Spring is in the air -- and so are the steeplechasers. 2010 season nears.
Submitted by: Betsy Burke Parker
Phone: 540-364-2929
Email Address: betsyp(at)crosslink.net
Date Added: 1/31/2010
Virginia's steeplechase season kicks off with the Casanova Hunt Point-to-Point races – Feb. 20 this year. But there's a new bookend to the calendar – the Strawberry Hill Races, sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association, moved from their traditional mid-April date to May 15.
May 15 is the same day as the Preakness Stakes – second leg of flat racing's Triple Crown, and a huge betting opportunity for horseplayers and casual gamblers. With the Colonial Downs simulcast facility up and running for off-track betting, organizers wanted to capitalize on the potential for some added exposure.
"They had a very novel idea to race on a premier day and their meet doesn't really conflict with Radnor (also run May 15 in Pennsylvania) so it should work well," said NSA handicapper Bill Gallo from the association's Fair Hill, Maryland office. "Strawberry Hill moving a bit later in the spring is definitely an experiment but it's good for them and allows a different audience to see their races."
Strawberry Hill used to be an annual rite of spring at the old State Fairgrounds in downtown Richmond, but the course was turned into a race car track several years ago, and the races moved to Colonial Downs.
Back over on the point-to-point calendar there's an empty week at the beginning of the season – Rappahannock has not returned to the fold after a year off last year since the farm where their course is changed hands. But this, 'chase officials note, allows a little wiggle room for Casanova if winter weather forces postponement from the Feb. 20 date.
Bull Run Hunt has moved from their traditional early May Sunday date to March 21, an open Sunday since the Farmington-Keswick meet disappeared a few years back. Bull Run used to close the Virginia point-to-point calendar, falling the Sunday immediately following the Virginia Gold Cup. The late spring date ensured good weather, but organizers had trouble filling races at the Brandywine Park course since most point-to-pointers had been put away mid-April: steeplechasing is tied directly to foxhunting, and since the hunt season concludes around the end of March, earlier race meets benefited more from full fields while Bull Run struggled with point-to-point conditions, a great course but few entries.
They hope the new date will mean a return to prominence for the club's marquis event.
Bull Run's card remains largely unchanged from years past – novice rider, maiden, open turf, maiden and amateur hurdle, novice timber, draft horse dashes and a junior field master 'chase.
Bull Run now shares a weekend with the Piedmont races, but since Piedmont is mostly timber races, and Bull Run is mostly hurdles, they should complement just as Farmington and Piedmont did for a number of years in the '90s.
The point-to-point, hunter pace and steeplechase calendars are posted online at www.CentralEntryOffice.com.
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