- Published on Sunday, 07 April 2013 20:10
- Joe Clancy
The first double-meet weekend of the 2013 steeplechase season turned into a showcase for the proverbial little guy as wins came early and often for stables that don’t routinely crack the top 10 on the circuit. Good for the game, no matter who you root for.
Mostly.
Jonathan Sheppard still collected two wins, taking the feature at Stoneybrook with stakes professional Divine Fortune. He settled for being the best man of 2012, with runner-up efforts in the Iroquois, Grand National and Colonial Cup to go with a single allowance win. Bill Pape’s 10-year-old tuned up for stakes company by winning a classy allowance at the North Carolina meet Saturday, getting the best of 2010 champion Slip Away and multiple stakes winner Decoy Daddy for jockey Darren Nagle. Next stop Iroquois. A homebred son of Royal Anthem, Divine Fortune won for the eighth time over jumps and passed the $400,000 mark in earnings over fences.