PIEDMONT FOX HOUNDS WEEKEND

from Country ZEST & Style Spring 2023 Edition

by Country Zest & Style

It Takes Two to Tango the Night Away

PIEDMONT FOX HOUNDS WEEKEND

It was a weekend full of horses, friends, racing, hunting and…oh yes, a party at Buchanan Hall.

Since 1939, the Piedmont Fox Hounds have hosted the Piedmont Point-to-Point races in Upperville, Virginia.

The most prestigious race of the meet is the Rokeby Challenge Bowl, which, for decades, has attracted top horses in training for major steeplechase races. From 1939 until his death in 1999, the race and trophy were sponsored by the late Paul Mellon, a member of Piedmont and an avid supporter of jump racing.

The winner of the race received a small trophy and their names were engraved on a large perpetual trophy which they could keep for one year. Those who won the race three times (not necessarily consecutively or with the same horse) retired the trophy and could take it home forever. The silver trophies provided by Mellon were exquisite and highly sought after prizes.

One of the original silver Rokeby Bowl trophies has been generously donated to the National Sporting Library & Museum by the late Mary Gillian “Gill” Fenwick. She retired the Rokeby Bowl after winning the race three consecutive years, in 1961, 1962, and 1963. She was only the third owner to retire the trophy (five more have done so since then). Her winners were piloted by the famous steeplechase jockey Crompton “Tommy” Smith, Jr., all three years. The horses were Bay Barrage (1961), General Tony (1962), and Fluctuate (1963).

It also should be noted that Tommy Smith won the Grand National Steeplechase with Jay Trump in Aintree, England in 1965. The late, great writer Jane McClary (then Jane McIlvaine) lived in Middleburg and wrote the book “The Will To Win: The True Story of Jay Trump and Tommy Smith” in 1966.

This year the Rokeby Bowl was won by a horse named To Be or Not to Be, ridden by Teddy Davies, owned by Irvin L. Crawford II and trained by Joseph G. Davies.