young horses, freshening older horses and a bustling fox hunting division. Julie and her husband Robert Bonnie have developed the farm into an all-purpose training center with miles of turf gallops, acres of turn-out paddocks, schooling fences, hacking trails and two all-weather rings. The farm is ideally located in the heart of Piedmont hunt country and is convenient to most steeplechase meets and flat tracks. Over Creek does its own shipping – meaning less cost to the owners.
The farm provides the perfect place for horses to move from the flat track to new disciplines – the next phases – of their careers. Recruits can concentrate on flat racing, steeplechasing, fox-hunting or be taught another career altogether. Gomena and her team have the knowledge, experience and contacts to help transition horses from one sport to another – whether it’s flat racing to steeplechasing, or steeplechasing to fox hunting, or flat racing to eventing. Look around at the fields at Piedmont Hunt or the entries at the Virginia Horse Center or the participants at the Upperville Horse Show and they’re bound to be Over Creek graduates participating.