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Season start delayed
By SARAH L. GREENHALGH –
If the copious amounts of snow were not annoying enough, now Mother
Nature’s winter wrath has taken its first steeplechase victim, Casanova
Hunt Point-To-Point Races, which was scheduled to run Feb. 20.
The first meet of the season is typically a favorite of trainers to
bring out horses for a tune up before some of the southern sanctioned
races, but with the record snowfalls it looks like Blue Ridge
Point-To-Point on March 6 or even Warrenton Point-To-Point on
March 13 will be first meets run in Virginia.
Traditionally a soft course in a regular year, the 30 inches dumped on
the Casanova course at Buckland Farm in the first blizzard the weekend
of Feb. 7, and the additional 8-10 inches Feb. 10, have made it
impossible to dry out in time and the meet has been cancelled for the
spring.
Meister finds DelVal races useful
By MARTHA BARBONE – UNIONVILLE, Pa.–Billy
Meister, arguably the most loyal supporter of the Delaware Valley
Association races and winner of three championships in 2009,leading
Trainer, over-all and novice, is a pragmatist, not a point chaser.
Meister is gearing up for the three-race DVA season that starts March
28 at Cheshire, April 4 at Brandywine Hills and ends at the Plumsted
Races on April 18.
His DVA championships have reached double digits, too many for him to
count, but that’s not why he races here.
“I take my horses up to the DVA races because the fences are bigger and
it sets them up really well for the Maryland races,” he said. “I don’t
go there trying to be Leading Trainer.”
1st and 2nd in Zones not good enough
By JUDITH LEE – NOTTINGHAM, Pa. – When Priscilla Godsoe found out she had beat 292
horses to take first, second and third places in the USEF’s 2009 Adult
Amateur Jumper Division (Zone 2) , she was, well – disappointed.
“I really wanted to win first, second, third and fourth,” said Godsoe,
whose fourth horse took sixth place in Zone 2, which includes
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
The
statement doesn’t seem arrogant when made by this unpretentious
23-year-old, who is as soft-spoken as she is talented.
Dutton honored for great show career
By MARTHA BARBONE – KENNETT SQUARE, Pa.–Melvin Dutton was honored this year with the
Pennsylvania Horse Show Association, Harry Gill Lifetime Achievement
Award at the annual dinner held at Longwood Gardens.
Those who know Dutton are used to seeing him in casual work attire,
jeans, Breaking Pointe Stables jacket and always, a visor cap.
There was great effort to keep the award a secret from him but to
attend, Dutton would have to wear a tux and that made the scheme a
little more complicated.
“I was told to save the date and that I’d have to wear a tuxedo,” said Dutton. “I said no way.”
Onlookers gawk at speed, agility
By MARTHA BARBONE – PITTSTOWN, N.J.– Onlookers often gape in disbelief at 13 year-old,
17.2+, Sweet Triumph’s display of speed, agility and cat-like
coordination as she and owner/rider Justin Dagnall sail through jumper
course after jumper course to finally wind up the year 2009 with double
championships.
Sweet Triumph and Dagnall, of Pittstown, won the NJPHA Adult
Pre-Preliminary Jumper Championship and the NJHSA Level O, (2’6” to
2’9”,) Jumper Championship.
Northview-PA shows off its six top stallions
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – PEACH BOTTOM, Pa. – A sunny but
extremely frigid day was on tap in Peach Bottom, Pa. on Jan. 31 as
breeders from across the Mid-Atlantic region gathered at Northview-Pa’s
Open House and Stallion Show.
The new satellite facility of famed Northview Stallion Station in
Chesapeake City, Md. treated the more than 200 people in attendance to
a buffet lunch, which was set up in the facility’s new breeding
shed.
At about 1 p.m., the six stallions that call Northview-PA home were
brought out for the crowd, with Dr. Thomas Bowman handling the
microphone.
“It’s really cold, so I’m going to try and keep it short,” said Bowman,
co-owner of the Northview properties with Richard Golden.
Bowman did, however, give the audience a succinct assessment of all six
stallions, beginning with Congressionalhonor, a graded stakes-winning
son of Forestry out of Quiet Dance, by Quiet American, and a
half-brother to Horse of the Year Saint Liam.
75 guests meet Dana Point's newest
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – LENHARTSVILLE, Pa. – Dana Point Farm’s first-class roster of
stallions was on display for owners and breeders across the
mid-Atlantic region as the new thoroughbred facility played host to an
Open House on Jan. 24.
Despite wet January weather, a turnout of more than 75 guests
were treated inside Dana Point’s spacious main barn to a catered
luncheon, as well as views of the farm’s newest additions, Grade 1
winners Toccet and Action This Day, both of whom arrived from the
highly regarded Kentucky establishment Castleton Lyons.
Gill banned from Penn National
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – Penn
National Race Course in Grantville, Pa. was in the eye of a media storm
in late January after a controversy erupted involving one of its
leading owners, Michael Gill.
On Jan. 23, Penn National jockeys refused to continue to ride after
Gill’s filly Laughing Moon broke down just past the wire in the second
event. It was the second fatal injury to a Gill-owned horse in
two days; on Jan. 21, the 10-year-old gelding Melodeeman broke his leg
in a $4,000 claiming race.
After the jockeys threatened a boycott, Gill’s only other starter on
Jan. 23 was scratched, and the rest of the card went on as planned.
Lost Fortune finds winner's circle
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – BENSALEM, Pa., – When Pennsylvania-bred Lost Fortune crossed the  finish
line first in a $56,524 maiden special weight contest at Philadelphia
Park on Feb. 8, he represented the second generation to race for his
owner, Wendy Mutnick, and trainer, Guadalupe Preciado.
The 3-year-old colt’s dam, Snars Good Fortune, also raced for Mutnick
and Preciado (husband and wife) for her entire career while based at
Philadelphia Park.
A stakes-placed winner of five races and more than $120,000, Snars Good
Fortune is by the little-known stallion Snar, a son of Sir Ivor who
sired only 21 foals, but 11 of them started and eight won, giving him a
relatively high average earnings index of 1.80.
From riot control to winner's circle
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – BENSALEM, Pa. – From
helping to calm near-riots on the gritty streets of Philadelphia as a
mounted policeman, to the winner’s circles of Pennsylvania’s
racetracks, trainer Ralph Riviezzo’s life story has taken as many
interesting twists and turns as a Hollywood movie script.
Riviezzo, 62, has spent over five decades with horses, and has loved
every minute of it. The native of the Roxborough section of
Philadelphia first caught equine fever when he was just a small boy.
“I went into a barn when I was five years old, and I’ve been in them ever since,” he said.
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