McDynamo wins third straight Breeders' Cup Steeplechase

Michael Moran's MCDYNAMO (Dynaformer) captured the $188,250

Breeders' Cup Steeplechase

(NSA-G1) for the third consecutive year on Saturday, halting a five-race losing

streak and catapulting himself into contention for championship honors. The

Eclipse Award winner in 2003, the eight-year-old gelding took control of

Saturday's event early and led wire to wire over 14 hurdles. With Jody Petty in

the saddle, the Sanna Hendriks trainee completed 2 5/8 miles over the soft Far

Hills turf in 5:46 3/5, finishing nine lengths better than runner-up Three Carat

(Storm Broker).

Bred in Kentucky by Richard Fox, Nathan Fox and Richard Kaster, McDynamo won

his first steeplechase event at Far Hills in 2001 and now eight stakes wins. The

bay has won 10 of 17 steeplechase starts and is now the third leading

steeplechase winner ever, boosting his earnings over fences to $743,104.

"McDynamo loves soft turf and I was worried that if there wasn't a legitimate

pace in the race that Hirapour (Ire) (Kahyasi) would out-kick us," Hendriks

said. "If was going to be the two of us, which it looked like on paper, I wanted

to make sure Jody made the most of our gallop and he did that."

Hirapour, last year's champion steeplechaser, finished 5 1/4 lengths back of

the runner-up in third and was followed under the wire by Understood (Pistolet

Bleu [Ire]) and Mon Villez (Fr) (Villez). Preemptive Strike (Roanoke) was an

early scratch from the race.