Fair Hill

FAIR HILL - Olympic champion David O'Connor won his fifth U.S. Equestrian Team fall eventing championship with a penalty-free stadium jumping ride yesterday. O'Connor, the Sydney Olympics individual gold medalist, finished with a three-phase score of 58.8 penalties after completing his ride fault-free on The Native. It was the fourth outright title in the event for the rider from The Plains, Va. O'Connor also won in 1995 as the top American finisher behind Australian David Green. Australian Phillip Dutton, the defending champion and two-time Olympic team gold medalist, was the event's last entry and entered the ring on Cayman Went with a score of 58.4 penalties.

FAIR HILL -- Mark Weissbecker of Richmond, Mass., moved to the lead at the completion of the second phase of the Fair Hill International Three-Day Event yesterday at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Center in Cecil County.The 40-year-old horseman, aboard the 8-year-old California-bred thoroughbred gelding, Best Seller, moved up to the top spot after placing fifth of the 63 competitors in dressage on Friday.Weissbecker, who finished 20th at Fair Hill last year, said he and Best Seller "raced around like gangbusters" during the steeplechase and cross country phases of yesterday's 14- to 15-mile speed and endurance test.

The Fair Hill races will honor the late E.H. "Tiger" Bennett by naming the timber race, which will be run each fall, for him.The first such race will be Saturday, when the 59th Fair Hill fall meeting is conducted at the course in Maryland, near the Pennsylvania and Delaware lines. It will be a three-mile race for novice jumpers.Bennett, who rode in nine Maryland Hunt Cups and was involved in that race's most famous disqualification, died Feb. 24 after a long illness.Edward Hartshorne Bennett, who would have been 82 on Feb. 26, was born in Middletown, N.J. From the time he spent in Maryland in steeplechasing, he was called "Tiger," a name believed to have been given to him because he attended Princeton University, whose sports mascot is a tiger.

Two women jockeys, Sanna Neilson of Unionville, Pa., and Victoria Schlesinger, who lives in Butler, posted upsets yesterday in the hurdle and timber features at the Fair Hill Races near Elkton.Neilson guided Augustin Stable's Dalton River to a four-length victory over heavily favored Leandro in the $25,000 Miles Valentine Novice Stakes.Leandro, ridden by Cort Marzullo, led for nearly the entire 2 1/4 miles until he approached the last of 15 hurdles. There Neilson, on Dalton River, jumped the fence head and head with Marzullo and then kicked in on the outside for an easy victory.

FAIR HILL -- Canadian rider Joni Lynn Peters and Jiffy Read from Winchester, Mass., won the two advanced divisions yesterday of the Fair Hill Horse Trials.U.S. Olympic veteran Bruce Davidson, from Unionville, Pa., riding Hat Trick, was the runner-up in the advanced section in Division I, behind Peters on Snap Decision. Riding The Irishman II, he was also second in Division II, behind Read, who rode the German-bred Lotus.The top riders used the Fair Hill even as a prep for the Olympic qualifiers, which will be held at Lexington, Ky., starting April 24, and in Feversham, Ontario, starting May 14.Davidson will now take The Irishman II to England to compete at the Badminton Horse Trials, the world-class 3-Day event which the horse won last year.

Mrs. Lewis C. Murdock, who campaigned the Hall of Fame jumper, Zaccio, in the early 1980s, has come up with another good steeplechaser named Leandro.The 5-year-old Chilean-bred gelding is favored today to win the $25,000 Miles Valentine Novice Stakes at the Fair Hill Races near Elkton.Leandro comes into the race off of three consecutive victories at Aiken, S.C., Southern Pines, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn. In his past two starts the horse set course records.Leandro's trainer, William Cocks, said that Mrs. Murdock purchased the South American import through bloodstock agent Charles Cushman.

FAIR HILL -- Blythe Miller told her father she didn't think My Lear wanted to race too often.Good thinking. In his new career in steeplechase racing, My Lear has found the light agenda agreeable. In three starts this year, he has won twice, including the featured $25,000 Miles Valentine Novice Stakes at Fair Hill Race Course yesterday."I told Dad I thought we should space his races out," said Miller, 22. "I want to have him ready and fresh for Saratoga in August."F. Bruce Miller, Blythe's father, is the trainer of My Lear, a 4-year-old gelding who went winless in 10 efforts on the flat, all of them at Maryland tracks.

FAMILIES FROM all over Maryland and Delaware are expected to attend the running of the Fair Hill Races in Elkton on Saturday. These races, a tradition since 1934, will benefit Cecil County's Union Hospital.The excitement of steeplechase racing makes the Fair Hill races wonderful entertainment for the whole family. Charles Fenwick Jr, one of the top amateur steeplechase jockeys in the country, is chairman of this year's race committee. Other regular attendees at the races are Mr. and Mrs. F. Grove Miller, president of the Maryland State Fair; Peyton S. Cochran Jr., retired Rouse Co. exec; Douglas Croker III, Ilex Construction Co; S. Bonsal White, Foxfire Farm; J. Harlan Williams, real estate developer; Carroll Jackson, Wills & Associates consultant; Murphy Toumey, Kidde Corp.

The Fair Hill Training Center near Elkton is the latest Maryland location to have a confirmed case of the equine herpes virus. The virus first appeared in Maryland on Jan. 2 at Pimlico Race Course. Since then, six horses have been euthanized and 19 others are or have been ill with the disease. Sally Goswell, who manages Fair Hill, the facility that houses about 400 horses, said a horse stabled in a barn with another horse that ran at Laurel Park on Jan. 1 and 16 developed a fever Feb. 7 and tested positive when a nasal swab test was taken.

ELKTON -- Jet Wave took the lead from fellow 9-year-old horse Tostadero with one fence remaining and took a 3 1/2 -length win in yesterday's featured jump race at the Fair Hill Races.Three late scratches, due largely to extra-firm turf, reduced the field in the $7,500 race to two horses. The pair battled side by side for the first half-mile with 2-5 favorite Tostadero taking over until Jet Wave's final burst.Ridden by Sean Clancy, the winner returned $3.40 in win betting only and covered the 2 1/16 miles in 4 minutes, 3 seconds before 7,544 spectators.