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FEBRUARY 2017 ’’ I Chasing NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE ASSOCIATION 400 FAIR HILL DRIVE,Chasing ELKTON, MD 21921 New race meet, Steeplechase of Charleston, joins spring lineup A new race meet, The Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono Ferry, will join the National Steeplechase Association’s 2017 spring racing schedule. Tickets went on sale Jan. 6. The Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono Ferry, to be run at Hollywood, S.C., on Saturday, April 8, and a companion meet in November will be under the management of the Bruno Event Team, an internationally recognized leader in sports marketing and event management. Additionally, Hallman is a South Carolina expand their markets,” Torsilieri said. Among other events, the Birmingham, Ala.- native and received a Bachelor of Science in The Bruno Event Team has worked closely based Bruno Event Team manages U.S. Senior Economics from the College of Charleston and with the NSA and the Stono Ferry Homeown- Open Championships, PGA TOUR tournaments, his MBA from the University of South Carolina. ers Association to prepare for the new spring LPGA events, an INDYCAR race, the upcoming “The Board of Directors and I welcome The meet. “We are most grateful for the efforts of Davis Cup – USA vs Switzerland and gameday Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono Ferry and Bruno Executive Vice President John Bochnak activities at the University of Alabama. the Bruno Event Team to the NSA family,” said and Donald Rhea, president of the Stono Ferry “We are honored to have the opportunity to President Guy J. Torsilieri. “We are excited to Homeowners Association, to bring this event to manage The Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono have a new race meet for the spring, and we fruition in a short period of time,” Torsilieri said. Ferry,” stated Gene Hallman, president and CEO look forward enthusiastically to working with The Charleston meet, on the same race course of Bruno Event Team. “This is an exciting and the Bruno Event Team staff. formerly utilized by the Charleston Cup, is ten- new opportunity for our company, and we are “On many Saturdays in the spring and fall, tatively scheduled to have five races, four over thrilled to host this Steeplechase event.” steeplechase races attract the biggest crowds National Fences, with purses totaling $75,000. in Thoroughbred racing. With the Bruno Event It assumes the date formerly held by the Stoney- Team’s well-established expertise in event brook Steeplechase. Want more information management and marketing, we hope to work The fall meet tentatively will be held on the on jump racing? together to leverage our popularity into a suc- Sunday preceding the season-ending Marion cessful meet at Charleston and growth for all of duPont Scott Colonial Cup in mid-November. For more information on jump racing steeplechase racing.” “This new race meet will be a tremendous and owning steeplechase horses, visit The Steeplechase of Charleston at Stono opportunity for our horsemen,” said NSA Direc- www.nationalsteeplechase.com, where Ferry will be the first race meet sponsored and tor of Racing Bill Gallo Jr. “It will be the third you will find all the latest headlines, managed by a professional event marketer. consecutive meet in South Carolina to kick off race entries, and statistics. “With Bruno Event Team’s proven experience the 2017 spring season, and it will offer com- Information on the National Steeple- in so many endeavors, we see opportunities for petitive purses. The November meet also will chase Foundation is at www.national- growth in new markets. Moreover, Bruno Event continue our growth in the fall season.” The steeplehchasefoundation.org. Team will be able to provide the benefits of its NSA had record purses for its spring and fall experience to existing race meets that want to seasons in 2016. ’’ChasingChasing Page 2 Rouse honored with Clark Award Randolph D. Rouse, a Virginia horseman who fences for hurdle races. With NSA Executive guided the National Steeplechase Association Vice President John E. Cooper, Rouse explored through some of its most challenging days in the idea of a manmade fence that would be the 1970s and inaugurated one of the sport’s moved from meet to meet. The result was the most important innovations, has been awarded National Fence, which was inaugurated in 1974, the F. Ambrose Clark Award, American jump Rouse’s final year as NSA president. racing’s leading honor. As a horseman and race-meet official, Rouse Rouse, who continues to establish racing intimately understood the needs and concerns records as he celebrated his 100th birthday in of owners, trainers, and jockeys. He was an ac- December, is the 26th recipient of the F. Am- complished amateur jockey and won 10 races brose Clark Award. Created in 1965, the award without a defeat with his top horse, Cinzano, in recognizes those individuals who have done the point-to-points in the 1980s. most to promote, improve, and encourage the The subject of a widely publicized horse-iden- growth and welfare of American Steeplechasing. tity swap, Uruguay-bred champion Cinzano had “Randy Rouse is a most deserving recipient of been stripped of his Jockey Club registration and the F. Ambrose Clark Award,” said NSA Presi- could not compete in sanctioned races. Rouse dent Guy J. Torsilieri. “He has been a leader of then purchased him as a point-to-point prospect. the sport in his native Virginia and nationally, “He was the best horse I ever had,” Rouse and he is an inspiration to those who have fol- once said in an interview. “Once the flag lowed him.” dropped, he took off in front. All you had to He and his wife, Michele, reside in Arlington, do was steer.” Va., and have a farm in Aldie. Rouse continues to be active in the sport. He Randy Rouse is all but synonymous with Randy Rouse at the races. still trains, and his Hishi Soar put him in the jump racing and hunting in Northern Virginia. DOUGLAS LEES PHOTO record books when the hurdler won the Daniel Born in Smithfield, Va., and raised in Newport Van Clief Memorial at the Foxfield Spring News, he settled in Northern Virginia after just as New York racing was adopting off-track Steeplechase in Charlottesville last April. graduating from Washington and Lee University betting and simultaneously de-emphasizing With the victory, Rouse became the oldest in 1939 and serving in the U.S. Navy during jump racing. Rouse, who was steeped in the trainer ever to saddle a Thoroughbred winner World War II. He founded Randolph D. Rouse tradition of country racing, began the process of in North America. He broke the record he had Enterprises, a construction and investment firm, changing the focus of the sport to its race meets. set in November 2014 when Hishi Soar won a in 1947. Today, the NSA pays record purses, with claiming hurdle at the Montpelier Hunt Races. His interest in hunting and racing blossomed roughly three-quarters of all purses raised and Rouse was 97 at the time and eclipsed the record after being invited to participate in the Fairfax paid by its race meets. Moreover, the sport’s of California-based trainer Noble Threewit, who Hunt. In time, he became master of foxhounds richest races are run at meets that maintain open won a race at age 95 in 2006. for the Fairfax Hunt and held that position for space close to large metropolitan areas. Randy “I will never retire,” Rouse said in a 1998 several decades. He also helped to launch the Rouse was at the forefront of beginning that Washington Post interview. “I may wear out, Fairfax Races and served as its chairman for four-decade-long transition. but I won’t rust out.” He has been true to his more than three decades. At the same time, all meets in the early 1970s word, and the F. Ambrose Clark Award honors He was elected the NSA’s president in 1971, were confronting the cost of maintaining natural his distinguished career in steeplechase racing. National Steeplechase Association 400 Fair Hill Drive Phone: (410) 392-0700 Website: www.nationalsteeplechase.com Elkton, Md. 21921 Fax: (410) 392-0706 E-mail: [email protected] Officers Directors Staff Beverly R. Steinman, Chairman Patrick Butterfield P. Douglas Fout Sharon E. Sheppard William Gallo Jr., Director of Racing Guy J. Torsilieri, President R. Reynolds Cowles Michael D. Hankin Beverly R. Steinman Peter D. McGivney, General Manager P. Douglas Fout, Vice President Kate Dalton Virginia Lazenby Charles Strittmatter Courtney C. Reid, Racing Operations Patrick Butterfield, Secretary Alfred C. Griffin Jr. George Mahoney Jr. Guy J. Torsilieri Nancy Dougherty, Executive Secretary Charles Strittmatter, Treasurer Dwight Hall Charles Noell Donald Yovanovich Don C. Clippinger, Communications