Rawnaq Reigns as Champion Steeplechaser

A player in his native Ireland over jumps in minor stakes races, Irvin Naylor’s Rawnaq came into his own in 2016 with a well managed season by trainer Cyril Murphy. Three wins in four attempts, including a pair of NSA-1 wins, vaulted the then 9-year-old son of Azamour to the Eclipse Award as top steeplechaser.

Rawnaq opened the season with a 15-length score in Middleburg’s NSA-3 Temple Gwathmey Hurdle Handicap in Virginia and came back three weeks later to edge Shaneshill by a neck after the three miles of the Calvin Houghland Iroquois Hurdle Stakes (NSA-1) outside Nashville, Tenn.

The front-running horse had the summer off and returned Oct. 15  in North America’s top steeplechase race, Far Hills’ Grand National Hurdle Stakes (NSA-1). His regular rider, Jack Doyle, broke his pelvis in a spill at Belmont Park in September. Ruby Walsh, Ireland’s leading steeplechase rider, was asked and he jetted across the Atlantic to take the mount.

In the 2 5/8-mile Grand National, Walsh and Rawnaq held off fellow Eclipse nominee Scorpiancer by three-quarters of a length.

Rawnaq finished second behind Sue Sensor’s Top Striker in Camden’s Colonial Cup Stakes (NSA-1) to end the year.

Naylor, a York. Pa., businessman who owns Still Water Farm in Maryland, has been a leading owner by earnings five times and set the record in 2015 while campaigning champion Dawalan.