Page 4 - Shenandoah Downs News Today

Shenandoah Downs reached the halfway point of its 2023 pari-mutuel harness racing schedule on Mother's Day Sunday when a seven-week, 14-day spring season came to an end.

Shenandoah Downs horse track in Woodstock has a special guest this week. From Tuesday to Saturday the track will be hosting a life size statue of Secretariat.

Fifty years ago this May, Secretariat -- arguably the greatest horse of all time -- kicked off his dominating sweep of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. "Big Red," who was bred and raised in Doswell, Virginia at the Meadow Farm, rolled through the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 1973, in record-setting times that still stand today. 

Participants who supported Virginia's new Certified Residency Program from its beginning four years ago will be rewarded this weekend with four $25,000 Certified races.

Former NFL player Oscar Johnson Jr. got his first pari-mutuel win ever as a trainer at Shenandoah Downs this past Saturday, April 22 with Dr. Scott Woogen's pacer KJ Erich, then four races later -- albeit the next afternoon -- struck again with Woogen's Just A Passenger in Sunday's fourth. 

Shenandoah Downs will host its two biggest races of the spring season on Saturday (April 22) -- the $25,000 Blue Ridge Open Pace and $25,000 Alleghany Open Trot -- in addition to a drivers challenge for up-and-coming reinsmen.

Even though driver David Ingraham did not cross the wire first in Saturday's (April 15) first race conditioned trot at Shenandoah Downs, he did return to the winner's circle to get his picture taken. The 61-year-old reinsman had just made career start number 53,000 in that race aboard Arthur Lisi's Rocky Bomber and even though he finished fourth, was recognized afterwards for the milestone accomplishment.  

The first ever spring harness season at Shenandoah Downs kicked off Saturday on a warm but blustery afternoon as local Woodstock, Virginia resident trainer Betsy Brown reached the winner's circle in the initial race with Terrys Watching -- runner-up in the 2022 Virginia Breeder's Two-Year-Old Colt/Gelding Trot Championship.

Shenandoah Downs has been hosting races at the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds for eight years and this is set to be its biggest year yet with the track’s first-ever spring season.

Shenandoah Downs might not be home for Stacey McLenaghan, but it’s close. McLenaghan moved with her family from Canada to Virginia when she was 12 and grew up in New Kent, about three hours southeast of Woodstock, Virginia, where Shenandoah is located.