Bonus Ties U.S., English Steeplechase Races

An attractive bonus could see a top U.S. steeplechase runner make the trip to Cheltenham, or vice versa.

The Brown Advisory Iroquois Cheltenham Challenge will offer a $500,000 bonus for any horse to win both the Ladbrokes World Hurdle and the 2016 Calvin Houghland Iroquois Steeplechase—the 75th year for the race at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tenn.—within 12 months. Both races are three miles over fences and carry group I/grade I status as steeplechase races.

The winner of the World Hurdle, set for March 17 at Cheltenham Racecourse, could secure the bonus by winning the Iroquois May 14 at the Nashville course. Or the winner of the 2016 Iroquois could secure the bonus by winning the 2017 edition of the World Hurdle.

The Cheltenham Festival attracts nearly 250,000 spectators to its annual four-day meet in March. The Challenge is an opportunity to attract more American horses to compete there, and to offer English, Irish, and European horses a larger opportunity on the world stage. 

"Steeplechasing in 2016 is an international sport, and our objective is to continue attracting the best horses in the world to compete at Cheltenham," said Cheltenham Race Course chairman Robert Waley-Cohen. "Thanks to Brown Advisory and their tireless support, we are now in a position to collectively offer a significant challenge to a winner of both races. This is an uncommon award, but one we feel is appropriate for the top echelon of steeplechase racing."

The Baltimore-based Brown Advisory has long been a sponsor of steeplechase races both in America and at Cheltenham, and the company's chief executive officer, Mike Hankin, is a respected owner known for fielding competitive horses on both sides.

Iroquois Steeplechase Chairman Dwight Hall noted the ties between the Iroquois Steeplechase and Cheltenham.

"Throughout modern history, a number of great horses have crossed the Atlantic to race on these two historic courses, and we want to promote that international competition,"  said Hall, a former jockey and board member of the National Steeplechase Association. "This is a new tradition with significant implications; a successful horse could earn more than $850,000 by winning both races, considering their individual purses and the Brown Advisory Challenge bonus."

Over the past 25 years, a handful of American horses and riders have competed with credit in the United Kingdom, including George Sloan, who became the only jockey from the U.S. to win the British Amateur Championship in the 1970s. The legendary gelding Flatterer, a four-time consecutive Eclipse Award winner, ran second at Cheltenham in the 1980s, and Blythe Miller on Lonesome Glory won at both Cheltenham and Iroquois in the 1990s.

More recently, the Calvin Houghland-owned Pierrot Lunaire came over from England to win the Iroquois Steeplechase in 2009, on his way to winning the Eclipse Award in 2012. The Iroquois race is named for a horse that was the first American to win the English Derby in 1881, before retiring to stud at General William Harding's Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville. All but a handful of horses that have won the Iroquois since 1941 descended from the race's namesake.