Nighttime in the horse country of Maryland's Baltimore County. The northwest wind settles down. It might snow. It could sleet. If it's clear, the mercury could fall out of the thermometer. Ice thickens on farm ponds. Plugged-in tractors await morning starts. Deer graze on the hills or nibble on the shrubbery. Foxes bark in the woods. Hounds snooze in the kennels. Woodstoves glow in houses and barn apartments.
And somewhere out there, the best steeplechase horse on the continent stands watch.
Snap Decision, an Eclipse Award winner at last for owner Bruton Street-US and trainer Jack Fisher, spends his nights outside with best mate Cool Jet (Ire). Weather be damned.
"He's out all night because we found out he'd rather be out than in," said assistant trainer Ashley Randall. "He goes out around 5 in the evening and comes in around 7 in the morning."
A more standard schedule of early morning turnout didn't work for Snap Decision. He'd play hard to get, cantering away from Fisher, Randall, groom Jenna Elliott, exercise rider Graham Watters and any of the other various humans in his life -- a one-horse productivity wrecker.
"You can tell when he's starting to feel good because he'll run circles around Graham in the field when he goes to catch him," said Elliott. "Everything is done on Snap's time. He just thinks it's funny. 'Well, if I have to leave my field to go to work, then you have to go to work too.' Life is just a game to him. The race is a game. Training is a game. Everything in his world is a game."
And he's winning.
Paced by a record-tying third win in the Iroquois Steeplechase-G1 in May and a victory in the American Grand National-G1 in October, the now 11-year-old bay gelding led all steeplechasers with $337,500 earned in 2024. The figure nearly doubled that of his nearest rival and once again sent Snap Decision's connections to the Eclipse Awards dinner. For the fifth consecutive year, their horse was a finalist for racing's highest seasonal honor. This time, owners Mike Hankin, Charlie Fenwick and Charlie Noell left with the bronze statue in a lopsided vote. Snap Decision received 182 first-place nods, to seven for Carloun (Ire) and three for Freddy Flintshire.
Nobody felt the triumph more than Randall, Elliott and Fisher's former assistant Sandra Webb.
"I'm so happy for him to finally get recognized for all the years he's gotten close," said Elliott. "I know it's terrible to say, but he should have had it by now. To finally have him do it means so much. He doesn't care, he gets mints either way, but it makes you feel good for him."
"He finally got what he deserved," said Randall. "And he must know it because he's feeling pretty good right now."
"To see Snap get it when he had deserved it for so long was special," said Webb. "He's been able to maintain his career for so long and it's awesome to see him run at the caliber he's running at and just keep trying and keep performing."
Bred in Kentucky by the Phipps Stable, Snap Decision might have spurred championship thoughts of another kind when he was foaled at Claiborne Farm in 2014. The son of Grade 1 winner Hard Spun and the Unbridled mare Salute came from greatness. His granddam, Personal Ensign, won all 13 starts, the 1988 older female Eclipse Award and a spot in racing's Hall of Fame. Her foals, in addition to Salute, include Grade 1 winners My Flag, Miner's Mark and Traditionally. While not at the level of her famous dam, Salute won as a 2-year-old and placed in a Grade 2 stakes. In addition to Snap Decision, she produced three graded winners on the flat topped by Grade 1 winner and millionaire Mr Speaker.
Snap Decision never got past the allowance ranks on the flat, winning twice and placing in a Grade 3 stakes as a 3-year-old. Late in a winless, eight-start campaign in 2018, he was sold for $75,000 as a steeplechase prospect.
He can thank timber horse Doc Cebu, a Hard Spun gelding who bottomed out in a $4,500 claimer as a flat horse but won 10 of his first 12 starts over jumps for Fenwick. The Maryland horseman admired Doc Cebu's toughness, saw Snap Decision in the entries and called neighbor Stuart Janney III to ask if the horse might be for sale. A Phipps cousin and frequent racing partner, Janney made a call and Snap Decision launched a new career.
Webb was there when he arrived.
"It took a bit for him to settle in," she said. "Most of them when they come off the track, it takes a bit for them to open up and show who they are in terms of being a horse. He had that presence, but he wasn't the same horse he is now personality wise."
“Most of them when they come
off the track, it takes a bit for them
to open up and show who they
are in terms of being a horse.
He had that presence,
but he wasn’t the same horse
he is now personality wise.”
– Sandra Webb, on Snap Decision’s early days in the barn
Photo by Barrie Reightler
Unveiled early in 2019, he finished second in a maiden hurdle at the Queen's Cup in late April and was second again in May at the Iroquois meet. He wouldn't lose again for more than two years -- winning four in a row to close 2019, capturing all three starts in a Covid-shortened 2020 and sweeping two major stakes in spring 2021. The nine consecutive wins tied an American steeplechase record set by Thrice Worthy in the 1980s.
The Mean Queen (Ire) beat Snap Decision twice in 2021 -- the second time by a half-length while in receipt of eight pounds -- to claim the seasonal championship. Losing that second one, in the American Grand National-G1 at Far Hills in October, weighed on Snap Decision.
"He was depressed," said Webb. "He tried really hard, and he got beat. It was the first time I saw him with his head at the back of the stall and he didn't want anything to do with people. He knew he lost, and he wasn't happy about it. I was trying to give him peppermints after, and he was very not in the mood."
Snap Decision climbed back in the ring in 2022. Second in the Temple Gwathmey-G2 to start the season in April, he won his second Iroquois-G1 in May, finished a solid third in the Colonial Turf Cup Stakes at Colonial Downs in July (his first flat start in nearly four years) and manhandled six foes in the Jonathan Sheppard-G1 at Saratoga in August. He won by 131⁄4 lengths while carrying 164 pounds, 24 more than the runner-up and at least 11 more than the others.
"I wasn't there, but watching the race at home when he won by that huge margin in the Jonathan Sheppard was incredible," said Elliott. "It was like a Secretariat moment. You could see how great he was, knowing how much weight he was carrying. That was one where, as much as I love him, I was so glad I was not leading him up that day. He looked like he was really giving Sandra a hard time. He can get like that. If they take too long parading or something, you can really tell. He starts to get mad."
Webb still marvels at photos from that day, her last official race day as a Fisher employee.
"He's not a huge, huge horse but when he's puffing himself up to head somewhere he looks ginormous," said Webb, now a trainer based at Fair Hill Training Center. "It was the last time I was in Saratoga for Jack and it was just huge. He was carrying so much weight and ran so well."
Assigned 168 pounds for the Lonesome Glory-G1 at Aqueduct a month later, he finished second to 140-pound lightweight Noah And The Ark (Ire). A month after that, Irish shipper Hewick (Ire) won October's Grand National-G1 as Snap Decision faded to sixth in yielding turf. Eclipse voters went for the foreigner by 25 votes. Twenty-nine voters abstained.
Webb is over it, mostly.
"He's a happy horse, he doesn't care that he didn't win, but he should have been the champion; he had a great year," she said. "Hewick's a good horse, but he only ran one time in America."
As a 9-year-old in 2023, Snap Decision won two Grade 2 stakes but lost all three Grade 1 starts in a year where no horse won two races at the highest level. Merry Maker (Ire) edged Snap Decision 69-50 in an Eclipse vote split among six horses.
Back for more in 2024, Snap Decision won the Temple Gwathmey and Iroquois for the third time -- each -- and sat out the summer while barred from New York races because of a rule prohibiting horses older than 9. He missed four Grade 1 opportunities and five months of action.
He returned in a Grade 3 at Foxfield and finished third in soft going as stablemate Sebastopol (Ire) charged past late.
The race turned out to be the perfect prep as Snap Decision won a three-way stretch battle to capture the elusive Grand National over Irish raider Galvin (Ire) and former Group 1 flat horse High Definition. Both rivals passed Snap Decision in the stretch, but -- between them -- he fought back and scored by a neck. A half-length separated the trio at the finish.
Snap Decision earned $150,000, surpassed $1 million in career steeplechase earnings and silenced any critics.
"He gave it all he had, literally," said Randall. "If you watch the Grand National, he switched his own lead right before the finish and I don't think he would have won if he didn't. He was so proud of himself after that race."
A re-established Colonial Cup-G1 offered one final major stop in November. Snap Decision made the lead late, but settled for third behind Too Friendly (GB) and Noah And The Ark. The loss in South Carolina did little to diminish another standout campaign.
"He likes doing it, he enjoys racing and he takes it to heart when he doesn't perform well," said Randall. "It's like watching a sports team lose. We took him to Camden and he was very confused as to why he was still in training and why he was down south. He normally doesn't ship like that."
Back home in Maryland, the attitude shifted to turnout mode, and all was right with the world again. By January Snap Decision went back to work.
"I started switching some things around in the barn a couple weeks ago, and he changed," Randall said in early February. "He was very ready to get back into things this year. They started galloping this week and they even took them through the woods and he's all about that."
The first American-bred steeplechase champion since Demonstrative in 2014, Snap Decision gets a chance to add to his legacy this year. He can become the first four-time winner of the Temple Gwathmey (first run in 1924) and the first four-time winner of the Iroquois (1941). With $1,131,900, he enters at No. 2 on the all-time list behind McDynamo's $1,310,104 in United States purses earned. Lonesome Glory's record of $1,318,868 for an American-based steeplechase horse -- which includes bonuses and three English starts -- is within reach.
Out there in the darkness, Snap Decision can almost taste it.
Eclipse Moment
Like any racing fan, Jenna Elliott just wanted a look at the Eclipse Award finalists and went to the internet to check on the various categories. A promotion organized by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and event sponsor Resolute Racing offered a chance to win two tickets to the event at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Fla. Jan. 25.
"I was not going to go," Elliott said. "I was looking up things, two days before the contest was going to close, just looking up the other category finalists and on the side, it said click here to enter. I figured, why not?"
Two days later she got a call from the NTRA. From 340 entries, Elliott was chosen in a random drawing. Her plus one? Co-worker Ashley Randall. Once in Florida, Elliott wound up with a bigger job -- announcing the steeplechase category winner.
"They did not tell me I was going to have to present the award," she said. "They said someone would ask a question about the horse and I could just say a little something about him. I got backstage and they handed me the card and said I was presenting the award. I was terrified."
Like Snap Decision, Elliott came through when it mattered-- opening the envelope, announcing the winner and then helping accept along with the rest of the team.
After winning tickets to the dinner, Jenna Elliott
made the surprise presentation at the Eclipse Awards.
Below, co-owner Mike Hankin accepts along
with trainer Jack Fisher and co-owner Charlie Fenwick.
The Skinny about Snap Decision
Groom Jenna Elliott answers some questions about the champion.
Could he pursue another career?
“I think he’d love show jumping. It’s the same game, but not as far distance. If you taught him the game, you’re jumping and turning and going fast, he’d be all about it. And he loves to stand around and watch. He’d love that part of it. He’d stand at a horse show all day.”
What’s he like to groom and take care of?
“He loves to be curried. He’ll chase you around the stall to be curried, lean into you, show you exactly where to be curried. He does not like brushes. Pull out a brush, he pins his ears. He hates being brushed. Soft brush, hard brush, it doesn’t matter. No brushes, just curries. He will, if you find the spot, stick his nose out in the air and wag his head. He’s more goofy at home than he is at the races. At the races, he gets in a zone and sits in the back of his stall and won’t want to be bothered. At home, he’s like a goofy dog.”
Have you ever ridden him?
“No [the answer came before the question was finished]. I’m not really a racehorse person and he’s a little bit of a tougher ride. I don’t want to ruin him. I’ve jogged some of them when they’re coming back in the winter, but not that one. Maybe someday.”
What have you learned from him?
“I don’t know how to put into good terms, but mutual respect. He will 100 percent give you back what you give him. If you walk in there and you’re expecting something of him, he’s not about it. You have to give him his time and he’ll give you your time. You can tell who has been around him for a long time and who he has decided to give his trust to. He’ll do whatever those people want. He knows who his people are, and he can pick them out from crowds.”
