by Kyle Fitzgerald, for Colonial Downs

New Kent, VA — The story of harness racing at Colonial Downs could not be written without mentioning Woodhill Sam, the only horse to race at Colonial in each of the ten years Standardbreds have competed at the New Kent oval. The Woodhill Sam chapter will come to an end on Sunday, October 21, when the 11-year-old gelding competes for the 90th and final time at Colonial Downs in the seventh race, named “Woody’s Retirement Party” in his honor.

Woodhill Sam’s 89 starts at Colonial encompass nearly every significant step in the track’s evolution. He braved both the sweltering Virginia summers in the early years, finishing seventh in the 3-year-old colt and gelding Virginia Breeders Fund elimination pace on a 99-degree day in July 1999, and the near-freezing temperatures of the track’s lone winter meet, giving owner, trainer and breeder Roland C. Dunavant, Jr. an early Christmas present with a win in the Colonial Downs Late Closing Series Final on December 19, 2000.

Woodhill Sam also had a knack for showing up on the biggest stages. He finished fourth in the 2-year-old Virginia Breeders Fund elimination on November 8, 1998, the same day Muscles Yankee and Artiscape won Breeders Crown eliminations.

A mere eight years later, Woodhill Sam finished third in the fourth race on October 13, 2006 — just one race before Vivid Photo won the inaugural Patriot Invitational in record-smashing time.

It should come as no surprise that the lone horse to compete at Colonial every season races for Dunavant, the longtime president of the Virginia Harness Horse Association and a practicing veterinarian.

Dunavant, who trains his horses most of the year at his Woodhill Farm in Kenbridge, Va., is enjoying a banner season at Colonial. He currently ranks sixth in the trainer standings with six wins from 41 starts, highlighted by Tom Bruce’s deadheat win in the Colonial Downs Trotting Final and Royal Photo’s return to prominence at age 9.

Royal Photo, another homebred with a long history at Colonial, won the Virginia-bred 2-year-old colt and gelding trotting championship in 2000. The S J’s Photo gelding won his first race in 53 weeks on September 23, 2007 and set a new lifetime mark of 1:55.4 here on October 15.

Woodhill Sam began his career in near total anonymity, finishing fifth and earning $5 in a 2-year-old race open to trotters and pacers at Colonial Downs on July 3, 1998. He returned that fall on a much bigger stage during the two-week Breeders Crown meet to get a solid third in the Virginia Breeders Final.

Appropriately enough, Woodhill Sam’s first win at Colonial Downs came in a 1-1/4 mile race, a rarely used distance that encompasses a full lap around Colonial’s massive track. Woodhill Sam tracked in fourth for the first mile of that Colonial Downs Late Closing Series Final and was still 2-1/4 lengths back at the top of the stretch before closing strongly to win by a nose in the final stride.

Woodhill Sam’s biggest win came in the $32,000 Virginia Final at Oak Ridge on October 7, 2001, accomplished with his trademark late charge to pull away by two lengths over Not Alone.

The Woodhill Doc gelding took his lifetime mark of 1:54 with a late-closing 2-3/4 length win on November 14, 2003 at Colonial. He comes into his final race with a record of 11 wins, 14 seconds, 13 thirds and $74,487 in earnings from 117 lifetime starts.

Post time on Sunday is 1:00 p.m. “Woody’s Retirement Party,” complete with cake in the winner’s circle, is scheduled for 3:06 p.m.