Trivial Pursuits
♦ Why "steeplechase"?
Church steeples were once the tallest and most prominent features on the landscape. Riders wanting to test the prowess of their hunters "chased to the steeple" over rough terrain—hedges, fences and water, as well as open pasture—thus giving the sport its name and reputation as a difficult and dangerous game. The first steeplechase of record took place in 1752 in County Cork, Ireland, when horsemen named O'Callaghan and Edmund Blake engaged in a match race from Buttevant Church to St. Mary's in Doneraile—about four miles.
♦ According to the National Steeplechase Association, the first steeplechase in the United States was staged by the Washington—as in D.C.—Jockey Club in 1834. Several of the oldest and most prestigious races are still run. The Maryland Hunt Cup celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2004. The American Grand National, run at Far Hills, N.J., began in 1899. The National Hunt Cup in Radnor, Pa., dates to 1909.
♦ England's Grand National, run annually at Aintree, is the world's most famous steeplechase. The race is notorious for its horrendous obstacles, and was popularized by the 1944 film, National Velvet, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney.
♦ The Iroquois Steeplechase is named for Iroquois, the first American-bred horse to win the English Derby—ironically, a flat race—who subsequently stood at stud at Belle Meade Plantation. The race has been held annually on the second Saturday in May since 1941, except for 1945, when it was suspended due to World War II. Since 1981 Iroquois day and its social functions have been a benefit for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
♦ The three-mile Warner Parks turf course on which the Iroquois Steeplechase is run was designed by William I. DuPont Jr. and built with federal funds in the late 1930s. In his history of the steeplechase, Henry Hooker writes that "through the friendship of an ardent foxhunter, Con. Thompson Ball, with Harry Hopkins, a confidant of President Franklin Roosevelt, the Works Progress Administration was directed to build the race course." The grants for the course and adjacent riding academy, according to historian Carroll Van West, "were controversial, since many saw them as unnecessary public benefits for the very rich who typically participated in the sport."
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