Leslie Young to claim 2nd steeplechase trainer title in SC

HOLLYWOOD — History and horseracing thunder back into the Lowcountry on Nov. 12, when the Steeplechase of Charleston fields thoroughbreds for five races at Stono Ferry Racetrack.

Leslie F. Young is set to become the first woman to win back-to-back trainer titles as another long National Steeplechase Association season sets in South Carolina — the same place it started this year with spring meets in Aiken and Camden. 

“It’s never over until it’s over. … Hopefully we can hold until the end of the season,” Young said. “You’ve just got to hope to be consistent and that Lady Luck is on your side from time to time.”

Young will enter several horses from her stable in the Steeplechase of Charleston, the annual meet hosted by The Post and Courier. It will serve as the season’s penultimate event. The Aiken Fall Steeplechase officially closes out the season Nov. 18.

“Who doesn’t love going to Charleston? Same with Aiken and Camden,” Young said from her home in Unionville, Pa. “It’s fun being down in South Carolina. We love the hospitality … the restaurants, the people. They are so friendly.”

Going into a weekend slate of races in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia, Young held a 10-win lead over Jack Fisher, the wiry Hall of Fame former jockey and trainer.

“Her horses this year have been on fire,” said Toby Edwards, race director for the Steeplechase of Charleston. “Nobody remembers who finished second. It’s all about winning for trainers.”

With 127 starts on the season, horses trained by Young have won 29 times, while finishing in the money in second or third place another 37 times, for combined earnings so far of $744,050.

Fisher’s horses have started 98 races, winning 19 and coming in second or third a combined 34 times. He is the top-earning trainer on the season, with $875,710 to date.

Young claimed the trainer — races won — title last year, becoming just the third woman to do so. Sanna Nielson won in 1998 and 2005. The only other woman to win the trainer title was Janet Elliott in 1991.

Young’s lead at this point is insurmountable, said Bill Gallo, director of racing for the National Steeplechase Association, the sport's governing body in the United States.

Fisher doesn’t disagree. He has claimed the wins title 14 times.

He said he plans to run two horses in Charleston and then call it a season, which would mean he isn’t eyeing a longshot attempt to overtake Young in the win column.

“I don’t think I have that,” said Fisher, who lives in Maryland. “But I can make money. That’s more important.”

Extending his season into South Carolina, at least for the Charleston races, also is in support of his lead jockey having a chance to win the season title.

Through races on Oct. 28, Graham Watters was tied for the jockey lead with Harrison Beswick of England. Both had 16 wins.

Watters, of Ireland, won the title in 2021.

“It would be great for him to win again,” Fisher said.

Return of a fall classic

As this race season comes to a close, steeplechase horsemen are looking forward to the 2024 season and the return of The Colonial Cup and fall racing in Camden, home to the Carolina Cup spring race. Bringing back the Colonial Cup will add another date to the end-of-the-season lineup in South Carolina and another Grade 1 stakes race to the season.

The Colonial Cup started in 1970, becoming the first international steeplechase run in the United States with a $100,000 purse, according to the Carolina Cup Racing Association. It hasn’t been raced in the fall since 2016 and at all since 2018. 

Bringing back the Colonial Cup and reviving another South Carolina race is a major win, Gallo said.

“The way the calendar is set up, it works out perfectly,” he said. “Bringing back the Colonial Cup is going to be big. … It’s going to change the dynamic of the fall season.”

Officially known as the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup, it will return next season with a purse of $150,000, said Edwards, who also serves as executive director of the Carolina Cup Racing Association.

“It will be exciting for the state to be able to market the three events together,” Edwards said.

With Camden again in the mix next fall, the Palmetto State will host three weekends of steeplechase races over two weeks in November.

“It was always the last meet of the year,” said Pierre Manigault, chairman of Evening Post Publishing Inc., which owns The Post and Courier. “Titles really came down to it.”

Often in the past, the horse that won the Colonial Cup also claimed the Eclipse Award for the top steeplechase horse of the year. That could again be the case with another top-stakes race returning.

Noah and the Ark, winner of the 2021 Carolina Cup, two weeks ago won the $250,000 American Grand National race in New Jersey — with Manigault’s horse Merry Maker coming in second, less than a month after winning the $150,000 Lonesome Glory stakes in New York.

“South Carolina having three races at the end of the year is a reason for people to come and stay,” Manigault said. “We are hoping that bringing back the Colonial Cup would be more of a reason for them to come back. … If all three of them are going, it makes them all better and competitive.”

Future of racing in SC, Charleston

Another big impact could come from the introduction of gambling on races through advance deposit wagering, with a portion of proceeds going to support the equine industry in the state, Manigault said.

Pennsylvania and Virginia have already done so. Betting on sports and horse racing is expected to begin in North Carolina in 2024.

Legislation that would have allowed limited gambling on horse races in South Carolina was introduced in the state Senate this year. Though it stood little chance of becoming law, its sponsors hoped to use it to educate lawmakers on the subject before introducing legislation again in 2024.

In addition to the return of the Colonial Cup, Aiken last year opened a new steeplechase track.

“That makes a difference,” Manigault said.

Steeplechase of Charleston is now run by a nonprofit and limited liability company wholly owned by The Post and Courier Foundation, with profits going toward the support and preservation of community journalism in South Carolina.

The search continues for suitable land to build a new racetrack in the Charleston area — a development that would allow larger crowds and likely the return of a spring steeplechase meet in the Lowcountry.

“There was a time when there were spring races at Stono Ferry,” Manigault said.

If a new racetrack and another meet could be added in Charleston, things would only get better for horseracing in the state, Gallo said.

“It’s pretty exciting what’s going on down there,” he said. “South Carolina has a tremendous history, and Charleston is most historic of all.”