Three Grade 1 winners, 2013 winner Decoy Daddy, and a
formidable front-runner will line up on Saturday, April 19, for the $50,000
Temple Gwathmey (Gr. 3), featured race of the 93rd annual Middleburg Spring
Races. First post time will be 1 p.m. at Glenwood Park Course.
Two of the three Grade 1 winners–Magalen O. Bryant’s
Gustavian and owner-trainer Jonathan
Sheppard’s Italian Wedding–collected their initial top-level victories last
season.
Gustavian completed the 2013 season as the National
Steeplechase Association’s second-leading earner and an Eclipse Award finalist.
In his first starts after being purchased by Virginia resident Bryant,
Gustavian won Belmont Park’s $150,000 Lonesome Glory Handicap (Gr. 1) and was
second in the $250,000 Grand National (Gr. 1) at Far Hills, N.J. He stumbled
and lost his rider at the last fence of the $100,000 Marion duPont Scott
Colonial Cup (Gr. 1) in November. Trainer Leslie Young named her husband,
four-time champion jockey Paddy Young, to ride.
Italian Wedding returned from a long period on the sidelines
to win the $150,000 New York Turf Writers Cup (Gr. 1) at Saratoga Race Course
after a good second in Saratoga’s $100,000 A. P. Smithwick Memorial (Gr. 1).
Unplaced in the Grand National, he finished third in the Colonial Cup. Willie
McCarthy will ride for Racing Hall of Fame trainer Sheppard.
Randleston Farm's Spy In The Sky (left). (Douglas Less Photo) |
The third Grade 1 winner is Randleston Farm’s Spy in the
Sky, who upset the 2012 A. P. Smithwick. He also had upset the 2009 New York
Turf Writers but was winless last year.
Irv Naylor’s Decoy Daddy kicked off a notable 2013 season
with his Gwathmey victory. The veteran then won the Radnor Hunt Races’ $50,000
National Hunt Cup (Gr. 3) and in the fall was victorious in the Montpelier Hunt
Races’ Noel Laing for a third time. Cyril Murphy, who took over training of
Decoy Daddy before the Noel Laing, named Carol-Ann Sloan to ride.
Pleasant Woodman, owned by Virginia B. Lazenby and Farm
d’Allie Racing Stables, used his front-end speed to win the $50,000 Budweiser
Imperial Cup (Gr. 3) at 2014′s first race meet in Aiken, S.C. Trained in
Middleburg by Doug Fout, Pleasant Woodman will be ridden by Gerard Galligan.
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