Aiken Steeplechase

New Home for Aiken Steeplechase

Aiken Favorite Looks to Future

By Pam Gleason

The Aiken Steeplechase has a new home. After several years of searching, the Aiken Steeplechase Association finally found the right property: a 140-acre parcel that sits just at the edge of the city limits. With the help of the City of Aiken, the association was able to put together a deal to purchase the property late last year and is now in the process of creating a state-of-the-art steeplechase facility. In addition to the track itself, the new grounds will have an announcer’s tower and ample room for various tents – for stabling, viewing and the like – as well as a spacious infield, acres of parking, and at least 25% more space along the track itself for railside spectating than it has today. This is a particular boon for the association, since the Aiken Steeplechase is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions and is always oversubscribed.

“Our immediate mission is to keep steeplechase alive in Aiken and to give back to the community,” says Paul Sauerborn, who is the president of the Aiken Steeplechase Association. The Aiken Steeplechase Association is a 501c(3) charitable organization that has benefitted the Aiken community in several ways. One is by providing a popular sporting event that brings people together and adds to Aiken’s charms. The other is by raising money for various other local charities.

“We’ve given back over a million and a half to other charities,” says Sauerborn. “We don’t tout that, but we have: Helping Hands, United Way, Hitchcock Woods, the Cumbee Center, the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame, and so on. We don’t do that because we have to. We do it because we want to. We want to perpetuate steeplechase spring and fall, and to promote the community. It’s all about the community.”

Steeplechasing has a long and varied history in Aiken. Some of the original founders of the old Aiken Winter Colony were dedicated steeplechasing trainers and riders. These include Thomas Hitchcock, Sr., who owned and trained steeplechasing horses in the first decades of the 20th century and was often the leading steeplechase owner in the country. Ambrose Clark, who owned a winter home in Aiken, rode in races as a young man and then became a celebrated owner. He and his wife Meg are among a very small number of Americans who have owned a horse that won the British Grand National. They achieved this feat with Kellsboro Jack in 1933. Back in the United States, Clark’s steeplechase horses were often piloted by his nephew Pete Bostwick, who was also a flat jockey, an international polo player and a mainstay at Aiken Polo Club.

During the height of the Aiken Winter Colony in the 1920s and 1930s, many people from the steeplechasing world spent the winter in town keeping themselves and their horses fit for the summer season. Thomas Hitchcock started his young steeplechasing horses at his Cedar Creek Farm about 10 miles out of town, and then conditioned them on the Ridge Mile Track in the Hitchcock Woods, which he built specifically for them. Other parts of the Woods such as the Cuthbert Track, had jumps that were designed to teach the horses to be bold and jump cleanly. Hitchcock and his steeplechasing friends all used the Woods for training. Their names are legendary in American steeplechasing history: Temple Gwathemy, Rigan McKinney, and so on. These people often also rode with the Aiken Hounds, giving hunts something of the character of steeplechase races themselves, according to Harry Worcester Smith, a steeplechase enthusiast who wrote the book Aiken Life and Sport (1935).

In 1929, the Camden Steeplechase Association was formed, which spurred Aiken’s steeplechasing population to follow suit, creating the Aiken Steeplechase Association in 1930. The first official contest was the Aiken Hunt Race, a three-mile long charge through the Woods on March 14, 1930 – two weeks before the inaugural running of the Camden Cup on March 22 of that year. The Aiken Hunt Race was repeated the following year and jump races quickly became an important part of the Aiken spring calendar, along with such events as the Aiken Horse Show in the Woods. In due course, the races were recognized by the National Steeplechase Association, and were moved to the Aiken Mile Track, where brush and timber hurdles were set up. Horses from Camden regularly shipped in to compete against their Aiken neighbors, while Aiken’s horses challenged the Camdenites at their annual meet in Camden.

But then came World War II and the end of the Aiken steeplechasing tradition. Other horse sports thrived in Aiken both during and after the war, notably flat racing training, and later polo. But it wasn’t until 1967 that the Aiken Steeplechase Association was revived, thanks to the efforts of Ford Conger, Charlie Bird, Pete Bostwick, Mack Miller and Paul Mellon, among others. The first race meet of the second iteration of the Aiken Steeplechase Association took place on April 8, on a seven furlong course laid out on the property now called Bruce’s Field. At the time, the land was owned by Frank Manheim and was known as the Ambrose Clark schooling grounds. That first meet attracted some 50 horses from all around the region and was declared a success. Steeplechasing was back in Aiken.

Over the years, the Aiken Steeplechase, soon recognized as the second leg of the Aiken Triple Crown, became more and more popular. By the late 1990s, it was already showing signs of outgrowing its original course, which had been re-christened Ford Conger Field in the early 1990s. The spring steeplechase had become a cherished annual rite, and there was a waiting list for railside tailgating spaces, which were reserved months, and then years, in advance. When a space became available, it was offered to people on the waiting list through a lottery system. The association began selling tailgating spaces a row back from the rail, and those were quickly filled as well. Parking became a problem. Not only did steeplechase watchers always take every available spot on its grounds, the organization started having to lease space on Powderhouse Polo Field across the street for overflow. It was clear that it was time for the steeplechase to find a new home, and the search began.

That new home is ideally located, according to Paul Sauerborn. It sits at the corner of Old Wagener Road and Rudy Mason Parkway (aka the bypass) and, when finished, will be accessible by four entrances as opposed to the three at the current track. It is close to downtown, and convenient to the highway. The property is large enough to accommodate all the parking that the organization anticipates needing, as well as everything else required to put on a large event, while still maintaining a wide swath of trees around the perimeter, providing for privacy and insulating the event from the sounds and sights of traffic and the city.

Even more important, the track itself will be a mile long, creating more space for railside parking, as well as a better experience for the steeplechasers.

“The track will be a tri-oval shape,” Sauerborn explains. This is a configuration partway between an oval and a triangle that is often used for automobile racetracks. It has advantages for spectators because it provides fans with more forward sight lines to the action. It is a more horse-friendly shape than a traditional oval because it allows for wider and more sweeping turns. Since negotiating sharp turns on a track are a factor in many racing accidents, a tri-oval shape is considered to be safer. The design was created with the input of horsemen and of the National Steeplechase Association, and will be unique. “They’re all different,” says Paul of steeplechase tracks. “There are no rules to follow about how you lay them out.”

The property where the track is being constructed was once a part of a large tract owned by the Satcher family, the owners of Satcher Ford

in Graniteville. It was farmed for many years, but had been left vacant for a quarter of a century. As a result, when the Aiken Steeplechase Association acquired it (with the help of a $1 million grant from the City of Aiken), it was overgrown with volunteer pines, shrubs and other vegetation. The first job was to clear the land, which was done over the past few months. Grading will come next, followed by creating the track itself, installing irrigation and other necessities, and finally putting in grass, which the association hopes to be able to do this May. If all goes according to plan, the new track will be ready for its first races in the about a year.

Jessica Miller, who is the event manager of the steeplechase, says that when the facility is finished it will also be available for other entities to use. Aiken Steeplechase holds two race meets – one in the spring and the other in the fall – so during the remainder of the year, the steeplechase grounds will be an open space that could accommodate another type of community event. “We could have music festivals; we talked about a balloon festival,” she says. Other possibilities include partnering with a polo club to construct a tournament field on the infield, or establishing other riding amenities such as trails through the woods that surround the track.

“There are a lot of possibilities here,” says Paul, who gives credit to the City of Aiken for being so helpful and for believing in the steeplechase association and in the project. “We have a great relationship with the city; we have a great relationship with the NSA [National Steeplechase Association].” He says.

In the immediate future, steeplechasing will be on hold in Aiken, since the Aiken Fall Steeplechase (scheduled for the end of October) has been canceled due to COVID restrictions. Assuming that the pandemic dissipates, steeplechasing will be back at Bruce’s Field in the spring of 2021. When the new facility is finished, the association expects to have a grand opening celebration in advance of its inaugural races.

Paul Sauerborn and Jessica Miller at the site of the recently cleared steeplechase property.

The new steeplechase track will ensure that steeplechasing will have a permanent home in Aiken. It also adds to a growing number of top class equestrian facilities that have been developed or improved in Aiken over the past decade, catering to a wide variety of different disciplines. Several years ago, the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce commissioned a study to determine whether or not it would be a good idea to construct a dedicated public horse park in Aiken. It was an issue that had passionate advocates on every side. One argument against building a horse park was that Aiken, with its plethora of equestrian areas, was itself essentially a horse park. The new steeplechase facility will add one more amenity to that park, ensuring that Aiken continues to be an equestrian paradise for many years to come.