Snap Decision, The Mean Queen rematched in Grand National Hurdle
Snap Decision had a nine-race win streak over hurdles end last month in his first start back from a scheduled summer vacation. But that loss may have prepared the gelding for what equals the richest start of his career in a jump race in Saturday’s Grade 1 Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills in New Jersey.
The winning streak lasted 26 months and included races at seven venues from July 2019 to June of this year. Snap Decision’s streak ended with a second to The Mean Queen in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Hurdle at Belmont Park on Sept. 16, his third loss in 12 career starts over hurdles.
The rematch will occur in the Grand National Hurdle at 2 5/8 miles, which has the same $150,000 purse as the Lonesome Glory. The Mean Queen, a 5-year-old mare, and Snap Decision, a 7-year-old gelding, are expected to dominate the small field of four.
Trainer Jack Fisher said on Wednesday that Snap Decision will benefit from the recent start in the Lonesome Glory.
“He needed that race,” Fisher said. “I’ve always used that race as a prep.”
Earlier this year, Snap Decision won two of the nation’s leading early season jump races – the Temple Gwathmey by nine lengths in Virginia in May and the Iroquois Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths at Nashville on June 26.
Snap Decision did not start during the Saratoga meeting, which was part of Fisher’s season-long plan.
“I didn’t run him at Saratoga because we’d get hammered with the weight,” Fisher said. “It’s tough on them to run in the spring, summer, and fall.”
Owned by Bruton Street-US, Snap Decision was fourth in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes for 3-year-olds at Saratoga in 2017, which was worth $200,000. At the time, Snap Decision was trained by Shug McGaughey.
Snap Decision lost his first two starts over hurdles in the spring of 2019 before beginning his nine-race winning streak that summer.
The Mean Queen, trained by Keri Brion for Buttonwood Farm, began the year in Ireland where she won her hurdle race debut at Wexford Racecourse in April. The Mean Queen has run five times in this country, and won the four races she has completed. She unseated jockey Thomas Garner in the stretch of the Kiser Hurdle for novices at Saratoga on July 28 when she appeared on her way to a win.
“If The Mean Queen wasn’t in there, he’d look like a good thing,” Fisher said of Snap Decision. “It will be fun to let them run again.”
The field includes Amschel, who was second in the Iroquois and fourth in the Lonesome Glory, and the Irish import Chosen Mate, who won the Grand Annual Chase at the prestigious Cheltenham festival in England in 2020, but is winless in eight subsequent starts in jump races.
Chosen Mate is trained by Gordon Elliott, who was banned from training for six months earlier this year by Irish racing officials after a 2019 photo emerged on social media of him sitting on a deceased horse in a paddock.
The Grand National is the third race on a six-race program at Far Hills that includes the $75,000 Foxbrook Champion Hurdle for novices. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.