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   March 2010
  E-Mail: info@horsedelval.com      610-793-1425


News from The Horse

3rd
 
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 takegodsoe 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 thedutton 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,dagnall 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.


Pennsylvania BREEDING & RACING


Northview-PA shows off its six top stallions
      By LINDA DOUGHERTY – PEACH BOTTOM, Pa. – A sunny but extremely frigid day was on tapnorthview 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 lostfinish 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 ofralph 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.