The 85th Iroquois Steeplechase kicked off Saturday with its most popular event: a parade of more than 20 foxhounds that ended with one hound’s unauthorized detour into a beer tent as 25,000 spectators cheered. The long‑eared dogs, bred to run alongside horses and hunters, annually open the race day, and their energetic, sometimes wayward appearances have made them the perennial crowd favorite.
“She had the best time. She loved going into the beer tents,” said Charles Montgomery, a master and huntsman with the Mells Foxhounds, the hunting group that runs its pack in the steeplechase. The same hound loved the attention so much that she veered off again the following year, he added, and “now she’s not invited back to the race.”
Montgomery and his team of whippers‑in have the sometimes difficult job of keeping the hounds on course amid the noise, smells, and temptations of the infield. “It’s high pressure,” said Boo Montgomery, one of the whippers‑in. She remembered a year when a child held a fried chicken leg through the rails. “You couldn’t fault Brightly for stopping and having a snack,” she said, naming the foxhound who succumbed to the offering.
The dogs wear GPS‑equipped collars whenever they hunt and when they come to the racetrack. That measure proved useful last year, Charles Montgomery said, when a dog spooked and took off into a wooded park nearby.
Stephen Heard, a trustee of the Iroquois Steeplechase and a member of the Mells Foxhounds, underscored the historical link between the two sports. Steeplechase racing and fox hunting are “wedded together,” he said. The tradition came from the British Isles, where horses were raced from church steeple to church steeple and trained to jump obstacles like fences while hunting with dogs. “Many of the horses that we use fox hunting are ex‑steeplechase horses,” Heard said.
The deep‑rooted connection is built into the race’s origins. The Iroquois Steeplechase was founded by members of the Hillsboro Hounds, another Nashville‑area fox hunting club. Its grass turf course, with hurdles, opened in 1941 as a Works Progress Administration project. On Saturday, total purses of $730,000 were awarded.
On race morning, the hounds bounded off their trailer eager to sniff grass, chew on sticks, and roll in clover. Montgomery said he usually brings veteran hunting hounds who can guide the younger ones along the course. While the racetrack is not their normal working environment, the dogs seem to enjoy the challenge that comes with kicking off the horse races, Boo Montgomery said. “It’s a great exposure for hunting to get to see these hounds and the horses,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to show off.”