At the Iroquois Steeplechase, the foxhounds kick off the horse races with a howling fun dog parade
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While jockeys and horse owners compete for the biggest purses in the Iroquois Steeplechase, the perennial favorite event in this 85-year-old tradition is the foxhound parade.
More than 20 foxhounds, a breed specially trained to run alongside horses and hunters, took to the turf course Saturday to kick off the day of racing while fans cheered and took photos and videos.
The hunter and his team, called whippersnappers, have the sometimes difficult job of keeping the dogs on course, especially when they can get distracted by the tens of thousands of spectators in the infield and all their delicious tailgating food.
One dog loved the attention from fans so much that he veered off course, said Charles Montgomery, handler and huntsman for the Mells Foxhounds, the hunting group that leads their pack in the steeplechase. “She had a great time. She loved going to the beer tents,” Montgomery said.
She liked it so much that she ran to the beer tent again the next year, so now she’s no longer invited to the race, Montgomery said.
The Iroquois Steeplechase is one of the premier American steeplechase races, with a total of $730,000 awarded in purses, on a turf course with hurdles that opened in 1941 as a Works Progress Administration project. The Nashville race was founded by members of the Hillsboro Hounds, another Nashville-area fox hunting club.
Steeplechase racing and fox hunting go hand in hand, said Stephen Heard, one of the directors of the Iroquois Steeplechase and a member of the Mells Foxhounds group. The tradition comes from the British Isles, where horses ran from church steeple to church steeple and were trained to jump obstacles like fences while hunting with dogs.
“Many of the horses we use for fox hunting are former steeplechase horses,” Heard said.
With 25,000 spectators eating and drinking in the tents and stands, the dogs need some time to adjust to the noise and smells.
“I got a dog last year and he heard the speakers and he said, ‘That’s not for me,'” Charles Montgomery said.
“There’s high pressure,” said Boo Montgomery, one of the supervisors. One day, when a child stretched a fried chicken leg across the tracks, it was a temptation no dog could resist. “You couldn’t blame Brightly for stopping and having a snack,” she said of one of the foxhounds.
Charles Montgomery said he will usually bring veteran hounds who can guide the younger ones along the way. On race morning, the dogs bounded out of their trailer, eager to sniff grass, chew sticks, and roll in the clover.
The dogs wear GPS-equipped collars whenever they hunt and when they come to the racetrack. This came in handy last year when a dog got scared and ran off into the nearby wooded park.
Although the racetrack is not their normal working environment, the dogs seem to enjoy the challenge of running horse races, Boo Montgomery said.
“It’s great exposure for hunting to see these dogs and horses,” Boo Montgomery said. “It’s nice to be able to show off.”
