Page 36 - The Hunt - Summer 2023

(Left and below) Teddy Davies
in action at last year's Willowdale Steeplechase, and later with
his grandfather,
F. Bruce Miller, in the winner's circle
(Opposite page) A younger Davies at Willowdale
in 2016.
“When I was just becoming old enough, I knew they
had this winning streak, but I also knew if I rode for
them, hopefully I wouldn’t be the one to lose it for them.
Definitely, there was a bit of pressure. But I like pressure.”
Teddy Davies descends from a proud pedigree. At the height of his training career in the 1990s, Miller, Blythe’s father, swept five steeplechase season championships with Lonesome Glory before becoming the master of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds. Age and illness now force him to stream his grandson’s rides on the computer. “I understand their laser focus on that race,” Miller once said of the Hunt Cup. “There are people who’d rather win the Hunt Cup than the Kentucky Derby.”
Davies’ grandmother on his father’s side was a longtime hunt master. One of his great-grandfathers was also lifelong huntsman, and another owned Laurel Racecourse, creating the Washington D.C. Invitational, the world’s first international stakes race. “It’s a real family operation,” says Davies’ father, who won more than 100 of his 500 races as a rider in a career that included 13 Maryland Hunt Cup starts.
Davies’ younger sister, Scarlet, once rode in races, too. Now she focuses on showing jump horses and running track and cross country. “Riding horses is one thing you might say we have some pride and joy in,” Davies says of his family’s passion. “Personally, winning those same races my parents won, and that feeling—and setting the Hunt Cup course record. Winning the one thing they care so much about definitely means a lot.”
A sophomore at the University of Delaware this fall, Davies
spent part of his last winter break in England, riding and foxhunting.
34 THE HUNT MAGAZINE summer 2023