Page 21 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

bonus money). “He had just wonderful conformation, good size, great bones,” Miller has said. “Lonesome and Blythe were a perfect pair. He was a brilliant jumper from the get- go. It’s hard to say if he was the best horse ever, but Lonesome ran for a long time, had a really great record and ran against some very good horses.”
Miller could be considered the region’s best all-around horseman based solely on his legacy.
The ultimate accomplishment in American steeplechasing is winning the Maryland Hunt Cup. Davies and his wife own seven Hunt Cup trophies between them—three winning
rides for Joe, one for Blythe, and three for Joe as a trainer. The family added an eighth last May when the couple’s 19-year-old son, Teddy Davies, set a new course record. As trainers, the duo has now produced the last six consecutive Hunt Cup winners.
Blythe rode more than 300 winners in over 1,000 races on the flat and over fences between 1978 and 2002. She first retired in 2003, then rode again as an amateur, winning the 2011 Maryland Hunt Cup and the Grand National Steeplechase, both with Private Attack. As a trainer, she saddled more than 30 winners in 200 starts between 2009 and 2015. “It was when I turned 16 and began riding in races that he began to be hard on
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