Guy Torsilieri, the chairman of the Far Hills race meet in New Jersey, remembers the first time he saw McDynamo in person. The then-4-year-old gelding had just picked up his first steeplechase victory, taking a maiden special weight race by 4 ½ lengths at Far Hills on Oct. 20, 2001. Torsilieri was impressed.

“I was standing next to the winner’s circle when they came back, and Mimi Voss was standing next to me,” recalled Torsilieri. “She was married to Tom Voss, a fabulous trainer and a fabulous man. Mimi looked over at me as the horse was coming over to the winner’s circle, and said, ‘Now THAT’s gonna be a horse.’”

That victory proved to be just the beginning. McDynamo went on to win a race at Far Hills every year from 2001 to 2007, including the Grand National Hurdle Stakes (known as the Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase until 2006) five times in a row, from 2003 to 2007. The Racing Hall of Famer will be honored at this year’s Far Hills meet, which will be held this Saturday, Oct. 19, with the inaugural McDynamo Maiden Hurdle Stakes.

The McDynamo Maiden Hurdle Stakes is a 2 ⅛-mile contest featuring a base purse of $50,000, and its value has been juiced by $20,000 thanks to a sweepstakes ante. Per the conditions of the race, a sweepstakes ante of $1,000 was added for each entrant. The Moran family, which campaigned McDynamo throughout his 34-race career, matched the ante, making for a total purse of $70,000.

“Bill Gallo, the National Steeplechase Association race secretary, came up with this idea,” said Torsilieri. “I passed it by Michael and Anne [Moran], and they loved it, and they were happy to participate. It’s all come along quite nicely. It’s great.”

Moran spent $82,000 on McDynamo at the 1998 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. “At the time, I had a barn at Fair Hill [in Elkton, Md.] with John Kimmel, who had a horse named Old Chapel, a very attractive horse,” Michael Moran said. “I liked him, and when I went to the sale, Bill Wofford was consigning his full brother. He was very attractive, a big, rangy horse. He looked like a grass horse.”  His name came from a combination of original partner Steve McDonald’s name (“Mc”), the name of his sire, Dynaformer (“Dyna”), and Moran’s name (“Mo”).

McDynamo started his career on the flat, accumulating two wins in nine starts with Moran serving as co-owner and trainer. Moran realized he was ill-suited as a flat horse, and began to think about giving him a try as a jumper. “He had a lot of claustrophobia issues,” Moran remembers. “He was pretty horrific in the starting gate when we first started to train him.”

During his recovery period from an ankle chip removal, Moran put McDynamo through some cross-country exercises, and realized he might have a future as a steeplechase horse. He soon appointed top steeplechase conditioner Sanna Hendriks (now known as Sanna Neilson) as trainer, and bought out McDonald’s share in the horse. After winning his debut over jumps at Far Hills, McDynamo returned there in 2002 for the Foxboro Supreme Hurdle Stakes. He improved to 2-for-2 at Far Hills with a 19-length victory, kicking off a six-race win streak that stretched to the end of 2004.

While McDynamo enjoyed success at numerous steeplechase tracks, he did his best work at Far Hills. His victories in each season were cornerstones of his Eclipse Awards as champion steeplechaser, earned in 2003, 2005, and 2006. He was usually pointed specifically for Far Hills, with his seasons usually consisting of a few races in the spring, a summer break, followed by one or two starts in the fall. “I don’t think he had a preference for what kind of surface he ran on,” said Moran. “I know he liked softer ground, and they tended to get some rain at Far Hills. Some days it was hard, some days it was soft, and it didn’t bother him. He was well-conditioned by Sanna; she did a great job managing him. He was not an easy horse.”

Michael Moran speaks at the Hall of Fame. (Skip Dickstein/BloodHorse)

Following his victory in the 2007 Grand National as a 7-year-old, McDynamo made one more start, a sixth-place finish in the Colonial Cup, and was retired with a 17-for-34 lifetime record and career earnings of $1,354,994. “He was getting old and having some physical issues; he had some hind-end stuff he was always dealing with,” remembers Moran. “We were pretty patient with him; we’d always pick out a couple races in the fall and a couple races in the spring. There’d be occasional pressure to take him over to England for their big races, but he had some bleeding issues that we had to consider, so we figured he didn’t need to prove himself.”

McDynamo was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2013. The gelding passed away in December 2019 at age 22 after spending his retirement at Neilson’s estate in Cochranville, Pa. Torsilieri and the Morans had discussed a tribute race to McDynamo over the past few years, but it was only this year that the event finally came together.

“We had been talking for a while about how to honor him,” said Torsilieri. “We brought him to Far Hills after he retired and gave him a big ceremony, we gave him carrots and everything. Then our lives got busy, and COVID hit, and one thing led to another. We thought now was a good time to do it.”

The trophy for the race carries a lot of meaning for the Morans. Michael’s mother, Betty, owned Papillon, the winner of the 2000 British Grand National. The winner of the McDynamo Trophy will receive a replica version of Papillon’s British Grand National trophy, designed by Philip Blacker.

“My mother liked the trophy so much, she got Blacker to create a replica of it for her,” said Moran. “The trophy we’re giving on loan for the race is the replica trophy.”

When Moran showed Torsilieri the trophy, Torsilieri fell in love. “It’s a fabulous trophy. We’re adding a section underneath that honors McDynamo and the trophy, it talks about where it comes from and its significance. It weighs a ton; I’m not sure if we’ll be able to carry it into the winner’s circle, but it’s a beautiful piece. I think it fits the whole concept of what we’re doing. It’s a great way to honor him, the Morans, and the history of steeplechasing. It brings it all together.”

The McDynamo Maiden Hurdle Stakes is scheduled as the second of six races on the Far Hills card, with a listed post time of 1:32 p.m. ET on Saturday.