by Myra Lewyn

Reigning champion steeplechaser Good Night Shirt garnered the top honor of leading horse from the National Steeplechase Association for the second consecutive year when the sport’s season concluded November 29.

The seven-year-old Concern gelding, the leading candidate to win his second straight Eclipse Award as champion steeplechaser, was unbeaten in five starts in 2008, all in stakes considered Grade 1 races by the association. Good Night Shirt bankrolled $485,520, which eclipsed the single-season earnings record of $314,163 he set last year.

Campaigned by Harold A. “Sonny” Via and trained by Jack Fisher, who each repeated as the association’s champions in their respective categories, Good Night Shirt capped his undefeated season at Springdale Racecourse in Camden, South Carolina, on November 16 with a win in the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup Hurdle Stakes, which followed a four-length romp in the Grand National Hurdle Stakes on October 18 at Far Hills, New Jersey. He also won the Lonesome Glory Hurdle Stakes, the Iroquois Hurdle Stakes, and the Irongate Capital/W Hotel Georgia Cup Hurdle Stakes.

Fisher became the first steeplechase trainer to surpass the $1-million mark in season earnings. His runners amassed $1,156,907 in 2008 and recorded 26 wins, 12 second-, and 21 third-place finishes.

Jockey Xavier Aizpuru also repeated as champion jockey. His mounts won 22 races and earned $527,777.

Other champions were: Bubble Economy (by Rakeen), timber champion; The Price of Love (Prenup), first-year-novice champion; Be Certain (Thunder Gulch), second-year novice champion; Guelph (Sky Classic), filly or mare champion; and Class Real Rock (Rock Point), three-year-old champion.

Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor