by Darrell Wood, for the Virginia Equine Alliance
Woodstock, VA — Finishing touches to an extensiveharness track renovation project at the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds inWoodstock, Virginia are now complete. In recent days, pylonshave been placed on the track, safety fencing has been added around theouter perimeter of the half-mile oval and camera towers are now inplace.
Several horses tested out the new half-mile oval at ShenandoahDowns for the first time Wednesday morning and the initial feedbackbodes well for the upcoming Fair races and the pari-mutuel meet.
“We were pleasantly surprised,” said Track SupervisorJ.D. Thomas, who oversaw the $700,000 renovation along with consultant GregCoon. “I didn’t think it would be as tight as it is. We’ll get acouple more horses on the track again tomorrow but overall, I’m verypleased.”
Locally based trainers Betsy Brown and Alvin Lineweaver guidedIrish Blessing and Pistol Pete’s Dragon respectively during the morning test. “It’s exciting to see theseimprovements,” said Brown, who has been competing at the Shenandoah CountyFair races since 1990. “The horses could get hold of the track veryeasily. The surface was great; it wasn’t too soft and it wasn’t too hard.”
Brown said she went two miles in 2:00 orbetter with two different horses, including a trotter named Calcutta, whounofficially covered a mile in 1:59.1. “I’ve raced at a lotof tracks around the country and this is as nice a half-mile track asI’ve been on.”
The 99th Shenandoah County Fair races will be held August 31 -September 3 at 1 p.m. each afternoon. The inaugural pari-mutuel meet, known asShenandoah Downs, begins September 10 and continues every Saturday &Sunday at 1 p.m. through October 9.
Opening weekend features the $320,000 VirginiaHarness Breeder’s Championships, where top 2 & 3-year-oldVirginia-bred pacers and trotters of both sexes will compete in a seriesof title races worth a combined $320,000. Four sophomore divisionalchampionships will go to post on Saturday while a four-pack offreshmen title events will be held Sunday.
For more information, visit www.virginiahorseracing.com andwww.shenandoahdowns.com.