News and Notes

By Pam Gleason

New Home for Steeplechase In January of this year, the Aiken Steeplechase Association purchased a 140-acre parcel off Rudy Mason Parkway downtown. Right away, work was started on the property, clearing brush, adding fencing and irrigation and getting ready to put in grass this summer. The goal is to have the track ready for the fall of 2021.

The Aiken steeplechase history goes back to 1930 when the original association was formed by members of the old Aiken Winter Colony who used to hold races in the Hitchcock Woods. Many members of the Winter Colony were amateur steeplechase trainers and jockeys, so it is not surprising that the sport was an integral part of Aiken’s equestrian life.

The steeplechasing tradition died out in the city due to World War II, but was revived in 1967 and has been going strong ever since. Today the Aiken Steeplechase Association holds two race meets sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association: the Imperial Cup each March and the Holiday Cup each October. The spring event is the most popular equestrian event in Aiken, attracting an estimated 30,000 spectators.

Aiken’s steeplechases have been held on Powderhouse Road downtown at the Aiken Horse Park for decades. Before the park was developed as a horse show facility, it was almost excusively a place for the steeplechase races: an oval grass track with a pair of railings that was rarely used more than twice a year. But after the Aiken Horse Park Foundation put in the arenas at Bruce’s Field and started holding shows, it became increasingly difficult for the two entities to share the same space. This led the Aiken Steeplechase Association to start a search for their own property, looking for somewhere large enough to hold the races, close enough to town to be convenient, yet priced to be affordable.

The association was able to buy the property with the help of the City of Aiken, as well as through their own fundraising efforts. The new track will be slightly larger than the old one, allowing the association to put in more railside spaces, which are always in high demand. There will also be space for more parking. The association is also looking into the possibility of accommodating other equestrian sports, and has even considered constructing a polo pitch on the infield. In any case, members of the association are excited about their new home, which will give them security and brighter prospects for the future. Retired Racehorses Impress This February, representatives from the Thoroughbred Makeover Retired Racehorse Project came to the Grand Prix Eventing Showcase at Bruce’s Field in the Aiken Horse Park to give a “Master Class” demonstration of what a former track horse can do. The demo took place in one of the rings at the show ground on Friday afternoon February 28, between the end of dressage and the start of stadium jumping in the Grand Prix event.

The Thoroughbred Makeover is an annual competition, in which trainers have about 10 months to retrain a recently retired racehorse in one of nine disciplines, culminating in a show each October at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. For the demo at Bruce’s Field, three volunteer trainers mounted up on three recently retired racehorses provided by Equine Rescue of Aiken. The horses had been turned out on the farm at the rescue in Aiken since they left the track and had had essentially no further training or handling. The trainers didn’t know them very well either: with the exception of a brief meeting and a quick outing on the grounds the day before, they had no chance to prepare for the demonstration.

With those thoughts in mind, most people would agree that the horses were outstanding. While representatives from the Thoroughbred Makeover narrated over a loudspeaker, and the upper level eventing rider and trainer Buck Davidson offered advice from the ground, the three trainers trotted and cantered their horses around the ring. People crowded up against the fence to watch them, to listen and to ask questions.

The three riders included the Aiken-based trainer Jordan Pruiksma, who has competed in the makeover several times, Brit Vegas Gengenbach, also a makeover trainer who hails from Nebraska, and the Olympic gold medal eventing rider Phillip Dutton. Jordan rode a 4-year-old mare named Flying Fireball; Brit had a 7-year-old gelding named Silver Beach, and Phillip rode a 10-year-old gelding named In the Fairway who raced 60 times

and won over half a million dollars.

All three horses trotted and cantered around, almost completely unfazed by crowds and commotion. After they were all moving forward comfortably, organizers set up some trot poles for them to go over, followed by a cross rail and eventually a vertical. Despite never having jumped before, all three horses took to it easily, proving that former racehorses are up for pretty much anything. During the question and answer period, Phillip even took the microphone and answered questions from the back of In the Fairway, who stood calmly and stock still, as though he had done it every day.

“For attitude, I would give him a 10,” said Phillip.

Silver Beach was also especially impressive, responding very quickly to what Brit asked him to do and showing natural ability over fences. In fact, she liked him so much, she adopted him and took him back to Nebraska, with the goal of competing him in this year’s Thoroughbred Makeover Project.

For more information on the Retired Racehorse Project, visit retiredracehorse.org. For more information about Equine Rescue of Aiken, go to aikenequinerescue.org.

Another Aiken Horse to Hall of Fame

This February, a striking polo pony named Gargantilla was inducted into the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in the “Horses to Remember” category. The museum traditionally honors two horses each year: one from the modern era of polo and one from an earlier time. Gargantilla played high goal international matches under the 10-goaler Devereux Milburn in the 1920s. The modern inductee this year was a 26-year-old gelding named Wembley owned by Bob Jornayvez. Wembley performed under some of the best players in the world at the highest levels. He was named Horse of the Year in 2004 and was the first recipient of the annual Wembley award, named in his honor at the International Polo Club.

Gargantilla was born in Argentina in 1914. A striking paint with a bald face, high white socks and a white throat (gargantilla is the Spanish word for choker) she was a top polo pony in her native country. Owned by the great international player Alfredo Pena Unzue, she came to North America in 1922 with an Argentine national team that traveled to New York that summer. Before returning to South America, the Argentines sold their ponies at auction. Harry Payne Whitney purchased the paint mare for $5,000, the equivalent of about $77,000 today. Whitney, who was then 50, was not playing much high goal polo anymore, and Gargantilla soon joined Devereux Milburn’s string. Whitney and Milburn had played together for many years and were close friends. Although Gargantilla is always remembered as Milburn’s mount, there is no evidence that her ownership was ever officially transferred to him.

Milburn played Gargantilla in important matches from 1923 through 1927. In 1923, she won the Prince Friarstown Cup, which was a trophy presented to the best playing pony in the U.S. Open. During those years, she wintered in Aiken where Milburn had a home on Magnolia Street downtown.

Aside from her playing prowess, Gargantilla is best remembered for her striking looks, which doubtless contributed to her reputation on the field. When a player has a horse of an unusual color, it often attracts attention. If the horse is

unruly, everyone will notice. If it is brilliant, that brilliance shines even more brightly. It is perhaps not surprising that she was also immortalized in two paintings, one by Franklin Voss and the other by Alfred Munnings, who was on Long Island in 1924.

Gargantilla joins several other horses with Aiken connections in the Polo Hall of Fame, most of them from the 1920s and 30s. These include Tobiana, also a paint, played by the immortal Tommy Hitchcock, as well as his mounts Katrina and Ruifino. Louis Stoddard’s Belle of All was inducted in 2009, and Northrup Knox’s Ragamuffin and Rotallen were elected in 2002 and 2009 respectively. The Aiken Horse Wins Award We are pleased to announce that the Aiken Horse was honored by the Dog Writer’s Association of America with the prestigious Maxwell award for an article that we ran in our August-September 2019 issue about the lifesaving work of Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) Aiken. The DWAA holds an annual competition and gives out prizes in various categories. Our article was chosen as the best in the nation among articles about rescue. Written by Pam Gleason, who is the editor and publisher of this paper, the article, entitled A Decade of Lifesaving, chronicled the progress of the Aiken County Animal Shelter from being a dismal place of little hope to being a progressive and innovative no kill shelter and model for others across the country.

The DWAA, established in 1935, is the most recognized professional writing association devoted to dogs. Its annual writing contest “encourages excellence in writing about dogs in all aspects of communication.” Awards are traditionally presented in New York City each February in conjunction with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show.

This is the first time that the Aiken Horse has won a Maxwell award. However, our sister publication The Dog and Hound (currently on publishing hiatus) won six Maxwell Awards over the past few years, including one for photography, one for being the best canine or all animal newspaper in the nation, and four for articles about rescue, all of them written by Pam Gleason.