2:36. 3:14. p.m. The post times for the fourth and fifth races at Shawan Downs Saturday. Official times on official charts now. The fourth race spanned 4:01.80. The fifth lasted 7:09.20. Official times on official charts now.
In those 45 minutes, the sport pushed and pulled, devastated and elevated, yanked and thanked like only steeplechasing can.
Palio and Stephen Mulqueen withered at stablemate Beat Le Bon’s commanding lead in the allowance hurdle. The gap had spanned to 12 and waned to even terms (ish) at the last hurdle. Beat Le Bon hanging tough on the inside and Palio ranging up on the outside. Gallant horses in attritional conditions. Palio met the last hurdle poorly, clambered and fell. A tired fall. Race over. Poof. Then for a moment, that awful, dreadful moment, he stayed on the ground. I took off running, thinking the worst. Then the bay gelding climbed to his feet, took a couple of steps and looked around like a man walking out of a bar into the afternoon sun. Mulqueen climbed to his feet. The race didn’t matter. They walked home.
Thirty-eight minutes later, Queens Empire, a maiden after eight starts over timber, walked into the timber stakes. An outsider, an afterthought, in the field of nine, including timber champion Schoodic and other stalwarts.
I reminded apprentice Virginia Korrell to keep him moving down at the start and don’t worry about how far he drops back. “Ride like it’s a day of hunting. Fence to fence, avoid the melees in front of you and see where you wind up at the end of the day.”
They saved the day.
Second-to-last, last, way back. Looping and loping, looping and loping. And then gradual progression, forward momentum if there was such a thing on an arduous day at the races. Queens Empire swung four wide into the stretch, a slow-motion finish, took out a rail at the last and dourly hung on to win by a length. It looked like an inch. It felt like a mile.
Steeplechasing.
