N.B. Corrections posted at 12:38 p.m.
Mr. Fine Threads, an 11-year-old Maryland-bred Thoroughbred gelding trained by Joe Davies, won his first Maryland Hunt Cup on April 25th. Mr. Fine Threads is owned by Armata Stables in Baltimore County.
The win was Joe Davies’s 8th Hunt Cup victory as a trainer and the second Hunt Cup win for jockey Charlie Marshall. Marshall won in 2024 on Irish-bred Blackhall.
The Maryland Hunt Cup dates to 1894, when members of the Elkridge Fox Hunting Club challenged the members of Green Spring Valley Hunt Club to a timber race to be run over natural hunting country; to be ridden by amateurs; and to have no commercial activity. The Worthington Valley became the permanent home of the race in 1922. The race has grown into a family-oriented afternoon that is the marquee event on the mid-Atlantic steeple-chasing calendar.
As we reported in 2017, Joe Davies grew up fox chasing with his mother Ellie and stepfather John Schapiro. It was during those years when Davies saw the strong connection between fox chasing and timber racing, and he has been an active proponent of that relationship since the founding of the Maryland Steeplechase Association in the early 1990s.
Davies had a successful amateur riding career himself and won three Maryland Hunt Cups — in 1998, in 2000, and in 2005. As a trainer, Davies won the Hunt Cup with Senior Senator (2016, 2018, and 2019), with Derwins Prospector (2017), with Vintage Vinny (2021 and 2022), with Blackhall (IRE) in 2024, and now with Mr. Fine Threads in 2026.
Davies is invested in amateur timber racing is on the constant look out for developing riders from various disciplines — whether it be from fox hunting, eventing, or show jumping — whether in the US or abroad — and through a variety of programs through the annual Governor’s Cup Series.
In April 2017, Davies embraced the opportunity to share Senior Senator’s positive and heartwarming Cinderella-story with the nation on 60 Minutes.
Davies became a Joint Master with Elkridge-Harford in 2017.
Photo by Tammie Monaco.
