Top of the Bill, a half brother to French classic winner Musical Chimes, charged between two rivals at the final fence to win the $75,000 Carolina Cup, the first leg of steeplechasing's Triple Crown, on Saturday at Springdale Race Course in Camden, South Carolina.

With Carl Rafter in the leathers, the five-year-old son of Lear Fan, zoomed past early pacesetter Good Night Shirt and The Next Man at the tenth and final fence and continued on to take the 2 1/8-mile test for novice hurdlers in 4:00 flat.

"I was running onto heels coming into the turn and I thought about going inside, but it was probably best I didn't," said Rafter, a veteran in England who won his first United States stakes with the Top of the Bill's victory. "It got a little bit tight, but they separated just at it and gave me an opportunity to go up in there. He likes that, he's a tough little horse and he responded when I asked him.

"He's all heart," Rafter said of Kentucky-bred Top of the Bill, a winner on the flat who began his career in France for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. He competed against some top horses in the 2004 Prix du Jockey Club (Fr-G1) (French Derby), finishing in midpack in the 15-horse field.

Top of the Bill has won two of three starts over the jumps for trainer Jimmy Day. Out of Note Musicale (GB), by Sadler's Wells, his half sister Musical Chimes won the 2003 Gainsborough Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (Fr-G1) (French One Thousand Guineas) and 2004 John C. Mabee Handicap (G1) at Del Mar.

Owned by Randleston Farm's Jim and Melinda Carter, who purchased him from breeder Gainsborough Farm, Top of the Bill now heads for the second leg of steeplechasing's Triple Crown—the Temple Gwathmey in Middleburg, Virginia on April 22. The series winds up with the National Hunt Cup at Radnor, Pennsylvania on May 20.

Also on the card, reigning steeplechase champion McDynamo and multiple stakes-winning hurdler Sur La Tete finished first and second, respectively, a training flat race in their final tuneup before the $150,000 Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings steeplechase at Keeneland Race Course on April 21.