The 75th anniversary edition of the Iroquois Steeplechase is taking on an international flavor with two Ireland-based stakes winners vying for the top prize in Saturday's $200,000 Calvin Houghland Iroquois (Gr. 1) at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee, and a shot at the $500,000 Brown Advisory Cheltenham-Iroquois Challenge bonus next spring.
Willie Mullins, the champion jumps trainer in England and Ireland for the past nine years, sent over stakes winners Nichols Canyon (GB) (Authorized {Ire}) and Shaneshill (Ire) (King's Theatre {Ire}), who cleared quarantine and arrived in the Nashville area on Tuesday. Both are owned by Andrea and Graham Wylie, who is an English technology entrepreneur. The winner of the Calvin Houghland Iroquois earns a shot at the bonus next March in the Ryanair World Hurdle (Gr. 1) at the Cheltenham Festival. Both races are three miles.
Michael G. Hankin, Brown Advisory's CEO and a National Steeplechase Association board member, is looking forward to the excitement of an international event in Nashville.
“I think the paddock is going to be electrifying,” he said.
The Irish invaders can count on stiff opposition. Jacqueline Ohrstrom's Demonstrative (Elusive Quality), the 2014 Eclipse Award winner, won the Calvin Houghland Iroquois twice and is defending his victory last year. Champion owner Irv Naylor will end out his Rawnaq (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}), an impressive 15-length winner of the Temple Gwathmey (Gr. 3) in Virginia on April 23.
The Calvin Houghland Iroquois will conclude an action-packed program that also includes the $75,000 Marcellus Frost Novice Stakes, the $50,000 Margaret Currey Henley for fillies and mares, and the $50,000 Mason Houghland Memorial over timber fences. In all, purses total $450,000.
First post time is 1 p.m. CDT.
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