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The Hurdy Gurdy Brett Owings and Church Music


had been having some trouble with a tendon at the track but we took a look and started to build her up slowly.” “I thought my mom was a bit nuts but when I sat on Church Music, I realized how nice of a horse she is,” Brett commented. Interesting side note, Brett was also born right there at Worthington Farm and grew up riding ponies and then foxhunting with the Martin family.


by Katherine O. Rizzo


Each year, the Maryland Steeplechase As- sociation awards the Hurdy Gurdy Perpetual Trophy to a horse and rider pair that has shown over the course of the spring season the spirit of the great Hurdy Gurdy and Kingdon Gould, Jr. , a businessman foxhunter who began rac- ing over timber with his little gelding Hurdy Gurdy late in life. T ey took on such timber greats as Mountain Dew and Jay Trump, win- ning some and losing others but always show- ing great spirit and sportsmanship. For the 2016 season, the MSA board selected Brett Owings and Church Mu- sic as the Hurdy Gurdy winners. T e pair had a stellar season,


winning


two out of three races. But it isn’t their wins that earned them this honor. It was their spirit and sportsmanship.


“T ey


are very deserving of this award,” said Church Mu- sic’s owner J.W.Y. “Duck” Martin, Jr., who won the Maryland Hunt Cup in 1972 aboard homebred Early Earner. “T ey are a foxhunting combo that also race. Foxhunting is the best way to make a timber horse. T e only way to make a timber horse.” “It is a great honor to win this award,” Brett


Church Music was bred at Worthing- ton Farm and is by Bowman’s Band and out of Church.


track, he sired over 30 stakes winners includ- ing Eclipse Award winner Lord Avie and was awarded the 1989 Tesio Award for best Mary- land Stallion. Duck estimates that the farm has produced over 800 foals during the past nine decades, one of which is Church Music. T e tall mare is by Bowman’s Band, who stood at Maryland Stallion Station until moving to Kentucky in 2007. He won over $1 million in career earnings from just seven wins, 11 places and six shows. T e stallion’s grandsire on his sire’s side is the Maryland stallion Northern Dancer. Church Music’s dam is Church, a mare by Sir Gaylord bred at Worthington Farm by Martin, Jr. Church’s dam’s side traces back to Bold Ruler lines. She was foaled in 2007 and then sent to nearby Merr y land Farm to be


said. “She’s a really old fashioned horse that shows the tradition of taking foxhunters and turning them into timber horses.” What makes winning this award even more special for Brett and Duck is the homebred history of the mare.


Legendary Breeding Church Music was bred in Maryland at the


Martins’ historic Worthington Farm in Glyn- don. It has been in the Martin family since the 1930s and is primarily a breeding farm as well as the site of the Maryland Hunt Cup. Lord Gaylord is the most noteworthy stallion that stood at Worthington. Although he only earned $7,530 in his short career on the fl at


www.equiery.com | 800-244-9580


broke for fl at racing. From there, the gangly fi lly went to Rodney Jenkins, legendary show jumper turned race- horse trainer, for her fl at track train- ing. “Rodney liked her a lot,” Duck said. “He was very high on her but she ended up with some ailments so he brought her back to the farm for some rest.” He added that she was just such a big fi lly they wanted to give her more time to grown up. While she was back at Worthing-


ton Farm, Brett’s mom Suzie Ow- ings, who has been working at Worthington for 30 years and trains the foxhunters of the farm, took a liking to her.


“Everyone thought


I was crazy but I really liked her. She was a tough baby but I really thought she’d make a nice point-to-point horse,” Suzie stated. “She


off so long,” Brett explained. In 2015, they started racing with the Senior


Field Masters Chase at the Green Spring Valley continued...


FEBRUARY 2017 | THE EQUIERY | 33


Church Music’s winning team of J.W.Y. Martin, Jr. (owner), Suzie Owings (trainer) and Brett Owings (jockey) after winning the Western Run Plate


Maryland-bred, Maryland- raised


Brett, now a senior at Towson Uni- versity studying political science,


has spent his entire life in Glyndon and at Worthington Farm. “Just being there has made me want to be part of this sport,” Brett said, adding how special it is to grow up right there on the Maryland Hunt Cup course. His fi rst race was in 2010 at the Maryland Junior Hunt Cup where he rode the large pony T e Groove to fourth. Two years later he won the Senior Field Masters Chase at Blue Ridge Fall Races aboard Airolo. After Airolo, Brett took a break from racing until Church Music came along.


Foxhunter First, Timber Horse Second Suzie said Church Music took to foxhunting


nicely and Brett rode her in the fi eld for two seasons. “She is very bold and a scopy jumper,” Brett stated. Her jumping style was good, but Suzie felt it could be improved and become more effi cient so Brett and Church Music took some lessons from champion jockey Mark Beecher. “He really helped teach her to not take


Bob Keller


Katherine O. Rizzo


908563-170217


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