Woodstock, VA — While Shenandoah Downs featured rich stakes events for Virginia-breds highlighting the meeting, operations manager Darrell Wood has included the United States Amateur Driving Club in the festivities.
On the heels of three donations last week at Shenandoah Downs, the USHDC, courtesy of the track, presented two more awards of $1,000 each, the first to the recently concluded National Standardbred Horse Show, in Allentown, N.J., and the second to the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame, in Goshen, N.Y.
The National Standardbred Horse Show presented its 32nd annual show recently featuring Standardbreds — both racing and retired — to show the entire equine world the dexterity of the breed, as many are retrained as riding horses and therapy horses assisting mankind of all ages needing such therapy.
There were 123 horses entered this year competing in 178 classes with a two-ring format for the English and Western classes.
USHDC treasurer Tom Eichas said, “We are able to make these donations because of the grand assistance from Shenandoah Downs’ great staff, including Darrell Wood, racing secretary Karen Fagliarone, and director of racing Peter Szymanski.
“Our efforts to contribute to worthy charitable organizations is made possible by their great cooperation.
USHDC president Dein Spriggs added, “Our Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame serves as the ‘cradle’ of our sport and is the ‘must-see’ destination to see the entire history of our Standardbred sport. It truly serves as its most important historical structure, located on the grounds of one of the most important tracks — Goshen Historic — in our sport.
“All tracks that host our amateur races deserve our applause, and Shenandoah Downs is just a fantastic partner!”
The featured amateur event on this day was soon by Faithoverfear, a 6-year-old Fear The Dragon mare driven to a 1:59.3 victory by trainer Alexandra Goldin for owner EVM Racing LLC.
Fear The Dragon now has a 6-1-5 scorecard in 26 starts this season with earnings of $21,505. Lifetime, the mare has banked $99,947.
As the 4-5 favorite, Faithoverfear paid $3.80 to her many faithful.
Not only a successful trainer, Goldin is also gaining a solid reputation in these amateur events with nine wins and a UDRS this semester of .324.
Racing at Shenandoah Downs continues through Nov. 1 with Virginia Breeders Stakes on the menu and Pink Power Breast Cancer Awareness Day on Oct. 24.