Royal Bench Makes 2014 Bow in Elkhorn

Today’s Dixiana Elkhorn (G2) marks the 2014 debut for Merriefield Farm’s Royal Bench (IRE), a 7-year-old millionaire with quite a record.

In 2010, the gelding by Whipper won a Group 2 race in France and was second in the $2 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (G1). That same year, he finished fifth in the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard-Jacques le Marois (G1) at Deauville. Running second in that race was a horse who should be familiar to U.S. racing fans: Goldikova (IRE), who later that season would win her third consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) and earn her second Eclipse Award as champion turf female.

Two years ago, noted flat racing and jump trainer Tom Voss purchased Royal Bench and brought him to the U.S. The gelding won the 1½-mile Cape Henlopen at Delaware Park in August 2013 and in the next race finished eighth in the 1½-mile Laurel Turf Cup behind two Dixiana Elkhorn rivals, Tricky Hat (CHI) and Eagle Pose, who ran 1-2, respectively, in the race.

Last November, Royal Bench made his jump-racing debut when Voss sent him out to win a 2¼-mile race in November at Charleston in South Carolina.

Voss died in January, and his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Gary Murray, continue to train horses at their Atlanta Hall Farm in Monkton, Md. Murray said Royal Bench turned in an impressive work, which included a few hurdles, on April 18 and soon was sent to trainer Brendan Walsh for the 1½-mile Dixiana Elkhorn.

“He’s ready to run, and we’ve got no race for him in Maryland,” Murray said. “He wants to go a mile and a half. He’s a brilliant horse (when) jumping and that’s probably where his future is.”

Murray said Royal Bench would probably make his next start on May 10 during the Iroquois Steeplechase races in Nashville, Tenn.

“We jump everything at home because horses enjoy it,” he said. “I can guarantee he’s as good a jumper as I’ve ever seen on Tom’s farm.”