Far Hills Saturday

Grand National Hurdle Stakes (Grade 1)

RARELY do showdowns show up. Last Saturday at Far Hills, the clash of the American steeplechase season was billed and delivered the Irish-bred The Mean Queen vs Kentucky-bred Snap Decision in the Grade 1 Grand National, a two-mile, five-furlong stakes worth $150,000. It took all of that punishing trip and all of the moxie The Mean Queen could muster to decide it.

Running to the last fence, The Mean Queen cocked her right ear and braced for a challenge. She got one as Snap Decision arrived to her outside, intent on avenging a defeat a month earlier and snatching the Eclipse Award in the final Grade 1 of the season.

Let fly

Then came the fence, the race’s 14th, about a quarter mile from the finish at the bottom of a stiff, uphill stretch. With nothing to clock off, The Mean Queen and jockey Richie Condon, faced a choice: chip in or let fly. As anybody who knows her would have guessed, she let fly and kept on going through the stretch to win by a half length, denying an otherwise winning effort from Snap Decision after 4:57.20.

The favourites put 20 lengths on Amschel in third as Irish raider Chosen Mate laboured home an even more distant last of four.

“There wasn’t a stride there and I was thinking: ‘My God…’ I could feel Snap Decision very close to me and I just sat there, full credit to the mare, she came up and absolutely winged it. It was all her, I’m taking no credit for that,” Condon said.

“As soon as we landed, she was going to be tough to get to. The mare is so genuine, she puts her neck down and she galloped to the line. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

Owned by Buttonwood Farm and trained by Keri Brion, The Mean Queen completed a season that started with a second in a mares’ bumper flat race at Ireland’s Down Royal in March. She won her hurdle debut at Wexford in April and then jumped on an airplane for the United States.

She’s been soaring ever since – winning a first-level allowance at Great Meadow in May, a mares’ stakes at Nashville in June and two summer Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga and Belmont. The only blemish came when the Irish-bred lost jockey Tom Garner while in command of a novice stakes at Saratoga in July, but nobody talks about that anymore.

Six wins

That’s six wins, a second and $312,293 in eight total starts this year with an American hurdling mark at 6-5-0-0 and $303,000. She’ll win the Eclipse vote in January, the first filly or mare to do so since Life’s Illusion in 1975, all in Brion’s first year as a full-time trainer. The history wasn’t lost on the former assistant to Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, but first she gave credit to that jump at the bottom of the hill.

“Running to the last, I could see it a little bit and Richie said there was nothing there and she just came up out of his hands,” Brion said. “For a mare that doesn’t really have that much race experience when you think about it, to know those things and to be smart is really important. She knew she needed a jump there. If Snap Decision would have gotten that jump on her, if she lost her momentum a little bit and he didn’t, who knows?”

The Grand National lured just four runners in 2021 thanks to a reduced purse, a Covid-shortened 2020, a $75,000 stakes at Great Meadow a week later and (more likely) the presence of the two standouts. As Snap Decision’s trainer Jack Fisher put it a few days earlier, “Would you run against them?”

No.

The Mean Queen ousted Snap Decision in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory at Belmont Park on September 16th, stopping his winning streak at a record-tying nine going back more than two years. She proved plenty at Belmont, but Snap Decision hadn’t run in two and a half months. There were no excuses, she won the first bout. But he’d be better at Far Hills. The rematch promised plenty – and delivered.

Best horses

“Those are the two best horses in America and I would argue that they’d both have very good chances to win good races in Ireland or anywhere,” said Brion. “I think Snap Decision is top-class. It is not that he’s lost a step, she’s just genuinely a better horse. He loses nothing in defeat, that horse. And I would have felt the same way if we lost like that. I said it all week, ‘I hope they hook up and I hope it’s a race and I hope there are no excuses. Let them lay it all out on the line.’ They did.”

Cheltenham

The Mean Queen will get a chance to prove her mettle on the world’s stage as Brion mentioned a try at the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival next year. She’s already 16/1 in the ante-post betting with Bet365. She’ll get a break for now, then fly to Ireland with a potential start at Leopardstown in February as a prep.