By Don Clippinger
In Arabic, zanjabeel means ginger, the spice that is mentioned in the Quran as a flavor of a drink in Paradise. On the steeplechase course, the horse Zanjabeel (GB) (Aussie Rules) has the potential to spice up the new jump-racing season when he starts in Saturday's G1 $150,000 Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup in Camden, S.C.
The 2 3/8-mile Colonial Cup, transferred from a former fall meet, will key a record-setting edition of the Carolina Cup Races, which marks its 86th anniversary. A crowd exceeding 60,000 is expected for a race program offering a South Carolina record $325,000 in purses.
Still eligible for novice stakes races, 5-year-old Zanjabeel will be taking on competitors who have been seasoned in the top ranks of American jump racing. But he has shown in two U.S. starts that he has the high cruising speed and the talent to make an impact at the highest level of American jump racing.
He made a most favorable impression last October when he appeared in the entries for the $125,000 Foxbrook Champion Hurdle Novice S. at the Far Hills Races in New Jersey. With the top U.S. novice Moscato (GB) aiming for bigger game (and scratched on race day), Zanjabeel dominated for Irish trainer Gordon Elliott and his high-confidence overseas owners, The Confidence Group.
Rosbrian Farm's George Mahoney Jr. and fellow Marylanders Ben and Wendy Griswold stepped in, purchased him for an undisclosed price, and turned him over to trainer Ricky Hendriks. Two weeks later, Zanjabeel won another novice stakes, the Aflac Supreme Hurdle in Georgia, in fast time.
Pennsylvania-based Hendriks, who had one of the best seasons of his training career last year, also will saddle Rosbrian's Swansea Mile (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) for the Colonial Cup. Swansea Mile upset Saratoga Race Course's G1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial Hurdle S. at 28.50-1 last summer, but did not duplicate that form in two subsequent starts.
Setting the Colonial Cup pace will be Stonelea Stables' Balance the Budget (Bellamy Road), who carried his ample speed to a nine-length victory in last fall's G2 David L. “Zeke” Ferguson Hurdle S. for trainer Julie Gomena.
Jack Fisher, who has become the perennial leading trainer on the steeplechase circuit and set an earnings record of $1.3 million last year, will have two candidates for the Colonial Cup, lightly raced Hinterland (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}) for Harold A. “Sonny” Via Jr. and Edith Dixon's mercurial homebred, Schoodic (Tiznow).
Completing the field is Mark W. Buyck's Camden-based Show Court (Ire) (Vinnie Roe {Ire}), who won last spring's Carolina Cup Novice S. over the same course. Trained by Arch Kingsley Jr., Show Court completed his novice career by winning Saratoga's Jonathan Kiser Novice S.
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