Grade I race | |
Location | Percy Warner Park Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
---|---|
Inaugurated | 1941 |
Race type | Thoroughbred – Steeplechase |
Website | Iroquois Steeplechase |
Race information | |
Distance | 3 miles |
Surface | Turf |
Track | Steeplechase, national fences |
Qualification | Four-Year-Olds and Upward |
Weight | Four-year-olds, 142 lbs.; older, 158 lbs. |
Purse | $150,000 |
The Iroquois Steeplechase (also known as the Iroquois Hurdle Stakes) is an American Grade I NSA sanctioned steeplechase race run each May at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee.
The race dates back to 1941 and has been held annually, except in 1945, due to World War II, and in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] The Iroquois itself is the culmination of a card of races which usually includes five to seven preliminary races, both flat races and steeplechases. The race is named for Iroquois, the first American-bred Thoroughbred to win the prestigious British Epsom Derby. [2]
Several winners of the race have been named American Champion Steeplechase Horse, including Flatterer, Lonesome Glory, Correggio, All Gong, Good Night Shirt, Pierrot Lunaire, Divine Fortune, Demonstrative, Rawnaq, and Scorpiancer.
The race is three miles (4.8 km) long, over national fences and for four-year-olds and over. [3]
Speed record:
Most wins by a horse:
Most wins by a jockey:
Most wins by a trainer:
Most wins by an owner:
Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1991 [4] | Victorian Hill | 6 | Blythe Miller | Janet Elliot | William C. Lickle | 5:29.40 |
1992 [5] | Victorian Hill | 7 | Blythe Miller | Janet Elliot | William C. Lickle | 5:31.90 |
1993 [6] | Mistico | 7 | Sanna Neilson | Jonathan E. Sheppard | R. Dee Hubbard | 5:43.00 |
1994 [7] | Mistico | 8 | Craig Thornton | Jonathan E. Sheppard | R. Dee Hubbard | 5:28.60 |
1995 [8] | Lonesome Glory | 7 | Blythe Miller | F. Bruce Miller | Walter M. Jeffords, Jr. | 5:32.80 |
1996 [9] | To Ridley | 6 | Sean Clancy | Jack Fisher | Mrs. F. Eugene Dixon, Jr. | 5:41.80 |
1997 [10] | Correggio | 6 | Archibald Kingsley | Janet Elliot | William C. Lickle | 5:51.80 |
1998 [11] | Rowdy Irishman | 9 | Vincent Marzullo | Bruce Haynes | Vesta Balestiere | 5:51.80 |
1999 [12] | Rowdy Irishman | 10 | Vincent Marzullo | Bruce Haynes | Vesta Balestiere | 5:50.60 |
2000 [13] | Pinkie Swear | 6 | Sean Clancy | Charles Fenwick Jr. | Arcadia Stable | 5:50.00 |
2001 [14] | Rand | 7 | Eddie Lamb | Mark Oulaghan | Eamon Cleary | 5:35.00 |
2002 [15] | All Gong | 8 | Blythe Miller | F. Bruce Miller | Calvin Houghland | 5:32.40 |
2003 [16] | Pelagos | 8 | Tom Foley | F. Bruce Miller | Mr. & Mrs. Michael E. Hoffman | 5:46.60 |
2004 [17] | Tres Touche | 7 | David Bentley | Richard Hendicks | Estate of Barracuda Stables | 5:38.60 |
2005 [18] | Sur La Tete | 7 | Christopher Read | Neil R. Morris | Kinross Corporation | 5:47.40 |
2006 [19] | Sur La Tete | 8 | Christopher Read | Neil R. Morris | Kinross Corporation | 5:47.60 |
2007 [20] | Good Night Shirt | 6 | Willie Dowling | Jack Fisher | Harold A. Via Jr. | 5:50.40 |
2008 [21] | Good Night Shirt | 7 | Willie Dowling | Jack Fisher | Harold A. Via Jr. | 5:47.60 |
2009 [22] | Pierrot Lunaire | 5 | Chip Miller | F. Bruce Miller | Calvin Houghland | 6:27.40 |
2010 [23] | Tax Ruling | 7 | Darren Nagle | Desmond Fogarty | Irvin S. Naylor | 5:37.20 |
2011 [24] | Tax Ruling | 8 | Darren Nagle | Brianne A. Slater | Irvin S. Naylor | 5:46.20 |
2012 [25] | Arcadius | 8 | Brian Crowley | Jonathan E. Sheppard | Hudson River Farms | 5:36.20 |
2013 [26] | Demonstrative | 6 | Robert Walsh | Richard L. Valentine | Mrs. George L. Ohrstrom Jr. | 5:42.20 |
2014 [27] | Divine Fortune | 11 | William McCarthy | Jonathan E. Sheppard | William L. Pape & Jonathan E. Sheppard | 5:39.40 |
2015 [28] | Demonstrative | 8 | Jack Doyle | Richard L. Valentine | Mrs. George L. Ohrstrom Jr. | 5:47.60 |
2016 [29] | Rawnaq | 9 | Jack Doyle | Cyril Murphy | Irvin S Naylor | 5:42.40 |
2017 [30] | Scorpiancer | 8 | Sean McDermott | Jack Fisher | Bruton Street US | 5:37.00 |
2018 | Zanjabeel | 5 | Ross Geraghty | Richard J Hendricks | Rosbrian Farm | 5:36.40 |
2019 | Scorpiancer | 10 | Sean McDermott | Jack Fisher | Bruton Street US | 5:43.80 |
2020 | Not held due to COVID-19 | |||||
2021 | Snap Decision | 7 | Graham Watters | Jack Fisher | Bruton Street US | |
2022 | Snap Decision | 8 | Graham Watters | Jack Fisher | Bruton Street US | 5:40.20 |
2023 | Scaramanga [31] | 8 | Paul Townend | Willie Mullins | Malcolm C. Denmark | |
The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles (2,000 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in late October or early November. All of the races to date have been held in the United States except for the 1996 edition held at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada.
The racing of Thoroughbred horses is a popular gaming and spectator sport and industry in New Zealand.
A steeplechase is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. Steeplechasing is primarily conducted in Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Australia, and France. The name is derived from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside.
The Grand National Hurdle Stakes is an American National Steeplechase Association sanctioned steeplechase race run each fall at Far Hills, New Jersey. It is a Grade 1 event run over 2+5⁄8 miles. It has been known by a variety of names over the years, including the Breeders' Cup Grand National.
A list of racehorses which have won the same race on three or more occasions.
Steven Mark Asmussen is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. The leading trainer in North America by wins, he is a two-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016. His horses have won the Breeders' Cup Classic, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, Breeders' Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks and Dubai World Cup.
Henry Dinwoodey Marsh is a retired runner from the United States, who made four U.S. Olympic teams and represented his native country in the men's 3,000 meter Steeplechase in three Summer Olympics, from 1976 through 1988.
Anna Rose "Rosie" Napravnik is a former American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and two-time winner of the Kentucky Oaks. Beginning her career in 2005, she was regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won. By 2014 she had been in the top 10 by earnings three years in a row and was the highest-ranked woman jockey in North America. In 2011, she won the Louisiana Derby for her first time and was ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with the horse Pants on Fire. In 2012 she broke the total wins and earnings record for a woman jockey previously held by Julie Krone, and became the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can. She won the Oaks for a second time in 2014 on Untapable. She is only the second woman jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race and the first to win more than one, having won the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Shanghai Bobby and the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik's fifth-place finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jockey in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races.
The 2009 Kentucky Derby was the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby. The value of the race was $2,177,000 in stakes. The race was sponsored by Yum! Brands and hence officially was called Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands. The race took place on May 2, 2009, and was televised in the United States on the NBC television network. The Atlanta-based Southern Tourism Society named the Kentucky Derby Festival, which was April 11 to May 1, as one of the top tourist attractions in the Southeast for the first half of 2009. The post time was 6:24 p.m. EDT. The official attendance at Churchill Downs was 153,563.
Jonathan E. Sheppard was an English Hall of Fame trainer in American Thoroughbred horse racing. He holds the record for the most wins in American steeplechase racing history with 1,242 victories, and led with the most U.S. steeplechase wins per year a record 26 times between 1972 and his retirement in 2020.
Cocoa Beach is a notable Chilean-bred thoroughbred racehorse who was the 2008 Chilean Horse of the Year and won races in the United Arab Emirates, Chile, and the United States.
Blame is a retired American champion Thoroughbred racehorse, a winner of nine races in 13 starts including the prestigious Breeders' Cup Classic.
Mucho Macho Man is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic. He was foaled in Florida and named after the Village People song "Macho Man". His breeders were Carole and John Rio of Florida, who owned his dam. His foalhood nickname was "Lazarus" because he appeared lifeless at birth, but spontaneously revived. He grew to be a very large horse, standing over 17 hands high. Throughout most of his racing career, Mucho Macho Man was primarily owned by Dean and Patti Reeves of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing of Suwanee, Georgia. They purchased a majority interest in him after his first race in 2010, and in 2012 became his sole owners. In February 2014, Frank Stronach purchased an undisclosed share in the horse on behalf of his Adena Springs Farms, owner of Mucho Macho Man's sire, Macho Uno.
Game On Dude is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse gelding. He won fourteen graded stakes races, including eight Grade I stakes: the Santa Anita Handicap in 2011, 2013, and 2014 the only horse to have won that race three times; he also won the Goodwood Stakes twice, the 2013 Pacific Classic Stakes, and the Hollywood Gold Cup twice. He has beaten many of the leading North American racehorses including Awesome Gem, Tizway, Ruler on Ice, Uncle Mo, Stay Thirsty, Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge and has been rated among the best thirty racehorses in the world in the annual World Thoroughbred Rankings. Upon his retirement, he was compared favorably as one of the greatest racing geldings of all time, along with Kelso, John Henry and Forego.
Walter A. Guerra is a retired American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who rode successfully in both Steeplechase and flat racing, in the latter winning two Breeders' Cup World Championship races.
The field for the Kentucky Derby is limited each year to 20 horses, with two 'also eligibles' in case of a late withdrawal from the field. To determine eligibility, Churchill Downs developed the Road to the Kentucky Derby, which gives points to the top four finishers in specified races. The 2016 season consists of 34 races, 19 races for the Kentucky Derby Prep Season and 15 races for the Kentucky Derby Championship Season. Earnings in non-restricted stakes act as a tie breaker. Gun Runner finished first in the standings thanks to wins in the Risen Star Stakes and Louisiana Derby, then finished third in the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist, who finished second in the qualification standings, won the Derby.
The 2018 Road to the Kentucky Derby was a series of races through which horses qualified for the 2018 Kentucky Derby, which was held on May 5. The field for the Derby was limited to 20 horses, with up to four 'also eligibles' in case of a late withdrawal from the field. There were three separate paths for horses to take to qualify for the Derby: the main Road consisting of 34 races in North America plus one in Dubai, the Japan Road consisting of three races in Japan, and a new European Road consisting of seven races in England, Ireland and France.