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Strawberry Hill, Loudoun races this week
The National Steeplechase Association sanctioned season gets underway in Virginia this weekend, with the April 12 Strawberry Hill Races at Colonial Downs near Richmond.Post time is 1:30 p.m. for the first of four hurdle races. A training flat race closes the card.
The Strawberry Hill meet is widely considered a kickoff for spring revelry in the greater Richmond area, attracting tens of thousands of racegoers who set up tailgate spaces and tent parties lining the Colonial Downs railside.
Formerly held at the state fairgrounds near downtown, Strawberry Hill moved east 20 miles to Colonial when the fairgrounds' old steeplechase track was turned into the 3/4-mile Richmond Raceway for NASCAR.
Eventually, race director Sue Mullins said, the Strawberry Hill meet, plus the state fair and other events, will be moved to Meadow Stud, birthplace of Virginia's most famous Thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat.
Meadow, in Doswell, will be home to a grand equestrian facility, Mullins said, to include indoor and outdoor arenas, stabling for nearly 300 horses and a 'chase track. Phase one of operations, which includes the show facility, should be done next year, with the racecourse next on the agenda.
For now, though, Strawberry Hill is enjoying an extended run at its temporary home of Colonial Downs. Virginia's only pari-mutuel track with a popular Thoroughbred meet in the summer and Standardbreds in the fall,
Colonial is located in New Kent County east of Richmond near Williamsburg.
Details on the races can be found online at www.strawberryhillraces.com. Complete entries are online at www.nationalsteeplechase.com.
Sunday's racing returns to the point-to-point circuit with the April 13 Loudoun Hunt Point-to-Point at Oatlands.
Just south of Leesburg, Oatlands is a National Trust property with ante-bellum mansion and well-preserved dependencies plus formal gardens that should be in full bloom this weekend.
First post is 1 p.m. Races on the varied program include a junior field masters chase, maiden, open and Virginia-bred turf, maiden and open hurdle, novice, ladies, owner-rider and foxhunters timber. The featured four-mile Eustis Cup is often a key prep for horses aimed to the four-mile Virginia Gold Cup three weeks hence.
Complete entries are online at www.centralentryoffice.com. Ticket information is available by calling (703) 777-8480.
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