Racing personalities, Thoroughbreds set for jumping challenge

The third annual Real Rider Cup, a charity jumping challenge bringing together Thoroughbred racing personalities with ex-racehorses in order to raise awareness of their capacity as sporthorses, features a new venue and a slightly new look this season.

The Real Rider Cup, which financially benefits New Vocations and the Retired Racehorse Project, has been held in its first two incarnations in conjunction with the Plantation Field International Horse Trials in Pennsylvania. This year, the venue has shifted to Fair Hill, Md., on Friday evening as a kick-off to the Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show on Saturday and Sunday.

Teams of riders and Thoroughbreds will compete against each other over a course of show-jumping fences to determine the “real riders.” Each competitor, who will wear the silks of a sponsoring racing stable, has pledged to raise at least $1,000, which will directly support the beneficiaries.

This year’s event will feature five teams, expanded from four last year. While three of the groups – Team Jockeys, Team Farm/Racing Managers, and Team Racing Media – closely align with past groups, the event adds two new teams this year – Team Racetrack Kids, featuring young riders who have grown up in the Thoroughbred industry, and the eclectic grouping of Team Freestyle.

Team Jockeys, featuring both flat and steeplechase jockeys, is made up of Forest Boyce on Respectful Ed; Ashley Castrenze on Godard; Danielle Hodsdon on Grade 3 winner Howe Great; James Stierhoff on two-time Maryland Hunt Cup winner Twill Do; and Robbie Walsh on Eclipse Award-winning steeplechaser Demonstrative.

Team Farm/Racing Managers is made up of Clifford Barry of Pin Oak Stud on Affirmed Arch; Sam-Son Farms’ Kim Brette aboard Lets Sail Away; Sagamore Racing chief of staff Jocelyn Brooks on Perpetual Optimism; Hidden Brook Farm partner Sergio DeSousa on Isle of Giant’s; and Jonathan Smart, manager of Larry Johnson’s farm in Virginia, aboard Saratoga Jet.

Team Racing Media consists of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred writer Ilana Cramer aboard Diplomat; Penelope Miller of America’s Best Racing aboard Fort; Jessica Paquette of Suffolk Downs on Usmc Semper Fi; Alexa Reisfeld of the Thoroughbred Daily News advertising department on multiple graded-placed Manchurian High; and NYRA and NBC Sports production and talent assistant Harry Rice IV on Emirates Sevens.

Team Racetrack Kids features a sibling pair in Natalie and Parker Hendriks, children of trainers Sanna Neilson and Ricky Hendriks, aboard Kings Apollo and graded stakes winner Lawn Ranger, respectively; and their cousin, Skylar McKenna, whose mother is trainer Kathy Neilson, on Embarrassed. The team is rounded out by Jessica Silver, whose parents are a jockey agent an exercise rider, on Ninja Nekia; and Ellie Turnbull, whose father is an equine dentist, on Dawn of Time.

Team Freestyle includes of Kaymarie Kreidel and Mary Mush, who will both be riding sidesaddle, on Trey Bear and Galon Hapus, respectively; and Sharon Dominguez, who will be competing Sir J.J. in a war bridle, which has no bit or headstall. The team also includes Clovis Crane aboard Empire Road and Sara Gartland on Shining Won.

Kreidel, a former stakes-winning jockey who rode for 16 years, has been a full-time outrider on the Maryland circuit for seven years after working the job part-time before that. She gained national recognition earlier this year when she and another of her off-the-track Thoroughbreds, Witch Hunter, caught the loose Bodexpress after he lost his rider at the start of the Preakness Stakes.