Demonstrative hoping to clinch title in Grand National

Even with one major divisional race remaining in November, Demonstrative

could virtually seal an Eclipse Award as the nation's top steeplechaser with a

victory in Saturday's $250,000

Grand

National at Far Hills, New Jersey.

The Grand National, contested at 2 5/8 miles over hurdles, is the most

lucrative of the nation's top jump races, and the penultimate Grade 1 event of

the season.

Demonstrative, a seven-year-old Elusive Quality gelding, has already scored

top-level wins this term in the New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga and the

Lonesome Glory at Belmont Park, and adding a third in the Grand National would

more than likely make the outcome of next month's Colonial Cup, at Camden, South

Carolina, moot in the race for championship honors.

Seven rivals take on Demonstrative, including last year's Grand National

winner Divine Fortune. The 2013 renewal was the only stakes score on the season

for the now 11-year-old, but it was enough to earn him an Eclipse Award as

champion of the division.

After a flag-to-finish win by 3 1/4 lengths in the Iroquois at Percy Warner

Park in May, Divine Fortune failed to finish either the A.P. Smithwick Memorial

at Saratoga or the Lonesome Glory. The Royal Anthem gelding left the course

prior to the ninth fence in the Smithwick and then fell while leading the

Lonesome Glory.

Divine Fortune is one of four Grand National entries for Hall of Famer

Jonathan Sheppard. The others are Parker's Project, runner-up in the Lonesome

Glory following a layoff of more than two years; New York Turf Writers Cup

runner-up Barnstorming, who finished fifth in the Lonesome Glory; and novice

stakes winner Bluegrass Summer, sixth in the Lonesome Glory.

Inti, hero of the Zeke Ferguson Memorial at Colonial Downs last year, makes

his first start since May when he finished second in the National Hunt Cup.

Rising in class from the novice stakes ranks are Bob Le Beau and Dr. Skip.

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