Nancy Amling Harris has been surrounded by Thoroughbreds throughout her life. From a foxhunting family, she grew up on Harford Hill Farm in Monkton, Md., and spent her childhood and teenage years involved in what she calls “a pretty serious showing career in hunters and jumpers.”

“We’d go down to Wellington to compete pretty much through college, and then life happens. . . marriage, kids. I was living in New York for about 10 years and my family and I – we have two boys – moved back to Maryland from New York City two years ago. I started foxhunting more and it’s just been a great way to keep riding and have horses a part of my life.”

It was just before that relocation from New York when a horse bred and owned by her father, Jeffrey Amling, and his business partner Charlie Noell grabbed her attention. Watching a National Steeplechase Association live stream, she saw My Afleet compete in the Steeplethon Stakes cross-country race on the Virginia Gold Cup card at Great Meadow in May 2021.

“I called my dad and said, ‘What’s the plan for that one?’ He looked so brave and smart,” Harris said. 

Then 10 years old, My Afleet was a stakes winner on the flat before re-emerging over hurdles and eventually timber as well. Bred in Kentucky, he is by Preakness/Belmont Stakes-G1 winner Afleet Alex out of Amling and Noell’s Lasting Approval mare My Own Story. The gray began his career with trainer Chuck Lawrence at Laurel Park as a 2-year-old in November 2013, breaking his maiden in his fourth start at Keeneland in April 2014.

Turf routes proved his forte, and Lawrence placed him wisely. An allowance win at Saratoga in August 2014 preceded a trip to Kentucky Downs for the $250,000 Dueling Grounds Derby the following month. My Afleet rewarded his connections with a nose victory over graded stakes winners Medal Count and Can’thelpbelieving (Ire). Running just once in 2015, My Afleet made four starts in 2016 for Lawrence, the last a second in Saratoga’s John’s Call Stakes Aug. 24.

“He gave me one of my biggest wins,” Lawrence said of the Dueling Grounds Derby score. “He was a gorgeous horse with a beautiful stride.”

My Afleet retired to Harford Hill Farm, placing him squarely on the radar of steeplechase jockey-turned-trainer Mark Beecher. 

“I used to rent a tenant house and a barn from Charlie Noell at Harford Hill,” Beecher began. “My Afleet was basically retired there after his flat career. I was looking at him every day jumping around and bucking around the paddock, and I was looking at my own stock and thinking, ‘This fella looks a lot better than mine.’ I used to go to Aiken and winter down there. I had space on the trailer going down, so I just loaded him up and took him with me, then I called Charlie and told him I had put his horse on the trailer.”

Thinking My Afleet was retired on the farm, Noell was initially unsure which horse Beecher meant.

“He wasn’t sure which horse because he pretty much thought he was retired after his flat career,” Beecher said. “I told Charlie I wouldn’t charge him if the horse didn’t hold up.”

The horse held up. 

His debut over jumps in a maiden hurdle at Tryon April 15, 2017, gave Beecher his first sanctioned win as a trainer. After an allowance win at Great Meadow in May, Beecher sent My Afleet out in novice stakes company twice in 2017 – a second at Nashville and a fourth at Saratoga.

“He might have picked up a little knock, because he missed the next season,” Beecher said. Back for 2019, he finished second in his 8-year-old debut in the Queen’s Cup MPC Chase Hurdle Stakes in North Carolina but lost his next three hurdle starts, falling in the last. Beecher hunted the horse in the off season with an eye toward starts over timber. The trainer was quick to credit his wife Rebecca. 

“To be totally honest, me training the horse was basically down to my wife, because she looked after him,” Beecher said. “I wasn’t even allowed to put a bandage or a grooming brush near him. So without her, the horse probably wouldn’t have been as good as he was. I switched him over to timber because he was just losing a bit of speed. And he won his maiden timber at Willowdale and raced in a couple of the steeplethons.”

Eyeballed by Nancy via online video feed, My Afleet finished third in the 2021 Steeplethon, a 3-mile race over various obstacles, including a lake crossing. 

Amling told his daughter the decision was only half his, and that Noell had to agree.

“I think I emailed Charlie three or four times,” Harris said. “I thought he could have a great career if he retired sound and happy. I knew at that point that I was moving back to Maryland, so I sort of begged Charlie for him.”

Beecher wasn’t sure, until he really thought about it.

“In my own head, I was like, ‘Well, he’s not really finished,’ ” Beecher said. “But then when I looked at it, I was like you know what, this horse doesn’t owe me anything; he’s been a great horse for me. He was sound, he was my first winner and he was a great addition to our barn. Why should we wait until they run bad; let’s do this. And it’s fantastic . . . I see Nancy out hunting him. It’s another career. People go on about careers after racing. After the flat he was a hurdle horse and then a timber horse, now he’s a hunter. So he’s had four.”

Officially retired from racing for the second time, My Afleet went home with a record of 26-6-6-3 and $394,612. He took up residence with Anna McKnight Dryden at the farm she and husband Dyson own in White Hall, Md. Anna Dryden and Harris grew up together, remaining best friends through college, careers, marriage and children. 

Harris is an event planner living with her family in the Guilford area of Baltimore. Dryden, a contemporary art dealer formerly with Sotheby’s, now competes in the Grand Prix open jumper circuit in the U.S. and Europe. Nicknamed “Alfie” in the barn, My Afleet is part of the process.

“Anna uses Alfie as sort of a school horse when she’s home because her horses are in Wellington or Europe usually,” said Harris said. “So he gets to be a de facto practice horse. It keeps him in shape, and I think it’s just good when you are at her level to get on a horse every day. I don’t get out there as much as I like, I’d say a couple times a month and then during hunting season. Anna’s husband Dyson hunts him as well. I work full-time and so does Dyson, so between the two of us he has a full-time rider.”

Harris praises My Afleet’s temperament and mind, especially appreciated because she and Dryden each have two young children.

“You wonder when you get one off the track what their mind will be like. But he’s just so smart and calm. I have a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old, and Anna has a 9- and 7-year-old. He’s as happy around the ponies and kids as he is going first flight with me in the hunt field.”

And in the hunt field, Harris and My Afleet often ride with Mark and Rebecca Beecher. 

“I think Mark and Rebecca did a wonderful job with him,” Harris said. “I know Rebecca really adored him. I think they just gave him a chance to be a horse, and he’s a lovely one. He really came into his own as he got a bit older.”

“We’re all very fortunate to have these horses,” Beecher said. “He deserves a write-up like this because there’s not too many good horses that can win on the flat and then hurdles and timber and now be a good hunt horse as well. It’s important too that horses like that come along. He gave me a boost at the start, and I was lucky to have him in the barn. I wish I had a barn full of him.”