Radnor Hunt Races Coming This Weekend

Radnor Hunt Races return to Willistown Saturday for its 81st year. The gates open at 9 a.m. and the first race starts at 1:30 p.m. The final race is at 4:50 p.m. Check out the full race and information.

Here's a preview of Saturday's events issued this week by organizers:

National Hunt Cup attracts strong field

A highly accomplished group of young steeplechase competitors will meet in the $50,000 National Hunt Cup, co-feature of the 81st annual Radnor Hunt Races in Malvern, Pa., on Saturday, May 21. The six-race program at the W. Burling Cocks Memorial Race Course also will highlight the $40,000 Radnor Hunt Cup over timber fences. First post time is 1:30 p.m.

The National Hunt Cup is limited to horses in their first years of competition over fences, known as novices, and this year's edition of the Sport of Kings race attracted the cream of the crop. Seeking his second consecutive major victory is Magalen O. Bryant's Triplekin, winner of the Queen's Cup MPC 'Chase for novices on April 30. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard named Brian Crowley to ride the six-year-old Makin gelding.

All Together, 2010's novice champion, will be shooting for his first victory of the year in the 2 3/8-mile National Hunt Cup. Owned by Andre Brewster and Sheila J. Williams, the six-year-old Danzig gelding finished a closing second to pacesetter Complete Zen in the $50,000 Priority Payment Systems Georgia Cup for novices on April 16. Xavier Aizpuru will ride for trainer Jack Fisher.

Mede Cahaba Stable's Complete Zen is the likely early front-runner for the National Hunt Cup. After his head victory over All Together in the Georgia Cup, the five-year-old Cozzene gelding finished second by 5 3/4 lengths to Triplekin in the Queen's Cup race near Charlotte, N.C. Richard Boucher again will ride Complete Zen for his wife, trainer Lilith Boucher.

Testing the top ranks of novice competitors will be last year's three-year-old champion, Jacqueline Ohrstrom's Demonstrative. In his most recent start, the four-year-old Elusive Quality gelding won the Daniel Van Clief Memorial, a hurdle allowance at the Foxfield Spring Races in Virginia on April 30. Trainer Richard Valentine will put Robbie Walsh in the saddle.

In the 3 1/4-mile Radnor Hunt Cup, Merriefield Farm's Bon Caddo will be shooting for a spring hat trick after victories in the $35,000 My Lady's Manor in Maryland on April 16 and the $50,000 Virginia Gold Cup on May 7. Blair Wyatt, who has ridden the ten-year-old Bon Point gelding to both victories, will be in the irons for trainer Dawn Williams.