Jury Duty out to defent title in Americas richest jumps race

Jury Duty heads a strong team of former Irish point-to-pointers as he bids to defend his crown in America’s richest jumps race on Saturday.

Twelve months ago, Gordon Elliott’s charge defeated fellow Irish raider Tornado Watch to win the $450,000 Grand National at Fair Hills, and the eight-year-old returns in a bid to repeat that effort, with Robbie Power once again booked to ride for the Sideways Syndicate.

Having started his career with JP Flavin, finishing second as a four-year-old at Ballyarthur, he will be joined at the start by two fellow point-to-point graduates in Scorpiancer and The Holy One.

Scorpiancer is now a regular in all of America’s marquee jump races for Jack Fisher, where he will be one of three horses to carry the colours of top owner Bruton Street-US.

The now 10-year-old is a three-time Grade 1 winner in America, having won the Lonesome Glory Hurdle in 2016 and the 2017 and 2019 editions of the Iroquis Hurdle, all since he won his five-year-old geldings’ maiden on debut at Kildorrery.

The Holy One is a more recent recruit to American jumps racing having joined Richard Hendricks over the summer, having previously been campaigned by Jessica Harrington, for whom he was a two-time winner.

Having won his four-year-old maiden at Broughshane, he is one of two ex-Mick Goff winning pointers to feature on the valuable card, with Galway Kid lining up in the Harry E. Harris Hurdle earlier on the card.

The 2m 5f contest goes to post at 4.20pm local time or 9.20pm Irish time.

The valuable card highlights the growing international nature of jump racing, not only with Irish-bred and horses sourced out of the Irish point-to-point fields, but also with Irish-trained challengers making the trip across, a topic that Don Clippinger, the National Steeplechase Association’s Communications Director, and former Editor of Thoroughbred Record and Editorial Director of Thoroughbred Times wrote about.