A Champion both on and off the Steeplechase Course

Sean Clancy achieved championship success in the saddle, behind the keyboard, and operating a stable through patience, persistence, goals, and the support of others.

Success and becoming a champion are often the result of a methodical, sometimes slow, process.

Sean Clancy is a good example of that.

For more than 40 years, Clancy slowly evolved into a champion steeplechase jockey, then a three-time Eclipse Award-winning writer, and now a championship steeplechase owner of Riverdee Stables.

That success was reinforced as Cyber Ninja, a horse once trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, won the Michael G. Walsh Novice Steeplechase event at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 12. This was the second win for Cyber Ninja this year, and the ninth winner for Riverdee Stables from 39 starters that includes two-time graded stakes winner Zabeel Champion.

“He’s a real pro. He’s got good flat platform. So, that showed up here. I’ve got a lot of great supporters. It’s just something that has organically grown. We couldn’t do it without them. A shout out to Bill Mott for taking care of his horses and having a horse who can do great things.”

Just like with horses, much of Clancy’s three-tier championship career has naturally grown through a methodical process.

It took Clancy some time to establish himself as a steeplechase rider. After making his start in April 1986, he did not regularly ride until 1988 when he had five winners, including Riverdee, a horse own by his father Joe P. Clancy.

Clancy found moderate success on the steeplechase circuit in South Carolina, Virigina and Maryland, but Saratoga remained elusive until 1994 when won three races at the meet. Four years later, he received the National Steeplechase Association champion rider award after winning 24 races from 104 starts, including the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers’ Cup with Hokan.

“I was a pretty slow burner,” he said. “My friends were winning races. They were champion jockeys before me. I was very focused on riding races. I was handicapping the races. A month or two months out, I was calling trainers. I was very dedicated to that.

Despite continued success aboard horses like multiple graded stakes winner Pinky Swear, Clancy thought about his post-riding career. A separated shoulder, a plate in his ankle, and a screw in his wrist convinced him that training was not in his future.

“I’m smart enough to know that being a steeplechase jockey is a very short-term career. It could go at any moment,” he said. “I was looking for something that would at least give me something to do when I stopped. Most of those riders end up being trainers or assistants. It was not my thing. I love being around horses, but I was never going to be in a barn all day, every day.”

One career option Clancy often considered was communication, particularly writing, a skill he enjoyed since childhood. While playing with toy horses, he created racing programs and announced the races.

Clancy further developing his writing through to Joe Aitcheson Jr., who boarded at the family home during the steeplechase season near Delaware Park. Each letter carried the thrill of hearing from a childhood sports hero.

“I was kind of always wired that way,” Clancy said “I would write a lot of letters. I had Joe living above my kitchen. That’s like Mickey Mantle. I’d come down for breakfast and he would be sitting at the table. I was just enthralled by it.”

While pursuing a history degree at the University of Delaware, near the Fair Hill Training Center where his father had horses, Clancy balanced riding and galloping horses while surviving the academic rip current, especially around writing.

“I learned quickly that all I had to do was go to a class or two, skim a book or two, and write an essay that would tie in the one class, and something relevant of today,” he said. “I weaved some essay exam together and survived.”

Frustrated by errors about his age, injury, and being misquoted in a weekly magazine after his three-win day at Brookhill, Clancy found motivation to pursue writing with the help of his older brother Joe Clancy.

“I anxiously got that article and wanted to read it. It had three mistakes,” the younger Clancy said. “I flipped out and called my brother and said, ‘Why can’t we start a steeplechase newspaper?’”

After weighing the $5,000 cost to cover a computer and printing seven issues, Clancy and his brother launched the Steeplechase Times in Spring 1994 to coincide with the racing season. Although Clancy had never been published, his older brother, a University at Delaware graduate with newspaper experience at The Whale and Cecil Whig mentored him as a writer.

“The biggest thing that happened in my life was my older brother,” Clancy said. If it wasn’t for my older brother, I don’t know if I’d be a writer. He taught me everything. He has the skills; he has the education.”

A few years later, both Clancy and his brother started The Saratoga Special as both wrote multiple stories each day. As the publication grew, they recruited Saratoga Springs native Tom Law. Through The Saratoga Special, Clancy earned Eclipse Awards for stories on Maple Leaf Mel’s tragic breakdown (2023) and the thrilling Travers finish between Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna (2024), following his first Eclipse Award in 2008 for a Bloodhorse commentary Hall of Fame trainer Sidney Watters Jr.’s estate sale.

With the help of a few interns each year at The Saratoga Special, Clancy has more time to focus on Riverdee Stables, which he operates with his wife Anne Kontos Clancy.

Like riding and writing, Clancy built Riverdee Stables over time. After retiring in 2000, he began buying horses for Fisher, starting with Bubble Economy, a $25,000 purchase who won 14-of-59 steeplechase races and earned more than $450,000.

Other standouts include the following: Goodnight Shirt, a two-timer Eclipse Award Champion and Hall of Fame inductee; Mr. Hot Stuff, winner of the Grade 1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial; and Dawalan, the 2015 Eclipse Award Champion.

“I started getting some success and confidence, which is where that’s the biggest thing,” Clancy said. “

Riverdee Stables grew steadily after sending out its first horse, Extra Check in 2003. For more than a decade, Clancy spent years finding horses that have the pedigree, confirmation, ability, and connections such as Aspe, his first Saratoga winner in 2013; graded stakes winner Eagle Poise; Awakened, 2023 Steeplechase Eclipse Award finalist; and Rocket One, who finished first or second in 10-of-11 starts since April 2023.

Riverdee Stables reached a new level last year by winning 18-of-85 races, all with Fisher. Cool Jet led the group with three straight graded stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Commonwealth Cup Stakes, that solidified the Eclipse Award for Steeplechase Horse and Riverdee Stables for Steeplechase Owner. Clancy never hesitated to credit that success.

“My wife is awesome. She’s a great horsewoman. She knows the sport. She’s pushed us to do it,” Clancy said. “Jack Fisher is a great trainer. Then, you just get lucky.”

While supportive people, and even perhaps luck, play a part of Clancy becoming a champion jockey, writer, and owner, he believes establishing a lifelong habit of setting ambitious goals is also a factor.

“My lifetime goal was to be champion jockey,” he said. “Then, come back to be champion owner, I feel very proud of that. As a jockey, you’re trying to escape that, especially with steeplechase racing. I set goals. I can get focused on goals, so it has been really special.”