For the first time in recent memory, American steeplechasing's fall season started where the summer season ended - at a major flat track. Colonial Downs, Virginia's first venture in parimutuel flat racing, hosted the jumpers for the first of four Sundays on Sept. 13. A brand-new facility in New Kent County, it won rave reviews for its open, sweeping course, its lively atmosphere and its hospitality towards horsemen.

Sean Clancy

The climate was hot, the competition even hotter. Rising star Sean Clancy opened the session with a narrow score aboard Crest of the Wave in a $15,000 maiden special weight. William Lickle's victorious entry was conditioned by Ricky Hendriks, a Pennsylvania trainer for whom Clancy regularly gallops.

Clancy was simply happy to be breaking the top five on the riders' charts. "It's fun to think about (winning the championship) - you gotta think about it!" he exclaimed. "And I think I have a chance."

Sovereign Key (Craig Thornton) drew off the win the day's second race, another $15,000 maiden special weight, over Deschavao (JW Delozier III). The winner was owned by George Strawbridge Jr,'s prominent Augustin Stables, with Strawbridge's stepdaughter Sanna Neilson training.

Sean Clancy continued to shine the following week, taking a maiden claimer with another Hendriks charge at the Sept. 19 Fairfax Races in northern Virginia. Though 10 years old, Sheila Pierce's Bewray was making his debut over fences -- and it took a photo finish camera to separate him from Northern Task (Toby Edwards).

A rare clockwise course, Fairfax is loaded with turns and timber -- which also made it the perfect setting for Hurler. Ridden by Chip Miller and trained by his father Bruce, Nicole and John Frazier's handy grey became only the second horse in history to win three consecutive runnings of Fairfax's 3-mile open timber feature, the Bowman Bowl. He did it in typically textbook style, outjumping nearest rival Haygormay (Sean Clancy) to claim the lion's share of $10,000 for his Pennsylvania connections.

Other Fairfax winners were Colvin Ryan and Sassy Fleet, in the $7,500 Guest Cup open claimer; and Sunny Bird, unstoppable in the two-horse conditioned claimer with Patrick Cooney up.

The next day, the 'chasers converged on both Colonial Downs (round two) and the Oxmoor Steeplechase, in genteel Louisville, Kentucky (home of the Kentucky Derby).

Popular Gigalo (Chip Miller) proved a popular fellow indeed when he came with a rush to nose out Ask Don (Bitsy Patterson) in Colonial Downs' $17,500 allowance. It was the third win in three months for Charles Strittmatter's game router, who gave trainer F. Bruce Miller and his jockey son a double on the weekend.

The day's other hurdle race -- a $15,000 maiden event -- fell to Warmonger, with Matt McCarron up. It was the former Jonathan Sheppard trainee's first start under the aegis of new owner Kinross Farm and trainer Neil Morris.

Rock-hard ground prompted numerous scratches on the circuit this fall. But it didn't stop Coromandel from his appointed rounds in Oxmoor's featured $20,000 conditioned handicap, the Oxmoor Center. Vincent ("Cort") Marzullo steered the Chilean-bred gelding, who is trained by up-and-comer Kathy Lewis of nearby Tennessee. Owner Kay Bullitt was on hand for the victory -- small wonder, since the race was run over her own property!

Other winners at this small country meet were Anitra's Dance (Michael Traurig), in the $8,000 maiden claimer; Wild Awhile (Gus Brown) in the $10,000 "straight" maiden; and Big band Show (Michael Traurig) in the $6,000 maiden timber.

Then it was south to Charlottesville, Virginia for the popular Foxfield Fall Races on Sept. 27. The heat was taxing and the ground harder than ever, resulting in a huge number of scratches at this university-town meet.

Even the day's feature, the $20,000 Daniel Van Clief Memorial allowance, dwindled down to three entries. Arch Kingsley Jr. took advantage of this with It's A Giggle, steering the Jonathan Sheppard trainee to a three-length score over speedster Greek Hero (Colvin Ryan).

Then Sean Clancy recorded a double (courtesy of Moccasin Run, in the $10,000 maiden claimer; and Young Dubliner, who won the $10,000 E.D. Vere Nicoll Memorial maiden timber in a rare walkover). Both horses were trained by Ricky Hendriks.

Also at this meet, trainer Sanna Neilson continued her winning ways with Duraznillo, a claiming hurdle victor under Craig Thornton. Though Hudson (Andy Wilson) crossed the wire first, Stage Radiance (Gus Brown) won the $15,000 maiden by virtue of disqualification. And Neil Morris -- who trains for Kinross Farm -- won the amateur jockeys' training flat with Kinross' Age of Flight.

William Lickle's Young Dubliner stole the show in the featured $10,000 Chronicle Cup at the Oct. 3 Virginia Fall Races in Middleburg. Untested since his arrival from Ireland last June, the 9-year-old Hendriks charge found his calling in this open timber contest, with help from -- you guessed it -- Sean Clancy.

The race scratched down to match status due to the hard going, but rival Blacken Sword (Pat Cooney) still made every step count.

In the end, however, Young Dubliner pushed through by a length. "I was excited that he had as much 'foot' as he had," Clancy remarked. "I felt like if I'd really wanted, he would have run away from the other horse."

Hendriks and Clancy "doubled their pleasure" with Lenape Run in Virginia Fall's Nelson Noland Memorial, a maiden race for 3-year-old hurdlers.

Other notables at Virginia Fall included Devil's Reach (Matt McCarron), a winner of the $15,000 maiden by virtue of disqualification; Boca Paila (Jonathan Kiser), who took the $6,000 maiden claimer by storm; and Sennacherib, who toted Gus Brown to an easy apprentice jockeys' claiming hurdle score.