Saturday’s Virginia Derby — err, Commonwealth Derby — finally belonged to a Virginia horse, after being run in Maryland. Confused?
Horse racing in Virginia will likely turn back to the future with a “country fair” style; proposed venue Morven Park, near Leesburg, fits that perfectly.
Virginia horsemen are moving forward with a plan for racing in the Commonwealth. But a new move by Colonial Downs may keep state OTBs shuttered.
Christophe Clement helped spoil California Chrome’s Triple Crown party when his Tonalist won the Belmont. This year, he’s rooting for American Pharoah.
Virginia may be for lovers, and I may love New York, but when it comes to the Belmont, there’s more connecting those tourism campaigns than you might think.
For racing and breeding in Virginia and Maryland, only one thing about the future is certain: the only way forward is change.
Owner Kaleem Shah will have two cracks at glory this weekend, with favored Luminance in the Black-Eyed Susan and Dortmund in the Preakness.
Dortmund is six-for-six in his career. Will the Kentucky Derby be lucky seven? That’s up to the racing gods, owner Kaleem Shah, a Virginia resident, says.
For Keswick Stables, Stellar Wind is the end of the line: the last horse out of the last mare. “Nice to go out with a bang,” says Keswick’s owner.
The future remains murky, the Virginia Racing Commission learned, with the present characterized by shuttered facilities, withheld payments, and failed negotiations.