Virginia Fall Races

We’re adding a new race to the card on October 12! The $50,000 William F. O’Keefe Memorial Hurdle, run in memory of our longtime Race Director and Announcer, the much-loved and missed Will O’Keefe.

We hope you’ll join us on race day to celebrate Will with excellent horses and sport!

Virginia Fall Races 70th Anniversary Meet to Honor Longtime Race Director and Announcer with $50,000 Will O’Keefe Memorial Hurdle Stakes Virginia Fall Races 70th Anniversary Meet to Honor Longtime Race Director Trouble reading? {View as Webpage}   NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE ASSOCIATION THE GOVERNING BODY OF JUMP RACING IN NORTH AMERICA BREA

Picture it: Glenwood Park. 1966 and 1968.

🔴All Terrace Boxes for the 70th Anniversary Virginia Fall Races are SOLD OUT!

🟢We have TWO Patron B Reserved Spaces and plenty of Patron D and Second Row Rail Spaces available.

📧Please contact [email protected] for more information before these reserved spaces are gone!

General Admission is available online via TicketLeap! ➡https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/virginia-fall-races/2024-virginia-fall-races

VERY LIMITED TERRACE BOXES AVAILABLE:
Kick on and reserve your Terrace Box in Row B before the last two get away!
Please email [email protected] for more information.

Go, Sean!!! 👏👏👏👏

Sean Clancy earns Walter Haight Award - This is Horse Racing Multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist and ST Publishing Inc. co-founder, co-editor and co-publisher Sean Clancy will receive the Walter Haight Award for career excellence in Turf writing for 2024 from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters. Clancy embarked on his journalism career after his....

In celebration of our 70th Anniversary Meet, we are going back in time, decade by decade, leading up to race day!

On Saturday, October 29, 1955, the Inaugural Virginia Fall Races met at Glenwood Park, sanctioned by the Hunts Committee of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association.

Do any of the names look familiar to you, history buffs?

Under the guidance of Mr. Daniel C. Sands (second photo), the race meeting received a warm welcome from owners, trainers, and spectators. The successful day of racing and favorable weather allowed the Race Committee to make a substantial donation to Loudoun Hospital, setting a precedent that continues today, as VFR is the oldest continuous donor to what is now the INOVA Hospital Foundation!

We are being impersonated! If you receive a friend request from “Virginia Fall Races”, don’t accept.

FRONT ROW RAIL IS SOLD OUT!
We have Second Row Rail, Terrace Boxes in Row B, and Patron B, D and E available for purchase, plus General Admission.
Head to vafallraces.com for more info or contact [email protected] today!

Would you like a reserve space for the 70th Anniversary of the Virginia Fall Races? you are in luck! We have some!

We have limited availability in the following locations:
Terrace Box B
Terrace Box A (only one left!)
Patron B
Patron D
Patron E

We have plenty of Second Row Rail Tailgates for your tailgating activities! It's just a short jaunt to the Fun Fair, Vendors, Food Truck and the Paddock and priced at $175.

Remember! Virginia Fall Races does not require wristbands. Once you are in and parked (with your pass) you are free to visit your friends' festivities wherever they are.

Buy General Admission on TicketLeap ➡️ https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/virginia-fall-races/2024-virginia-fall-races

This promises to be another fantastic community event! Thank you to our friends at the Upperville C**t & Horse Show for hosting!

The Upperville C**t & Horse Show invites the community to show "Under the Oaks" at the Grafton Hunter Show on Saturday, September 7, 2024!
This unrecognized horse show will be held in the main "Parker" Hunter ring with open seating for spectators in the Grandstand.

The Prize List is available here ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/mrxac6w3
Enter here ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yjt7pekb

Classes will start at Hilltopper and progress through 2'3"-2'9", ending with the 3' $1,000 Grafton Derby, and will offer high point awards for Amateur rider, Junior rider, Professional rider and Grand Champion horse.

Proceeds will benefit the UCHS Jump In! Capital Campaign.

A field of eight completes the entries for the Jonathan Kiser Memorial, rescheduled for Wednesday the 7th at Saratoga. Fingers crossed for blue skies and sunshine! https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR080724USA1-EQB.html

🔴Attention!🔴
🟡We are SOLD OUT of Terrace Boxes in Row C for the 70th Virginia Fall Races on October 12, 2024.
🟢We have several Terrace Boxes in Row B available.
🟣Terraces Boxes in Row A are extremely limited.
🔵If you would like to purchase a Terrace Box in Row B or Row A, please submit your order form and payment as soon as possible.

Thank you! We can't wait to see you all on race day!

🏆Open Ticketing for the 70th Virginia Fall Races has begun!

🏇🏻Join us on Saturday, October 12, 20204 at stunning Glenwood Park in Middleburg for an unforgettable day of jump racing and community spirit. We raise much-needed funds in support of INOVA Hospital Foundation and The Glenwood Park Trust.

Click here for the Reserved Space Order Form➡https://tinyurl.com/2ww93dyb
Click here to purchase General Admission online ➡https://tinyurl.com/ye27p5hw

The Official Results for the July 18th steeplechase races at Rosie's Gaming and Colonial Downs are posted below. The race replays will be available for viewing on the NSA website within the next day or so. To view, visit: https://nationalsteeplechase.com/racing/ and click on the video archive - race replay tab.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Virginia Fall Races Committee Member Margaret Littleton! We couldn't do what we do without her energy, guidance, input and infectious laughter.
Let's wish Margaret a fabulous day and a wonderful year ahead as she celebrates another turn around the sun!
📷 Douglas Lees

Open Ticketing for the 70th Anniversary Virginia Fall Races begins on July 31.
Please review the Ticketing Policy below:
https://tinyurl.com/2syzu6at

If you intend on renewing your space from 2023, the deadline for renewal (Monday, July 15) has passed. Please contact the secretary at [email protected] if you have questions about your renewal.

Thank you!

🏆Reminder!

The Pre-Sale for returning Patrons from 2023 is in full swing! If you wish to renew your space from 2023, please submit your ticketing form and payment by Monday, July 15.

Click here for the form ➡ https://tinyurl.com/2ww93dyb

📷 Camden Littleton Photography

Read Sean Clancy’s latest for Country Zest and Style here!

IN A SNAP
https://issuu.com/uncoveringthevalley/docs/zest_summer_2024_issuu/s/49823041

Do you need a new website? Do you like our new website? Talk to Cheryl Microutsicos! She and her team updated ours, and we couldn’t be happier! Great customer service and tech support as well! Thank you to WoW Graphic Designs LLC for all that you do.

Happy Independence Day! 🥳 It's also another !

Can you name the jockey weighing out with the ICEE Bear? Bonus points if you know who's playing the role of the ICEE Bear!

It's another gorgeous morning in New Kent getting ready for the summer racing season! The stable area opens Monday and training begins next Thursday. First race day is Thursday July 11th and post time is 11:45 AM --- for the first of three pari-mutuel steeplechase races --- which will be followed by nine flat races starting at 1:30 PM.

We are preparing for the 70th Anniversary of the Virginia Fall Races, Middleburg's Community Steeplechasing Event!

Pre-Sale for returning patrons begins July 1, 2024 and closes July 15, 2024. If you intend on renewing your space from last year, send your ticket form and payment in to reserve your space!

Open Ticketing for new patrons begins July 31, 2024.

Online General Admission sales open July 31, 2024 via TicketLeap. Save $10 and buy your General Admission passes before September 30!

The 2024 Ticket Form ➡https://tinyurl.com/2ww93dyb

If you have not received an email from the Secretary or your email address has changed, please get in touch at [email protected].

👏👏👏👏

Over some 36 years in flat and jump racing, the gray and blue Kinross Farm silks found their way to many winner’s circles after scores of races – three Virginia Gold Cups, two editions of the Iroquois Steeplechase-G1, the $1 million Charles Town Classic, even a maiden special weight about seven hours before Rachel Alexandra made history at Pimlico Race Course on Preakness Day 2009. The list is long and fruitful.

But the Maryland Hunt Cup, long a goal, managed to elude Kinross, owner Zohar Ben-Dov and a lengthy list of entrants. In 2013, Sand Box Rules finished second. In 2017, Old Timer lost his jockey while leading at the second-last. Others fell at the third fence and the 16th. They pulled up, finished last, you name it. The oldest steeplechase in North America all but hid from the Virginian.

The race remained a peak to be scaled, a challenge to be accepted. Four miles, 22 fences, nearly 130 years of history will do that to a race. And a person.

“The Maryland Hunt Cup requires thinking, it requires a great horse and it requires a gutsy jockey all put together by the trainer on one day,” Ben-Dov said. “You know the beauty about this race, this particular race? The entire community is very psyched about it and it’s one race. It’s a beautiful thing. You have to beat the course, not beat but you have to fight with the course. You have to beat the other horses. You have to beat the other trainers and riders and owners.”

Read the full story in the JUNE edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred https://midatlantictb.com/index.php/midatlantic-tb/featured-articles/1731-timber-classic-irish-bred-blackhall-prevails-in-thriller-for-kinross-davies

The Maryland Hunt Cup

News you can use! We are excited for the Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championship and Sunny Bank Farm!

We are excited to announce that the Theodora A. Randolph Field Hunter Championship will see several changes moving forward. Per tradition, we will hold our qualifiers Monday through Thursday with various Virginia packs. While we are grateful to have shared a venue with the Virginia Fall Races at Glenwood Park for many years now, we have elected to shift plans for the finals in order to dedicate the necessary time to the competition. Our finals will now be held on Friday at Sunny Bank Farm, the home of Eva Smithwick. This will honor Dot Smithwick, who first conceptualized the championship. To honor Mrs. Randolph, a donation will be made to the Piedmont Fox Hounds Conservation Fund. Additionally, we have raised the prize money for the winning riders and added prize money through fifth place. We hope everyone is as excited about these changes as we are! Please stay tuned for more announcements and registration dates!

Mairead Carr was a valued member of our Race Committee and the entire community, and she is missed.

Mairead Carr (1942-2024)

By Leonard Shapiro

Mairead Carr, a widely-regarded trainer of steeplechase and Thoroughbred race horses in the Middleburg area who moved to Northern Virginia in 1963 from her native Ireland, passed away at her home in Warrenton, VA, on April 10, 2024. She was 81.
She was one of three children of Mary and Tom Carr born on June 18, 1942 in Rathwines, Dublin, Ireland. Her love of horses began as a young teenager when she took a part-time job at age 14 with noted Irish trainer Iris Killett, who lived in the same area. One of the most influential figures in the history of Irish equestrian sports, Kellett, who died in 2011, left a long legacy of excellence as a competitor, trainer, and breeder.
Mairead attended the St. Louis Convent School in Rathwines and the Loretto School in Stephens Green, where she also played field hockey. But she also rode her bicycle almost daily to Iris Killett’s barn to work with the horses, her true passion.
Before moving to the U.S. in her early 20s, she also travelled to New Zealand and Australia to hone her equine skills. Over the years, she built a reputation as a dedicated, hard-working trainer who always put her horses first. She also was a fine rider, and enjoyed fox-chasing with several local hunts.
“What was really impressive was how much fun Mairead provided for the syndicate members and people who owned the horses she trained,” said Robin Richards, her long-time friend and a horse owner and breeder herself. “She was a rider, a groom, a trainer. She did it all, just an incredibly dedicated horse person, and she was always doing random acts of kindness for so many people.”
For many years, Mairead rented a barn at Hickory Tree Farm in Middleburg. She also worked with a number of top flight horsemen, including Racing Hall of Fame trainer Sidney Watters and renowned Middleburg steeplechase breeder and trainer Paul Fout.
According to the Equibase official records, from 1988 to 2011, steeplechase horses she trained had 209 starts, with 13 wins, 20 second place finishes and 13 thirds, with $152,437 in official winnings. Her horses also competed for many years on the point-to-point circuit, where records are incomplete.
She is survived by her two older brothers, Noel Carr and Paul Carr, three nephews and six nieces. Mairead’s remains were recently transported back to Ireland, where she will join her mother Mary at Rathdrum Cemetery in County Wicklow.
Her family requested that donations made in her memory be directed to any Middleburg area horse-related charity. The family also expressed its gratitude “to all who made her very welcome in Middleburg and who remember her fondly.”