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HORSE & FIELD SPORTS
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR BETSY BURKE PARKER, BETSYBURKEPARKER@GMAIL.COM
WWW.FAUQUIER.COM
Fauquier Times | March 4, 2020
2020 Spring Steeplechase Preview
RACING SCHEDULE Saturday, March 7
Rappahannock Hunt Point-to-Point The Hill, Boston
rappahannockhunt.com
Saturday, March 14
79th annual Warrenton Hunt Pointto-Point Airlie, Warrenton
warrentonhunt.com
Saturday, March 21
79th annual Piedmont Foxhounds Point-to-Point Salem, Upperville 540-592-7100
Sunday, March 29
Orange County Hounds Point-toPoint Locust Hill Farm, Middleburg
pippymcc@gmail.com
Saturday, April 4 The Virginia steeplechase circuit starts up Saturday, March 7, running through the May 2 Virginia Gold Cup.
Old Dominion Hounds Point-toPoint Ben Venue Farm, Ben Venue
olddominionhounds.com
New course kicks off new season, 95th Virginia Gold Cup is May 2
Sunday, April 12
Live racing returns to Colonial Downs in New Kent At a time of alarming contraction, Virginia’s steeplechase circuit boasts a brand-new racecourse to support County July 23-Aug. 29. Nearly $500,000 in daily pursthe spring series, and welcomes back a long-lost meet. es and over $2.8 million in total stakes, including a roThe Virginia Point-to-Point Foundation hosts eight bust Virginia bred and certified schedule is scheduled hunt-sponsored race meets this spring, March 7 through during the 18-day meet. April 26, with three National Steeplechase Association “We are looking forward to an expanded race meet sanctioned meets dotting the calendar in April this year offering one of the highest purse Stories and and May. structures in the country,” including weekly The successful Virginia “starter reward” photos by Betsy hurdle races, said Jill Byrne, vice president of Burke Parker program renews for a second year, with evracing. “The 2019 season was a very successery Virginia-owned or -trained point-to-point ful return to live racing at Colonial Downs and starter receiving a $200 bonus payment sponincredible support from horsemen, fans and patrons.” sored by the Virginia Equine Alliance. Another VEA The spring hunter pace series includes seven program, the Virginia-bred turf series, has expanded to hunt-hosted events – Piedmont Foxhounds March 21, Orinclude Virginia certified horses. ange County Hounds March 28, Old Dominion Hounds Virginia’s NSA kickoff, the April 18 Middleburg April 5, Rappahannock Hunt April 11, Blue Ridge Hunt Spring Races at Glenwood Park mark their 100th annual running. The meet offers a record $245,000 in purses, April 18, Warrenton Hunt April 19 and Loudoun Fairfax including an increase to $100,000 for the headline Tem- Hunt April 25. A full condition book, and details on each steepleple Gwathmey Memorial hurdle stake. chase meet are available online at centralentryoffice. The May 2 Virginia Gold Cup races are the sole pacom. ri-mutuel meet on the spring circuit. Betting on the Ken– Stories by Betsy Burke Parker tucky Derby will again be available on site.
100th annual Middleburg Spring Races Glenwood Park, Middleburg
’CHASE BRIEFS Virginia racing purses plumped by HHR gaming machines Virginia’s racing industry is reaping the benefits of the wildly popular Historical Horse Racing games offered at four Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums around the commonwealth. Total betting handle topped $1 billion after the first site opened last April in New Kent County. More than 2,000 machines feature a sort of slot machine-horse racing combination, with “winning” numbers based on results from previously run races. colonialdowns.com
Author, jockey Smithwick will lecture on ‘Racing Time’
Writer Patrick Smithwick will lecture on his steeplechase trilogy – “Racing My Father,” “Flying Change” and “Racing Time” – at a May 7 reading and booksigning at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg. All three books, autobiographies about Smithwick’s life and that of his champion professional jockey father, Paddy Smithwick, tell the history and give an insider’s view of the steeplechase circuit from the turn of the 20th century to modern day.
patricksmithwick.com
Magic of grey thoroughbreds traces to a single Arab ancestor The image of a gallant grey horse –
whether fighting to the finish line in a race or fighting boldly on a battlefield – has long held mankind in thrall. The association with myth (Pegasus and unicorns are usually depicted as grey), legend (Death rode a pale horse in biblical story) and literature (G.K. Chesterton wrote “The Ballad of the White Horse”) sets the non-color color up for hero status. Grey horses make up a small proportion of the thoroughbred population. The gene for greyness, a progressively bleaching overlay on a base color – often dark bay or sometimes chestnut – is dominant. This means that grey color is passed directly from parent to foal, unable to re-emerge as recessive.
54th annual Loudoun Hunt Pointto-Point Oatlands, Leesburg
loudounfairfaxhunt.com
Saturday, April 18
middleburgspringraces.com
Sunday, April 19
71st annual Blue Ridge Hunt Pointto-Point Woodley Farm, Berryville
blueridgehunt.org
Saturday, April 25
42nd annual Foxfield Spring Races Charlottesville
foxfieldraces.com
Sunday, April 26
Middleburg Hunt Point-to-Point Glenwood Park, Middleburg
middleburghunt.com
Saturday, May 2
95th running Virginia Gold Cup Great Meadow, The Plains
vagoldcup.com
Every grey thoroughbred traces back to a single individual, the Alcock Arabian, imported to England during the early 1700s. Through his son Crab, threetime champion stallion in Britain, the grey color gained a toehold in the nascent racing breed because mare owners wanted to breed their mares to the by-then white Crab, and his propensity for passing along the grey gene was strong. However beautiful a dapple grey, and however stand-out a championship level grey, or white, horse may be, color is of course the least important as far as performance is concerned. tbheritage.com
See CHASE, page 15
